DESCRIPTION
A lot of people (and I did too) believe that a render is done when it finishes rendering. Unfortunately, it isn't this easy.
A lot of post-processing has to be done for a render to look its best. In this case, you can get an idea of what the About This Small render looked fresh out of Blender. As you can see, it didn't pop the same way. Fortunately, an hour of Photoshop later, it looks as nice as it'll ever be.
I personally think that post-processing a render is the best part of the creative process. You already have a good looking artwork and making it look better from there isn't incredibly hard - there's fun to be had during that time :)