Stop wasting your generation credits and include these things in your AI image generator prompt.
Katelyn Chedraoui Writer I
Katelyn is a writer with CNET covering artificial intelligence, including chatbots, image and video generators. Her work explores how new AI technology is infiltrating our lives, shaping the content we consume on social media and affecting the people behind the screens. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in media and journalism. You can reach her at kchedraoui@cnet.com.
Expertise artificial intelligence, AI image generators, social media platforms
Anyone who has ever used an AI image or video generator knows that it isn’t always easy to bring the image you have in your head to life on your screen. And if you’re not artistically inclined, it can be difficult to describe what you want an AI tool to create.
Your best odds for success start with a great prompt. Getting optimal results isn’t about magic; it’s about giving the AI a better description of what you want. Experts call it “prompt engineering” but you don’t need to be an AI expert to master it. It all comes down to including a few essential elements in your description to go beyond a simple idea.
Nailing your prompt is the single best way to avoid bizarre results and finally get the AI to create the image you desire. Here’s how to craft a great AI prompt.
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Start with these three elements
When you first write your prompt, you might feel overwhelmed or like you’re not sure where to start. I’ve been there and the best place to begin is with the essentials. These are the three necessary elements every prompt needs. Once you have something for each of these, you can build it out from there.
- Characters and elements in the scene
- Setting or where it takes place
- Dimensions, like portrait, landscape or a specific ratio (3:2, 16:9, etc.)
You might be tempted to add some exclusionary or negative characteristics in your prompt, meaning things that you do not want in your image. I would caution against it. Even the most prompt-adherent generator is likely to ignore these, or worse, misread the prompt and include something you specifically asked it not to. If you want to eliminate an element from one image, it’s usually easier to do that in the editing stage rather than in the original prompt.
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Specify the style and color palette you want
Beyond the “who, what and where” in your basic prompt, you’ll want to guide the generator toward a specific style. Here are some of the most popular styles of AI images.
- Photorealistic: As close to real life as possible. AI image generators aren’t great at this but it’s worth trying.
- Stock photography: Like real photos but shinier and brighter.
- Product features: Emphasizes individual elements over the background or scene.
- Cartoon: Fun, bright and usually less detailed.
- Illustration: Similar to paintings, pencil sketches.
- Gaming/Game UI: More advanced than cartoon, sometimes anime-like.
Include specific colors you want, too. If you’re not picky about the exact shades you want, you can still lead the generator down the right road by specifying if you want warm or cool tones.
This Canva image keeps the magic alive with a cartoonish warm-toned image.
Katelyn Chedraoui/Canva Magic Media AIYou’ll want different styles for different projects. Photorealistic AI images are likely to be better suited for professional environments than cartoon-style images, but they might not be right for a creative mock-up. Illustrations might be best for more detail-oriented, creative projects, like building out brainstorming ideas, and gaming is good for first iterations of new characters and worlds.
Describe the aesthetic, vibe and emotion
Take your prompt a step further and include a description of the overall aesthetic or vibe. This can help elevate your images and reach that extra layer of detail. These details are a jumping-off point to get you in the ballpark of what you want without overwhelming the generator with a novel-length prompt. Here are some common options to include in your prompt.
- Abstract
- Anime
- Comic
- Fantasy, sci-fi
- Geometric
- Glow, neon
- High tech
- Impressionist
- Medieval
- Noir
- Painting, brushstroke, oil painting
- Psychedelic
- Retro
- Simple, minimalistic
- Surrealist
- Vintage
If none of these aesthetics feel right, try picking the closest one and building from there. Include textures, the time period and landmarks. If you care less about the specific style but want to ensure a specific emotional response, try describing that. Often describing the emotional temperature of a scene can jump-start the generator toward a specific kind of visual look. For example, happy scenes tend to have bright colors and a warm feel, no matter if they’re photorealistic or illustrations. Stressful scenes might have more detail, cool tones and a foreboding feeling that the generator might show you fits better with a fantasy or nonrealistic aesthetic.
Leonardo might not understand “cottage core coastal grandmother,” but it does understand the rustic feel with blues and warm light.
Katelyn Chedraoui/Leonardo AIYou can try using more specific or pop culture aesthetics but there’s no guarantee the generator will understand and adhere to them. For example, you might want to consider translating “cottage core coastal grandmother” to “vintage style with a light, breezy, feel using pastel blues and neutral tones.” It gets at the same idea with more specific instructions.
My AI images still aren’t right. What now?
Even with a well-written prompt, AI image generators aren’t perfect and you’ll get some duds. The tech behind the text-to-image generators is advancing but it’s still very much in progress.
Tweaking your prompt is the fastest way to troubleshoot big problems. But if issues persist, try narrowing down what exactly is wrong with the images and tracing the problem back to where it may be coming from. For example, if your images aren’t professional-looking enough to present, it could be because the style or aesthetic included in your prompt isn’t right. Even making smaller changes to your presets, like the image dimensions, can make a big difference in the end results.
Midjourney took the “stressful” emotion too far in this image and lost the photorealistic style I wanted.
Katelyn Chedraoui/Midjourney AIMany AI image services offer post-generation editing tools that can help you fix smaller errors. Services more geared toward professional creators like Adobe Firefly have extensive tools. More beginner-friendly programs run the gambit, with Leonardo having the most, then Midjourney with an average amount, with Canva having barely any.
Still, it can be frustrating not to get what you want after a lot of work. Even more frustrating is that sometimes the best thing to do is start over. Revising your settings to default, rethinking your prompts and beginning anew can feel like going backward. But when nothing else works, it can be a good last resort.
At the end of the day, AI image generators are not replacements for creators. They’re like other image editing software: You need to spend time getting to know your program, understanding how it works and its editing capabilities. Once you have a handle on your program, you’ll have a good understanding of what kind of prompts deliver the best results. These tips will get you close to what you want in the meantime.
For more, check out the best AI features in Photoshop and what to know about AI video generators.
