Prompt Writing Tips

Master the art of writing effective prompts for better image generation.

Prompt Structure

Basic Format

[Subject], [Style], [Details], [Quality tags]

Example

1girl, beautiful face, long hair, blue eyes, smiling
studio photo, soft lighting, professional
8k, highly detailed, masterpiece

Subject Description

Person/Character

Element	Example
Gender	1girl, 1boy, woman, man
Age	young, old, teenage
Appearance	beautiful, handsome, cute
Features	long hair, short hair, curly hair
Clothing	dress, suit, casual
Expression	smiling, serious, angry

Scene

Element	Example
Setting	indoor, outdoor, forest, beach
Time	day, night, sunset, golden hour
Weather	sunny, rainy, snowy
Background	simple, detailed, bokeh

Quality Tags

Standard Tags

Tag	Effect
masterpiece	High quality output
best quality	Best quality
highly detailed	More details
8k, 4k	High resolution
professional	Professional look
studio lighting	Studio lighting

Camera/Photography

Tag	Effect
shot on Canon 5D	Photo-realistic
film grain	Vintage feel
f1.8 aperture	Bokeh effect
35mm lens	Cinematic

Style Keywords

Art Styles

Style	Keywords
Anime	anime style, manga
Realistic	photorealistic, realistic
Oil painting	oil painting, impressionist
Digital art	digital art, illustration
3D	3D render, octane render

Artist Styles

Artist	Keywords
Studio Ghibli	ghibli style, hayao miyazaki
Greg Rutkowski	art by greg rutkowski
Artstation	artstation trend
Unreal Engine	unreal engine 5

Weight Syntax

Emphasis

Syntax	Effect
(word)	1.1x weight
((word))	1.21x weight
[word]	0.9x weight
word:1.3	1.3x weight
word:0.7	0.7x weight

Examples

# Normal
1girl, beautiful

# Emphasis
(1girl), beautiful  # Girl more prominent

# De-emphasis
1girl, [beautiful]  # Girl less prominent

# Custom weight
1girl:1.5, beautiful:0.5

Negative Prompts

What to Avoid

Category	Negative
Quality	blurry, low quality, bad anatomy
Hands	deformed hands, extra fingers
Faces	ugly, distorted face
Style	anime, cartoon (if realistic wanted)
Artifacts	watermark, text, signature

Common Negative Prompt

blurry, low quality, distorted, ugly, bad anatomy
extra fingers, deformed hands, poorly drawn face
bad proportions, watermark, text, signature

Advanced Techniques

Comma Separation

Use commas to separate elements:

# Good - clear separation
1girl, red dress, forest background, golden hour

# Less effective
1girl with red dress standing in forest at golden hour

Layered Description

# Format
foreground, subject, background, lighting, quality

# Example
1girl in red dress (foreground)
standing in flower garden (background)
golden hour lighting, warm colors (lighting)
8k, masterpiece, highly detailed (quality)

Aspect Ratio

Ratio	Keywords
Portrait	1girl, upper body, portrait
Landscape	landscape, wide shot
Square	1girl, centered
Cinematic	cinematic, 21:9

Model-Specific Tips

SD 1.5

• Works well with detailed prompts
• Less sensitive to weight syntax
• Good for general subjects

SDXL

• Longer prompts work better
• Supports more complex compositions
• Better at understanding context

Flux

• Less reliant on quality tags
• Follows natural language better
• Less need for weights

Examples

Portrait

# Prompt
1girl, beautiful face, long black hair, blue eyes
elegant white dress, standing in garden
soft lighting, golden hour, bokeh background
masterpiece, best quality, 8k, professional photo

# Negative
blurry, low quality, deformed, extra fingers, bad anatomy

Landscape

# Prompt
mountain landscape, snow-capped peaks
sunset, orange sky, dramatic clouds
lake reflection, pine trees, misty valley
highly detailed, 8k, cinematic, masterpiece

# Negative
blurry, low quality, distorted, ugly

Art Style

# Prompt
oil painting of a medieval castle
dramatic lighting, dark atmosphere, storm clouds
impressionist brushstrokes, vibrant colors
art by artstation, masterpiece

# Negative
anime, cartoon, photo, low quality

Troubleshooting

Q: Prompt not working

A:

• Check spelling
• Simplify prompt
• Try different keywords

Q: Unwanted elements

A:

• Add to negative prompt
• Use weights to reduce
• Check model compatibility

Q: Quality inconsistent

A:

• Add quality tags
• Increase CFG
• Use more steps

Next Steps

• Embedding - Use text embeddings
• LoRA - Style models