What the realism controls do
Light, colour and grain are matched from the photograph. Which one to turn down when a result looks wrong, and how to keep an exact hex.
Geometry puts the design on the glass. Realism is what makes it look photographed there rather than pasted: the screen takes on the photograph’s light, its colour cast and its grain, and goes soft where the photograph does. Every part of it is measured from the photo you gave it; none of it is invented.
The controls, and what each one answers:
Light
A screen in a photograph is lit. It glows, and it picks up the room. This control blends the design’s brightness toward what a lit display looks like in that exposure. Too high and the screen looks like it’s overexposed; too low and it looks like a printout. The default is measured from the photograph’s own screen region.
Colour
Matches the design’s colour to the photograph’s cast, a warm lamp or a cool overcast window, so the screen sits in the scene. At zero, your hex values are left exactly as designed. If a brand colour must survive as a literal, turn Colour to zero and keep Light and Grain; the screen will still read as lit and photographed, only cooler or warmer than the room. Somewhere around a third is usually right for a portfolio shot.
Grain
Photographs have noise; a pasted screen has none, and that is the first thing an eye catches. This lays grain on the screen at the amplitude measured from the photograph, slightly reduced because a lit highlight carries less visible noise than a shadow. Turn it off for a clean render intended for a slide; leave it on for anything meant to look like a photo.
Depth of field
Set on the result, not here: drag the sharp line to where the photograph is sharp and the dashed line to where it has gone soft, and the screen blurs across the same distance. A phone shot at f/1.8 with the far end out of focus is exactly what this exists for.
If your build has one Realism slider
Older versions ship the three as a single slider and a switch. The slider moves Light, Colour and Grain together; the switch turns all three off. The split is in the update window; see the changelog.
When something looks wrong
- Screen looks washed out. Light is too high for a dim photo. Bring it down.
- The brand blue isn’t the brand blue. Colour. Zero keeps the hex.
- The screen looks too clean next to the phone. Grain is off, or the photograph is grainier than the measure caught. Nudge it up.
- Text looks soft at 100%. Not realism: the screen region in the photograph is small. See placement resolution.