>>149668282
>so when I pull up a reference photo or two I would just literally copy them and then feel like a fraud.
Wat? That's literally what you're supposed to do? I can't speak for western comics, but larger manga teams have literally had the less busy team members physically fucking pound pavement to get reference photos for background artists to trace. I'm sure plenty also look up photos online. Using real world locations helps with perspective and (if they're all from the same area) architectural cohesion and ensures you'll have minor details right like random objects about a scene.

If you feel that bad about using other people's work, pound pavement yourself.