1. A method for synthesizing a new image of an object from an object class, wherein the object class is known, comprising the steps of: obtaining reflectance fields for training objects from the object class; constructing a reflectance field model for the object class using a combination of the reflectance fields of the training objects, wherein the constructed reflectance field model is defined as a mean of the reflectance fields of the training objects plus a linear combination of principal components of the reflectance fields of the training objects; fitting the reflectance field model to a particular object from the object class by optimizing parameters of the reflectance field model to estimate a particular reflectance field given one or more input images of the particular object; and synthesizing the new image of the particular object by changing illumination inputs of the particular reflectance field.