Write a good prompt

A model only knows what you tell it. Describe the shot the way you’d brief a camera operator: who or what is in it, what happens, where, how the camera moves and what the light is like.

What to include

• The subject. Who or what, and what they look like: “a woman in her 60s with a silver crop, in a red raincoat”.
• The action. One clear thing that happens: “she stands up on the ledge and looks out”.
• The place. “A rooftop in the city”, “a kitchen counter”, “a beach at low tide”.
• The camera. How it moves and how close it is: “slow push in”, “handheld, following her”, “wide, locked off”, “close-up”.
• The light and time. “Golden hour”, “overcast and soft”, “neon at night”, “window light”.
• The mood or look. “Warm and nostalgic”, “glossy ad”, “phone video”.

For example: “She stands up on the ledge and the camera orbits her as the clouds roll past, golden hour.”

Tips

• Keep it to one shot. A prompt that asks for several scenes usually gets a muddle. Make each shot on its own and cut them together in an edit.
• Be specific about what must stay the same, and leave the rest to the model.
• For a character or product that has to look right, tag an element with @ instead of describing it. See Keep a character the same across shots.
• For a camera move or effect you can name, add a skill. See Use a skill.
• If a model won’t make something, reword it. Real people, brands and anything a model’s content rules forbid are often refused. See What happens when a take fails.

Improve prompt

Improve prompt rewrites what you’ve typed with more detail about the subject, action, setting, light and, for video, the lens and camera movement. It keeps your idea and any @ tags, and gives you one paragraph you can edit before you generate. It’s free.

• On Create on a computer, it’s beside Prompt.
• On Home, it’s in More.
• On a phone, it’s a chip under the prompt.

If you use it many times in a few minutes, it asks you to give it a minute before trying again.