Thanks for your replies! It really helps in figuring things out and knowing of the different kinds of work that's out there.
I'm still searching for the places that fall somewhere in that middle ground between the fashion/beauty retouching houses and the architectural visualization studios. So I guess now I can be more specific. If anyone happens to know of names or resources to point to the places that do more like compositing kind of work (like what I saw on the XYZ website), and I guess of a visual style tending more towards photorealistic than graphic, I would appreciate hearing of those. Thanks again!
-ds
(I have some work on a web site
here , some of which, hopefully, speaks of the style I'm seeking out.)