Just sharing my experience: so i went through this last year when i first started and ngl i was pretty overwhelmed by all the technical settings. honestly i was really worried about wasting money on monthly subs that i wouldnt even know how to use properly... anyway so i started looking for budget friendly options that still felt professional. i ended up trying Leonardo.ai because the free daily tokens are actually really generous for a beginner like me and its pretty easy to get those lifelike skin textures without needing a huge supercomputer. but then i noticed the faces were still missing that extra oomph you know?? so i started using Krea AI for their enhancer tool and man i am so happy with how it works... it literally adds those tiny pores and lighting details that make it look like a real photo! i mean i still feel like a total newbie but for someone on a budget who just wants things to work well without breaking the bank its been great. definitely worth checking out if ur trying to keep costs down while learning... gl!

Honestly, I get the frustration because honestly most tools out there right now are either too plastic-looking or way too expensive for what they actually offer. I have tried pretty much everything for my professional work and DALL-E 3 is definitely not it for realism... the skin looks like a Barbie doll most of the time. For your situation, here is a technical comparison of what actually works for high-end details:

• Flux.1 [dev]: This is basically the new king of realism. I know the previous reply mentioned Stable Diffusion XL, but Flux handles micro-skin textures and anatomy way better without that weird oily sheen. Unfortunately, it is a resource hog, so you need a serious GPU if you are running it locally, but the realism is honestly on another level.
• Adobe Firefly Image 3 Model: I had some issues with it being way too restrictive with prompts, but for lighting consistency and color science, it is actually decent since it is trained on professional stock. Not as good as expected for gritty realism tho.
• Leonardo.ai: This is a solid alternative if you dont want to deal with technical setups. Their PhotoReal engine is reallyyy impressive for portraits and skin. So yeah, if you want the absolute most control over every pore and shadow, you gotta look into the Flux.1 [pro] or dev versions. Midjourney is fine for quick stuff, but it just doesnt give you the granular control you need for really high-end digital art. Peace!

TL;DR: Use Ideogram 2.0 with the Realistic style toggle. It handles skin and lighting way better than DALL-E without the plastic look. Stumbled on this thread and honestly, Ideogram 2.0 is what finally worked for me. The skin textures dont have that weird oily shine you see in other engines. I'm quite satisfied with the results on their $16 a month plan... it just works. If you are more into the DIY side and want to avoid subs, grab an MSI GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB and run Fooocus. Its basically the easy mode for high-end renders. You get all the control you need over skin pores and lighting without the headache of more technical stuff. No complaints from me.

> Is Midjourney still the king for realism, or should I dive into Stable Diffusion? In my experience, I've spent way too much on monthly subs before I realized Stable Diffusion XL is actually better for realism. See, Midjourney Basic Plan costs $10/mo, but SDXL is basically free. I suggest using Automatic1111 WebUI for skin control. Lesson learned tho: be careful with your hardware. You really need something like a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB to run renders safely without overheating ur PC.

Respectfully, i'd consider another option before you sink a ton of time into those complex tools. i've had a different experience where the pro tools like the ones mentioned before felt way too unreliable and honestly kinda sketchy regarding privacy and data safety... plus the learning curve is just huge. i was pretty disappointed with how much effort it took to get a decent result without it looking like a total mess. idk, i'd actually suggest checking out Leonardo.ai instead because it's much more stable and safe for a beginner. here is why:

• the PhotoReal feature basically handles skin textures and lighting for you so you dont have to guess
• you get way more control over details using the Leonardo.ai Artisan Model which is more reliable for realism
• it feels much safer and more curated than the wild west feel of some open-source setups it might cost a bit more for the full features but honestly the time you save not fighting the interface is worth it imo. anyway gl with ur portraits!!

just catching up on this and i totally agree that the plastic skin thing is a massive vibe killer. honestly been pretty disappointed with the big tech brands lately... spent years jumping between different engines and unfortunately most are just chasing that shiny airbrushed look that feels super fake now. it is not as good as i expected for the price these companies charge tbh. i've found that the smaller indie labs are doing way better work with skin textures than the massive corporations these days because they dont over-filter everything. gives you way more control over the grit.