epinikion tried to refine the understanding of the Prompts, Hands and of course the Realism. Let's see what you guys can do with it.

Thanks to @drawaline for the in-depth review, so epinikion would like to give some advices to use this model. [expand to see Advices]

Advices

use simple prompts
no need to use keywords like "masterpiece, best quality, 8k, intricate, high detail" or "(extremely detailed face), (extremely detailed hands), (extremely detailed hair)" since it doesn't produce appreciable change
use simple negatives or small negative embeddings. gives most realistic look (check samples to get an idea of negatives i used)
add "asian, chinese" to negative if you're looking for ethnicities other than Asian
Light, shadows, and details are excellent without extra keywords
If you're looking for a natural effect, avoid "cinematic"
avoid using "1girl" since it pushes things to render/anime style
to much description of the face will turn out bad mostly
for a more fantasy like output use 2M Karras Sampler
no extra noise-offset needed, but u can if you like to 😉

How to use?

Prompt: simple explanation of the image (try first without extra keywords) Negative: "cartoon, painting, illustration, (worst quality, low quality, normal quality:2)" Steps: >20 (if image has errors or artefacts use higher Steps) CFG Scale: 5 (higher config scale can lose realism, depends on prompt, sampler and Steps) Sampler: Any Sampler (SDE, DPM-Sampler will result in more realism) Size: 512x768 or 768x512 Hires upscaler: 4x_NMKD-Superscale-SP_178000_G (Denoising: 0.35, Upscale: 2x)

Useful Extensions

!After Detailer | ControlNet | Agent Scheduler | Ultimate SD Upscale

⁉ No VAE needed but it is better to use one for more vibrant colors

⭐ Feel free to leave Reviews and Samples on the original post on CivitAI: https://civitai.com/models/25694/epicrealism - and always have fun creating ❤