How to Write AI Image Prompts: A Complete Guide

A prompt is the text description you give to an AI model to generate an image. The quality of your prompt directly affects the quality of your output. Think of it as giving instructions to a very talented but literal-minded artist.

A good prompt follows this pattern:

[Subject] + [Description] + [Style] + [Quality] + [Technical]

Example: a Japanese woman in traditional kimono, standing in a bamboo forest, soft natural lighting, photorealistic, 8K, shot on Sony A7R IV

Each part adds specificity:

• Subject: What is in the image (person, animal, landscape, object)
• Description: Details about the subject (clothing, pose, expression, colors)
• Style: Artistic style (photorealistic, anime, oil painting, cyberpunk)
• Quality: Quality modifiers (masterpiece, best quality, highly detailed, 8K)
• Technical: Camera/lighting details (shallow depth of field, golden hour, studio lighting)

Negative prompts tell the AI what to avoid. Common negative prompts:

worst quality, low quality, blurry, deformed, ugly, bad anatomy, bad hands, extra fingers, missing fingers, watermark, text

This is especially important for photorealistic images where anatomical accuracy matters.

Flux Dev/Pro: Responds well to natural language descriptions. No need for booru-style tags. Use complete sentences.

SDXL/CivitAI models: Works well with comma-separated tags. Weight syntax like (keyword:1.3) to emphasize elements.

Video models (Kling, Wan): Describe motion explicitly. "Camera slowly pans left" or "the woman turns her head and smiles."

1. cinematic portrait of an elderly fisherman at dawn, weathered face, warm golden light, shallow depth of field, 8K
2. anime girl with silver hair and blue eyes, cherry blossom background, detailed illustration, masterpiece
3. futuristic Tokyo at night, neon holographic billboards, rain-soaked streets, cyberpunk, Blade Runner aesthetic
4. macro photograph of a dewdrop on a rose petal, reflections of sunrise, photorealistic
5. Studio Ghibli style landscape, rolling green hills, fluffy clouds, whimsical cottage, hand-painted animation
6. product photography of a luxury watch on marble surface, soft studio lighting, commercial quality
7. oil painting of a stormy sea with a lighthouse, thick brushstrokes, dramatic lighting, Turner style
8. 3D render of a cute robot character, Pixar quality, subsurface scattering, octane render
9. minimalist logo design for "CAFE LUNA", crescent moon, clean typography, white background
10. fantasy dragon made of aurora borealis light, flying over snow mountains, 4K wallpaper