It records approximately what the human eye sees at one moment. Photography is an art in itself, photographs can be taken in a variety of ways, with different types of film, different lenses, different zoom levels, from different angles, at different distances. Creative interpretation can be exercised on the part of the photographer in order to portray a scene in a certain way. To the photographer, that may be his perception of reality at that time and place. It may coincide with our perception of reality, and it might not.
Painting seems to have more of a capacity for creative interpretation.
A painter can freely choose how to use different types of paint, different colors, different ways of expressing something. If a painter chooses to capture reality, it could mean a realist portrait that is lifelike in its detail and color, similar to a photograph, or it could consist of one big shapeless blotch of paint in the middle of a canvas. The artist could consider that to be his reality. Reality is how we as individuals perceive the world. In a purely physical sense, reality is how our senses perceive the world.