How to Write AI Image Prompts That Actually Work
By The Fellowi Team · · 6 min read
Most disappointing AI images do not come from a weak model - they come from a prompt that never actually said anything specific. “A beautiful woman in a fantasy setting” is not a description, it is a category. The model has to guess everything you did not say, and it guesses the most average, generic version it can. The fix is not a magic keyword or a longer list of adjectives - it is naming the specific things you already have in your head and just have not written down yet.
Below are six real before-and-after rewrites. The pattern repeats every time: swap a generic noun for a specific one, add a real place instead of an abstract mood, and describe the shot - lens, light, framing - the way you would describe a photo you actually took.
1. Name the subject, not the category
Before:“a fantasy warrior”
After:“a battle-worn elven ranger with silver braided hair, a scar across one eyebrow, wearing weathered leather armor with a green cloak”
“A fantasy warrior” could be a thousand different images, so the model picks the most statistically average one. The moment you give a specific hair color, a specific scar, a specific armor material, there is only one image left to converge on.
2. Give it a real place, not a mood word
Before:“a cozy scene”
After:“a small reading nook by a rain-streaked window, a steaming mug on the sill, an open book face-down on a worn armchair”
“Cozy” is a feeling, not a place. Describe the actual objects and the actual room, and the feeling shows up on its own - you do not need to ask for it twice.
3. Describe the shot, not just the subject
Before:“a portrait of a woman”
After:“a 35mm portrait, shallow depth of field, soft window light from the left, subject looking just past the camera, natural skin texture”
Think like a photographer for one sentence: what lens, what light, what is the subject doing with their eyes. These are the details that separate a flat, stock-photo-looking result from one that feels like a real, specific moment.
4. Product shots need a surface and a light source
Before:“a nice product photo of a perfume bottle”
After:“a frosted glass perfume bottle on a wet black slate surface, single soft key light from the top right, dark background, subtle reflection below the bottle”
“Nice” does not mean anything to the model. A surface, a light direction, and a background choice are three decisions a real product photographer makes before pressing the shutter - make them yourself instead of leaving them blank.
5. Landscapes and concept art want scale and time of day
Before:“an epic landscape”
After:“a lone lighthouse on a cliff at dusk, storm clouds breaking to reveal orange light on the horizon, waves crashing far below, wide-angle composition”
“Epic” is doing no work here. Time of day, weather, and a sense of scale (a small lighthouse against a huge sky) do the job that “epic” was trying and failing to do.
6. Original characters need consistency anchors
Before:“an anime girl character”
After:“an original anime character: short teal hair with a side braid, heterochromia (one amber eye, one blue), wearing a cropped denim jacket over a white tank top, standing on a city rooftop at golden hour”
If you plan to generate the same character again later, write down the two or three details that make them recognizable - hair, eyes, a signature piece of clothing - and repeat those exact words every time. Consistency comes from repeating your own anchors, not from the model remembering who they were last time.
Quick do’s and don’ts
- Name the specific thing, not the generic category it belongs to
- One clear mood or lighting choice beats five stacked adjectives
- Say what you want in the frame, not what you do not want
- Describe the shot (lens, light, angle) the way you would describe a real photo
- Keep a short list of your own anchor details for any character you want to repeat
Ready to try one of these? Open Fellowi Images and write your prompt - your first Standard image is already covered by the free coins on a new account. Once your prompt is right, quality and format are the next decision - see when Standard is enough and when High quality is worth it.