Quote - IMO it's important to try and impart mood and emotion to your work. After all we live in a world where most visual systems are inherently biased/limited so 'physically accurate' is a fuzzy goal at best.

 

I'd very much agree with ghonma and cspear's points... which I interpret to be about the goal of "realism" here... and it's largely subjective nature, past a certain point.

You'll get a good way with the application of scientifically established light physics etc.

But to jump on from that, to tricking yourself and / or your viewer into suspending their disbelief, is probably going to involve the application of the "artistic lens" (as I've often heard BB put it) and not a little slight of hand...

I don't know, but I do wonder if it's not so much a form of unbiased photorealism, that you're seeking, but more some kind of slightly more hyper-realist result? As I think others are also suggesting in the thread... so I guess I'm just offering my agreement with them...

...if you can manage to clarify for yourself better, perhaps, what the end result you're envisaging is... that may, in theory help you to achieve it?

As cspears said already, really, when we look directly at the world we see it, right from the spherical peripherals, with our binocular vision (usually), heavily post-processed and enhanced, apparently, by unconscious filters within our brain's visual cortex, etc.

This projection of the light that is bouncing at us from the world, into one's mind, is then coloured by our emotional relationship with whatever it is we are gazing upon... I'd say.

It's a colourful can of worms indeed...