i spent too much on credits lol. basically, I would suggest Adobe Firefly Image 3 Model:
- use 'Structure' references
it's way cheaper if ur on CC but be careful with prompts!

Sooo I went through this last year when I was deep into a big project for a local travel agency. I've been messin' with AI for years and the biggest lesson I've learned is that while 'crisp' is nice, reliability and safety are highkey more important when you're on a deadline. I used to chase the trendiest models but got burnt by inconsistent lighting on mountain textures. - Basically, I found that Google Imagen 3 is a real sleeper hit for nature scenes. It’s realy consistent with natural lighting.
- Why it matters? Safety! I dont have to worry about weird copyrighted artifacts appearing in the foliage, which is a HUGE plus for commercial work.
- Honestly, the water reflections I got looked way more natural than the hyper-sharpened stuff you see elsewhere. I'm super satisfied with how it handles those fine details without looking 'fake'. Plus, no licensing headaches. Just sharing my experience tho! 👍

In my experience, if you're chasing that ultra-crisp, "I can't believe it's not a photo" look for landscapes, Flux.1 [dev] is the absolute king right now. I totally get what you mean about Midjourney v6—it’s amazing for artistic shots, but it often applies this subtle "AI polish" that makes mountain scenes look a bit too perfect, you know? Kinda like a postcard rather than a raw photo. When I switched to Flux.1 [pro] for a recent project involving rocky terrain and natural lighting, the difference in texture was literally night and day. It handles the way light scatters through foliage and those tricky water reflections with way more physical accuracy than anything else I've tried. From a practical, cost-effective perspective, here’s the breakdown: Midjourney is easy but that monthly sub adds up fast. If you’ve got a solid PC—think 16GB to 24GB VRAM—running Flux.1 [dev] or Flux.1 [schnell] locally is basically free after the initial setup. If you dont have the hardware, using a cloud service like Fal.ai or Replicate is dirt cheap because you only pay for what you actually generate. Stable Diffusion XL 1.0 is still decent if you want total control via ControlNet, but honestly, it takes way more work to reach the level of realism that Flux gets out of the box. So yeah, for those fine natural details... definitely go Flux. Its seriously impressive... gl!

Agree with the point about Flux being a step up, but unfortunately even that has been a bit of a letdown for micro-textures in dense foliage. I spent way too much time tweaking the guidance parameters and it still cant capture how light actually scatters through mountain pines. If you really need that crisp, professional look for a project, you basically have to run your outputs through Magnific AI Image Upscaler and Enhancer. Its pricey at 30 bucks a month for the basic tier but it adds the kind of 8k raw texture to rocks and water that no base model can generate on its own. I also tried Topaz Photo AI 3 for sharpening, but it wasnt as good as expected for organic details... ended up looking way too digital and smeared. It is honestly pretty frustrating that we still need to stack multiple tools and pay for separate subs just to get a landscape that doesnt look like an AI painting. Hopefully the tech catches up soon so we dont have to keep jumping between apps.

Just went through a similar struggle and honestly, its super disappointing how these tools still struggle with basic nature logic. I tried Ideogram 2.0 for a mountain range series and it just couldnt get the atmospheric haze right. Everything looks way too sharp in a way that feels fake tho. The lighting is just super flat. I also messed around with Krea.ai Realtime Enhancer to try and fix my own raw outputs. It adds a lot of grain and texture which is nice, but it started turning pine needles into weird geometric patterns... it totally ruins the realism when you look closer. None of these tools seem to get foliage right without making it look like plastic or a mess. tl;dr

• Ideogram 2.0 feels sterile and flat, and Krea.ai Realtime Enhancer makes textures look like weird AI hallucinations. Still waiting for something that actually works for mountains.

Similar situation here—i swapped to Leonardo.ai PhotoReal v2 to save that $30/mo fee. Honestly, its technical handling of foliage and water reflections is top-tier for a budget tool. Really happy lately!

Re: "In my experience, if you're chasing that ultra-crisp,..." - honestly, I have to disagree a bit. I've tried many tools over the years, and while Flux is definitely the trendy pick right now, I've found it still struggles with the soul of a landscape. I spent months last year trying to get a specific mist-over-mountains look for a personal project, and Flux kept making the trees look like they were from a high-end video game. In my experience, if you want that raw, unpolished grit of a real photo, you gotta look at these:

• RealVisXL V4.0
• I usually run this via Fal.ai and the way it handles light scattering through pine needles is unmatched.
• Freepik Mystic
• This one is a sleeper hit for textures. It doesn't over-smooth things like Midjourney does.
• Dreamina AI
• Surprisingly good at those complex water reflections you mentioned. I've found that most of the newer models are too focused on being perfect. Sometimes you just need a tool that understands how messy nature actually is... if that makes sense? Still thinking about how much time I wasted on MJ before finally switching my workflow.