The renderer of Carrara is considered to be one of the industries best by a lot of people, for speed and the end result. The better and more beautifull and real you want your image to be, the longer your render times will be. The network rendering you get for free is to compensate for that probably. There is no subsurface scattering or translucency in C4Pro (yet) but all other funky things you hear people about regarding stand-alone renders or expensive plug-ins. Some of the names are different, but Global Illumination, Indirect Light, Sky Light, HDRI, caustics, soft shadows, blurred shadows, blurred reflections, motion blur and even rendertime displacement (if you have Anything Grooves) give you all posibilities you need (rookie or not). And you have to know that great renderings also depend on great shaders and great lighting. Knowing how photographers ligh their photos, for instance, is knowledge that can greatly enhance your work. There are people that use Carrara solely for rendering, so that must say something too. Good luck with finding out!