What tricks do you do to get realistic color from height map?

gnoop

I do usual stuff . "pick gradient" from photos  or just 2-3 colors over some noise.  It's all the same ,  just rare lack  when it looks ok  .  Mostly it's never-ending tweaks,  miss and hit that takes long  hours. 

  

While surface sculpting is  quite simple in SD  up to very complex mix,   the diffuse color always reveals it loudly - FAKE.         It's most time consuming part  in my experience  and editing those gradients is inconvenient as hell.

Wonder could anyone share some ideas .

Vertrucio

If this is for terrain, generate AO and cavity maps for the height map, and use those to add in the usual detail first. You'll then want to have multiple layers of repeating terrain noise at different scales.

Eric Chadwick

I’d suggest posting your results, and your references. Impossible to provide ideas without seeing what you’re aiming for.

If I’m making wood for example, lots of detail in the albedo is related to height, and some colors respond in different ranges. 

Wood grain, vs seasonal variations, vs pores, vs cracks. All require differing color values. 

Roughness is similarly affected. Lots of the surface response to lighting needs to be setup in Roughness; without a good Rough map a surface looks pretty crappy.