I've searched the net and this forum for ages and I can't find an answer to my question so I'm going to post and hopefully find and answer, sorry if it's a completely noob question

I bought the Ferrari tutorial from Simply Maya (its fantastic by the way), and the tutor converts from poly to Sub d, he then adds creases to the edges around the door etc and converts back to polygons for final render. The result is a great render but a slightly ugly topology due to returning back to poly. I've also seen other tutorials for other types of models where the technique for creating tighter edges is to place edge loops close to each other (I believe it's called 'holding edges) on the base mesh and applying smoothing only at render time. This method seems harder but results in better topology.

My question is: I'm wanting to make a photo real car for my portfolio designed for films tv etc not games. Is it better to add the edge loops on the base mesh or better to use Sub d creasing? What do you normally use and why? I notice a lot of answers on similar subjects saying "its down to personal preference", but surely theirs more to it. What's best for a portfolio where they look at modeling techniques and topology etc. Thanks for your help in advance guys.