Field notes on AI image generation.
Prompting, lighting, composition, styles, consistency, and workflow for the people who actually make images with AI. Field tested techniques you can use today, not hype.
AI prompts for backgrounds and environments with depth and atmosphere
A great subject dies in a flat background. Scene generation with real depth, atmosphere, and light, plus the compositing ready framing that lets you drop a subject in later.
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Aspect ratio and framing: how shape changes the image
Aspect ratio is composition before a single word is read. How a wide, tall, or square frame changes subject emphasis, platform specific ratios, and when to break the rules on purpose.
7 min read
Cinematic AI images: film stock, grading, and lens character
Cinematic is a real vocabulary, not a buzzword. Film stock names, color grading, lens character, and the specific words that read as a movie still rather than a render.
8 min read
AI prompts for portraits and headshots that do not look AI made
Lighting, lens, pose, and skin are where the AI face gives itself away. The realism levers for portraits, how to avoid the plastic look, and prompt structures for clean headshots.
9 min read
Generating batch product images with AI and keeping them consistent
A product catalog is dozens of shots that must look like one shoot. A batch prompt template, a consistency checklist, and the post processing step that finishes the set.
9 min read
Negative prompts: what to exclude, and when they backfire
Exclusion is a real lever, but it is overused. When negative prompts help, when they hurt, how models differ, and a repeatable method for deciding what belongs in the exclude list.
8 min read
Briefing AI like a photographer: intent, shot list, then prompts
Professionals do not start at the prompt. They start at the intent. How to brief AI like an art director, build a shot list, gather references, and only then translate the brief into prompts.
8 min read
Brand consistency in AI images: a template for coherent visuals
Across a brand the color, composition, type treatment, and recurring motifs have to hold. A brand prompt template and the rules that keep a hundred generated images unmistakably yours.
9 min read
Using reference images: how much weight to give a reference
Image to image and reference workflows give you control you cannot get from text alone. How to set the weight of a reference, control how far you deviate, and when to trust the reference.
9 min readAI prompts for social media ads that stop the scroll
Feed and story formats, scroll stopping composition, and on brand variants at speed. Prompt structures for ads, the ratios that fit each platform, and what to avoid.
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Prompt length and word order: why the first words matter most
Models weight earlier tokens more heavily and longer prompts hit diminishing returns. The reasoning behind word order, how much detail actually helps, and a budget to spend your words.
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Building a prompt library your team can actually reuse
Prompts are assets. A schema for organizing, tagging, and versioning prompts across a team or agency, so a great result is never lost and a new hire can find it in seconds.
9 min read
Style consistency: making a series of AI images look like one artist
A series should feel like one hand made it. How to lock an art style across many images using a fixed style block, seeds, and a style reference, with a worked example.
8 min readComing up with AI image ideas when you are staring at a blank prompt
Blank page paralysis is the real bottleneck, not the model. Five frameworks for generating ideas on demand, with ideation prompts you can run today and a method that compounds.
8 min read
AI prompts for product photography that look studio shot
Studio shots, flat lays, lifestyle scenes, and clean backgrounds for ecommerce. Copy and paste prompt structures plus the lighting and lens choices that sell a product image.
9 min readIterating AI images without losing quality to generational loss
Feed an AI image back into the model and the next one is subtly worse, every time. The math behind generational loss, and a clean iteration loop that keeps your quality floor high.
9 min readControlling light and mood in AI images on purpose
Direction, hardness, color temperature, and the tone they add up to. A framework for setting mood deliberately instead of hoping the model lands on the feeling you wanted.
8 min readMaking photorealistic AI images: the levers that push toward real
Realism is not one switch. It is a stack of lens, light, detail, and imperfection choices. Here are the levers, the order to pull them, and where different models lean naturally.
8 min readAn AI prompt keywords cheat sheet, organized by what each keyword does
A structured keyword library across light, camera, style, mood, and quality, with the reasoning for why each word earns its place instead of a flat list you copy without understanding.
7 min readCharacter consistency in AI images: keeping one face across a set
The hardest and most requested skill in AI images is keeping the same character across many frames. A protocol built on prompt discipline, seeds, character references, and a decision tree for when each tool applies.
10 min readAI art styles: the major families and how to name and combine them
Photorealistic, cinematic, anime, watercolor, oil painting, 3D render. A map of the style families models understand, how to name them precisely, and how to combine two styles without them fighting.
9 min readCamera angles and composition keywords for AI images
Shot type, framing, leading lines, symmetry, depth of field. The camera vocabulary you already know from photography maps cleanly onto prompting and changes how the model frames your subject.
8 min readAI image lighting keywords: what each one actually does to your image
Golden hour, blue hour, Rembrandt, volumetric, rim, softbox, low key. Each lighting keyword moves the image in a specific direction. Here is what each one does and when to reach for it.
8 min readHow to write AI image prompts that actually get you what you want
Most bad AI images come from a vague prompt, not a bad model. Here is the anatomy of a prompt that works: subject, setting, style, light, framing, in that order, with worked before and after examples.
9 min read