Your model should be built to real-world scale

When creating a scene, the most important thing you need to make sure that the objects match the measurements in the real world. Therefore, it is best to use reference images or blueprints with product dimensions. If you are modeling something to which you have physical access, simply use a meter to measure.

Correct UV map with real scale

One of the things that can easily distort your photo-realism is the incorrect scale of your UV map.
For example: If you have a 4m x 4m wall and project a texture on the wall that represents an area of 2m x 2m without increasing the scale of the UV map by 2 times, the details on your wall will be twice as large.
When it comes to such tiny details as plaster, fabric, or wood texture, this mistake can easily happen to you if you are not careful.
It may not seem wrong to you, but most people will notice that there is something strange about your rendering even though they may not know what.

How to fix this?
Some pages from which you download textures have the specified texture dimensions. For example: on poliigon.com, you can find the dimensions to the left of the texture. Then you can easily adjust the UV map with the dimensions of your object and be sure that the UV map is correct.
If the website from which you are removing the texture does not have the specified dimension, you can always look for a reference image and compare the scale.

Use Compositing for post-processing

The blender in the Compositing tab has a large number of options and nodes. Some of them are made to copy the “camera errors” that you can see in most photos. Those are:

  • Sun Flare – (Sun Beams) Sun flare is usually the unwanted light in a photo due to internal reflections and light scattering caused by the camera lens. Photographers usually want to get rid of this effect, so don’t overdo it, but a little of this effect can lead viewers to think it’s a real photo.
    You can find this option in Blender Compositing under the node “Sun Beams“.
  • Glare – (Glare node) – unpleasantly bright or strong light. Glare is difficulty of seeing in the presence of bright light such as direct or reflected sunlight or artificial light such as car headlamps at night.
    You can find this option in Blender Compositing under the node “Glare“.
    You can choose from several effects such as – Ghost, Streaks, Fog Glow, Simple Star
  • Barrel Distortion (Lens Distortion node) – Deviation from rectilinear projection. It usually occurs when a photographer wants to capture a larger frame and uses a lower focal length, then you may notice curved walls. Lens Distortion node is located in Compositing. Personally, I usually use a little Disort value like 0.02 or 0.04
  • Chromatic Aberration (Lens Distortion node) – is a failure of a lens to focus all colors to the same point. This option is also located in the Blender Compositing under Lens Distortion node – Dispersion. Usually use small values such as 0.02 or 0.04.
  • Focal Blur – The Focal Blur Adjustment lets users draw the focus of the eye to specific parts of the composition. To find this option, first select the camera, go to the “camera tab” and look for the “Depth or Field” option.
    Note that this option is only visible in Camera View. (Numpad 0)

Each object has a Bevel

Objects with bevel are indeed more realistically looking and as probably you know by now, there is not a single known object perfectly sharp.

Bevel Modifier

It enables you to create complex smooth surfaces while modeling simple, low-vertex meshes
Bevel modifiers have several interesting options:

It enables you to create complex smooth surfaces while modeling simple, low-vertex meshes
Bevel modifiers have several interesting options:

  • You can use bevel on the edges or Vertices.
  • The Limit Method option gives you control where a bevel is applied to the mesh.
  • Angle – limit the bevel to a certain angle
  • Weight – a handy option where you can specify which edges will have what percentage of bevel. For example, if you want one edge to have a full bevel value, set “Mean Bevel Weight” to 1.
    For the second edge, you want to have only half the Bevel value, set the set “Mean Bevel Weight” to 0.5.
    This way you can control each edge separately with just one modifier.
  • You can also use weights from a vertex group to determine the width of the bevel.
  • Custom Profile Bevel – an option with which you can easily shape the appearance of the Bevel profile. Note that the number of Segments must be 3 or more when using this option.

Bevel Operation (Destructive bevel)

Bevel Operation is used only in Edit mode, the shortcut keys are CTRL + B for edges or CTRL + SHIFT + B for Vertices.