Which AI is currently best for generating photorealistic images?

Question

honestly im so tired of everything looking like plastic or some weird over-saturated dreamscape. ive been using midjourney for a few months now for this local cafe branding project i took on but lately every realistic prompt i try just comes out looking like a video game or a cheap stock photo youd find on a 2010 website. i need stuff that actually looks like a real photograph taken on a canon or something with actual grit and natural lighting not this glowy ai aura crap. i have a deadline next friday and my budget is like 30 bucks max for a sub. which ai is actually the best right now for real photorealism?

CambridgePunter · Accepted Answer

Look no further than Black Forest Labs Flux.1 dev 12B Parameters! It is absolutely amazing for that unpolished, real-world grit you are looking for. I have been testing it with different sampler settings and the skin texture is just incredible. For your budget, you can grab a sub on a cloud host and generate hundreds of shots. It totally destroys the midjourney plastic look!

CardiffBayRunner · Answer

Ok adding this to my list of things to try. Thanks for the tip!

ScienceMuseumKid · Answer

Quick reply while I have a sec. I spent a long time trying to fix that plastic look myself. Eventually, I moved to Stability AI Stable Diffusion XL 1.0 because the control over grit is just better. If you dont want to deal with local setups, Leonardo.ai Artisan Plan works well for realistic cafe shots. It lets you dial in the photorealism without the usual over-saturated mess you get elsewhere.