Seconding the recommendation above! FLUX is lowkey the king of realism right now. But for safety and reliability, i gotta compare:

- Adobe Firefly Image 3 Model: Best for legal safety/work since it's trained on licensed data.
- Leonardo.ai: Honestly, their "PhotoReal" mode works so well for natural skin textures.

If youre worried about weird glitches or waxy skin, Firefly is the "safest" choice, tho Leonardo is more flexible. Both are super reliable options!! gl!

Saw this earlier but just now getting a chance to reply. Similar situation here - I spent way too long trying to get Midjourney to stop making people look like they were carved from soap. Dont get me started on the lighting. In my experience, I've tried many setups over the years, and I actually found that the 'waxy' look is often a side effect of how these models handle skin diffusion. I eventually moved away from the main commercial apps and started using Flux.1 [dev] for my high-end renders.

Quick tip: Prompt for specific skin imperfections like 'micro-pores' or 'uneven skin tone' to break that AI sheen.

Comparing them, Flux.1 [pro] has much better anatomy than DALL-E 3, which iirc still looks a bit too 'digital' for my taste. The pro is the incredible texture realism, while the con is the steeper learning curve vs the 'plug-and-play' apps. For me, Flux is the best choice for realism right now. Ngl, it’s been a total game changer for my workflow lately tho.

This^ Also wanted to add that I totally feel that frustration. I've been doing this for years and that 'plastic' skin was basically unavoidable until recently. If youre looking for realism without the massive Stable Diffusion headache, you highkey need to try FLUX.1 [dev]. It's the current gold standard for human anatomy—hands and skin texture are actually insane.

From a cost perspective, dont feel like you gotta drop $30+ on a monthly sub. I usually point people toward Fal.ai for pay-as-you-go or Leonardo.ai for their 'PhotoReal' pipeline. Leonardo is super user-friendly and way cheaper if you just need a few high-end shots a month. It realy avoids that typical 'AI sheen' everyone hates. Honestly, its been a total lifesaver for my workflow this year. Good luck!!

oh man, i feel u on that waxy skin thing... basically EVERY model had that plastic look when i first started messing with this stuff years ago. Honestly, Midjourney is great for vibes, but for that raw photorealistic look? It can be a struggle.

In my experience, the best thing out right now is FLUX.1 [dev]. It literally changed the game for human anatomy and skin texture overnight. It doesn't have that typical 'AI sheen' and the lighting feels way more natural, you know? If ur intimidated by the Stable Diffusion learning curve, u can actually run it on cloud platforms like Fal.ai or Tensor.art pretty easily without a crazy setup.

Over the years, I've tried many models, and if u do decide to try Stable Diffusion later, check out RealVisXL V5.0. It's probably the most lifelike thing I've used for natural environments. But seriously, try Flux—it's highkey the king of realism right now. gl!

Subbing for updates

omg i am so happy you brought this up because i have the exact same issue!! i have been dealing with that annoying waxy skin look for months and it is honestly so frustrating. i love the potential of these tools but that weird ai sheen just ruins everything for me. i am still hunting for a way to make things look actually real without that fake glow... it is just so hard to get right! following this thread super closely because i am just as stuck as you are!!

I've been thinking about your post for a few hours and honestly, the real breakthrough for me wasnt just the model choice, but the hardware optimization! To achieve that level of realism without the waxy finish, you really need to focus on local hosting and thermal management. First, the VRAM requirements for high-fidelity textures are massive. Second, thermal throttling will absolutely destroy your render consistency if your cooling isnt top-tier. I actually ended up completely rebuilding my local workstation because the one I got originally just couldnt keep up. It was such a fantastic learning experience! I remember spending an entire weekend just troubleshooting a custom liquid-cooling loop because my temps were spiking during high-res skin-texture passes. I even had to replace all the thermal pads on my GPU because the factory ones were basically useless for sustained generation. It really taught me that the environment you run the AI in is just as vital as the prompt itself! Anyway, I got a bit off track there with my hardware obsession, but yeah... TL;DR: High-end realism is much easier to achieve once you build a custom local setup that can handle the massive compute requirements without overheating.