Five things that make an image prompt work

Most disappointing images come from prompts that were too short, not prompts that were too complicated. "A coffee shop" leaves almost everything up to the model, so it fills the gaps with whatever is most average — and average is rarely what you had in mind.

Here are the five things worth being specific about.

1. Say what the subject is doing, not just what it is

A noun on its own gives the model nothing to build around.

• Weak: a barista
• Better: a barista wiping down an espresso machine at the end of a shift

The action carries posture, context and mood with it. You get a scene instead of a portrait of a job title.

This matters most for social content, where you usually want something that looks like a moment rather than a stock photo.

2. Describe the light

Lighting does more for the feel of an image than almost anything else, and it's the thing people most often leave out.

Some phrases that work reliably:

• soft window light from the left
• warm late afternoon sun, long shadows
• overcast daylight, flat and even
• single overhead light, dark background

If you skip this, you tend to get bright, evenly lit, slightly flat images. Fine for a product shot, wrong for anything with atmosphere.

3. Set the framing

Tell the model how close it should be and where the camera sits.

• close-up, waist-up, wide shot
• shot from slightly above, eye level, low angle
• shallow depth of field, background blurred

Framing also solves a common problem: if you need space for text on top of the image, ask for it. wide shot with empty space on the right gives you somewhere to put a headline.

4. Name the style, or don't mention style at all

Half-specified style is worse than none. If you write professional, the model has to guess what that means to you.

Be concrete:

• editorial photography, natural colours
• flat vector illustration, two colours
• film photograph, slight grain
• 3D render, soft studio lighting

If you leave style out entirely, you'll usually get a photographic look by default. That's a reasonable fallback — just make it a choice rather than an accident.

One caution: naming a living artist or a specific brand's visual identity is a bad idea, both legally and practically. Describe the qualities you want instead.

5. Say what you don't want, and keep it short

Negative instructions help, but only a few at a time. A long list of exclusions tends to confuse the result more than it cleans it up.

Useful ones:

• no text
• no logos
• no people in the background

Two or three is plenty. If you find yourself writing eight, the real problem is usually that the positive part of the prompt isn't specific enough.

Putting it together

Weak: