Prompt Craft for Images.

The art and science of writing prompts that produce exactly what you see in your mind.

After this lesson you'll know

Advanced prompt techniques: composition, camera angles, lighting terms
How to control style with artist references, art movements, and medium keywords
The difference between positive prompting and negative prompting
A reusable prompt framework you can adapt to any project

Beyond Basics

Good prompts are specific. Great prompts are intentional.

In Lesson 3, you learned the four parts of a prompt: subject, setting, mood, style. Now we go deeper. The difference between a decent AI image and a stunning one often comes down to a handful of carefully chosen words. Prompt craft is a real skill, and like any skill, it improves with practice and knowledge.

Composition Keywords

Tell the AI where to put things and how to frame the shot.

Composition is how elements are arranged in an image. The AI responds well to photography and cinematography terms:

Camera angles: bird's eye view, low angle, eye level, Dutch angle, overhead shot, worm's eye view
Framing: close-up, extreme close-up, medium shot, wide shot, full body, portrait, headshot
Composition rules: rule of thirds, centered composition, symmetrical, asymmetrical, leading lines, negative space

Adding "close-up portrait, rule of thirds" to a prompt instantly changes the feeling of the image from a generic snapshot to something intentional and professional.

Lighting Words

Lighting is the single most powerful mood controller.

Photographers know that light makes or breaks an image. The same is true with AI generation. Here are lighting terms that consistently produce strong results:

Natural light: golden hour, blue hour, overcast soft light, harsh midday sun, dappled light through trees
Studio light: Rembrandt lighting, rim lighting, backlit, side-lit, soft diffused light, dramatic chiaroscuro
Atmospheric: volumetric light, god rays, neon glow, candlelight, bioluminescent, foggy ambient light

  Portrait of an elderly woman laughing, Rembrandt lighting, warm tones, close-up, shallow depth of field, fine art photography

Style Control

You can reference art styles, mediums, and aesthetics with precision.

Style keywords are your most powerful creative lever. You can reference:

Art movements: impressionist, art nouveau, art deco, surrealist, minimalist, baroque, pop art, ukiyo-e
Mediums: oil painting, watercolor, charcoal sketch, digital illustration, pencil drawing, stained glass, collage
Aesthetics: cottagecore, cyberpunk, vaporwave, dark academia, solarpunk, retro 1970s, clean modern

Combining these creates specificity. "Art deco poster style" gives you something very different from "art deco oil painting." Experiment with combinations — that is where your unique visual voice emerges.

Negative Prompting

Sometimes telling the AI what you don't want is just as important.

Some tools (especially Stable Diffusion and Midjourney) support negative prompts — a way to specify what should not appear in the image. Common negative prompt terms include: blurry, low quality, distorted, extra fingers, watermark, text, oversaturated.

In ChatGPT, you can achieve a similar effect by saying "do not include any text" or "avoid cartoonish styling" right in your prompt. The AI will try to steer away from those elements.

The Prompt Framework (save this)

[Subject] + [Setting/Context] + [Composition] + [Lighting] + [Style/Medium] + [Mood/Color] + [Quality modifiers]

Example: A lone astronaut standing on a red desert planet, wide shot, dramatic rim lighting, retro sci-fi illustration style, muted earth tones, highly detailed

You do not need every element every time. But having this framework in your back pocket means you always know what lever to pull when an image is not quite right.

Prompt — anatomy of a great image prompt, labeled by section

[SUBJECT]       An ancient library with towering oak bookshelves
[SETTING]       hidden underground chamber, dust particles floating in the air
[COMPOSITION]   wide shot, low angle looking up, symmetrical framing
[LIGHTING]      volumetric god rays streaming through a cracked ceiling
[STYLE/MEDIUM]  dark academia aesthetic, oil painting with fine detail
[MOOD/COLOR]    warm amber and deep shadow, mysterious and reverent
[QUALITY]       highly detailed, 4K, cinematic depth of field

Try it now

Take this basic prompt and level it up using the framework:

Basic: "A city street at night"

Add composition, lighting, style, and mood. Aim for something like: "A rain-soaked city street at night, low angle shot, neon reflections on wet pavement, cyberpunk aesthetic, cinematic lighting, moody blues and magentas, 8K detail"

Generate both versions and compare them side by side. The difference will show you exactly why prompt craft matters.

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