The total appearance and the visibility of structures depend on the structure size, the observing distance and the image forming quality.

Structure size

Surfaces with different structure sizes will appear visually different:

The waviness of automotive paints is in a range of approx. 0.1 to 30 mm wavelength. These phenomena are often visually evaluated and subjective terms like degree of peel or texture are used as descriptions.
Orange peel can be seen on high gloss surfaces as a wavy pattern of light and dark areas.
Depending on the slope of the structure element the light is reflected in various directions. Only the elements reflecting the light in the direction of our eyes are perceived as light areas.