Photorealistic

Photorealistic refers to art and images that imitate the appearance of a photograph with high fidelity. It describes rendering or painting that replicates visual cues like perspective, shading, texture, lighting, color, and detail at the level of a high-resolution photo. The term is used across fine art, photography, and computer graphics.

In fine art, photorealism is a movement that emerged in the late 1960s in the United States. Artists used photographs as the source material to create highly realistic paintings, often at large scales. Important painters include Richard Estes, Chuck Close, Audrey Flack, Ralph Goings, and Robert Bechtle. The movement emphasizes meticulous technique, careful copying of details, and a critical stance toward mass media imagery.

In computer graphics, photorealism refers to rendering techniques that aim to produce images indistinguishable from real photographs. This involves accurate modeling of geometry, textures, lighting, materials, and camera effects, as well as effects such as global illumination, ray tracing, physically-based rendering, depth of field, motion blur, and chromatic aberration. Photorealistic rendering is standard in visual effects, architectural visualization, and modern video games.

In photography, photorealistic can describe images that are sharply focused, well lit, and richly detailed, often achieved through high-resolution sensors, careful exposure, and post-processing that preserves natural appearance. The term is sometimes used in marketing to describe the realism of product images.

Challenges include balancing realism with artistic intent and avoiding the uncanny valley in digital humans. The term remains an umbrella across disciplines for achieving or depicting a visual standard close to real photography.