Before working on the final lighting, I set up the composition, using the perspective viewport to position the view then using ctrl-c to create a camera from that view. For environment renders, I find a lower focal range helps to create a sense of depth to the scene, this one uses a lens of 31mm. I then usually put a slight tilt on the camera to add a bit of drama to the composition.
Lighting :
Lighting is kept as simple as possible, I've used a finalRender GI solution with a direct light casting raytraced shadows. The shadow strength is around 80% & the light Strength is 120%, as I'm rendering in passes this.
Rendering :
The render time took 4 hours at a resolution of 4096 wide, with the total polycount was around 300,000. The interiors of the buildings are modeled with very simple boxes, just enough so when you look in a window you'll see at least a wall or two. The distant buildings were rendered separately.
