A computing device, a method and a computer program product are provided to generate realistic synthetic image data that is utilized to train, test and/or deploy a computer vision model, such as to recognize an object from an image, to identify a visual anomaly in the object from an image of the object or the like. In the context of a method, a plurality of computer generated three-dimensional (3D) models of an object are generated. The method also generates realistic synthetic image data representative of each of the plurality of computer generated 3D models. The realistic synthetic image data is generated by utilizing a first machine learning model trained with pairs of computer generated synthetic image data and real image data of the object. The method further trains, tests or deploys the computer vision model to recognize the object from an image based upon the realistic synthetic image data.