Ghost said:

Perfect was probably not the right word to use. I'm saying that a CG shot or picture that isn't possible to tell apart from a real life picture would be IMO, perfected CG.

But here's what I'm talking about: Cinema has never been about real life. It's always been a heightened sense of fiction. Even documentaries still posses cinematic, manipulative qualities with viewpoints. They're not reality either.

And really, if you're not talking about CG animation, then the older techniques are just as good at enhancing scenes and making things epic and making you think what you're seeing is really there. Matte paintings and forced perspective miniatures have been doing that for decades.

Think about it:

If you can capture something in-camera or on-set then how is it better to take that and create something months later, with different conditions, in different locations, and trying to match the lighting of what was on set going to get you a better result. it's not. If it's there on set, you should shoot it. if it can be captured in camera you should capture it.

The only things that should be reserved for post are absolutely those things that cannot be captured in camera.

Ghost, have you ever watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind?