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Probal Dhali
Probal Dhali

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100 AI Image Prompting Lenses: From Photography to 3D, Illustration & Visual Design 🎨🤖

AI image generation has changed how we think about visual creation.

A few years ago, creating a professional visual often required:

Camera
+
Lighting
+
Location
+
Subject
+
Lens
+
Editing
+
Design Software
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Today, an AI image model can generate many of those visual decisions from natural language.

But there is a catch.

Better prompts don't simply contain more words. They contain better visual decisions.

That is why I started thinking about image prompting as a visual design system rather than a collection of random keywords.

From “Make an Image” to Visual Specification

Compare these two prompts.

Basic 

Create a futuristic city.
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The model has to invent almost everything.

Now consider:

A futuristic metropolitan city at blue hour,
wide-angle architectural photography,
dense vertical buildings,
reflective glass surfaces,
pedestrian-level perspective,
soft atmospheric haze,
controlled cyan and amber lighting,
deep depth of field,
cinematic composition,
high-detail environmental realism.
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The second prompt defines:

Subject
+
Environment
+
Perspective
+
Lighting
+
Camera language
+
Atmosphere
+
Visual style
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That's the fundamental idea behind these 100 lenses.

A Visual Prompt Is a Stack

I think a useful mental model is:

                 VISUAL IDEA
                      ↓
                   SUBJECT
                      ↓
                 ENVIRONMENT
                      ↓
                 COMPOSITION
                      ↓
                 CAMERA/LENS
                      ↓
                   LIGHTING
                      ↓
                   MATERIAL
                      ↓
                 ART DIRECTION
                      ↓
                 POST-PROCESSING
                      ↓
                  FINAL IMAGE
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Not every prompt needs every layer.

But thinking in layers gives you much more control.

1. Photography Lenses

The first group focuses on photographic realism.

/photorealistic
/hyperrealistic
/cinematicphoto
/portrait
/headshot
/editorial
/fashion
/lifestyle
/streetphoto
/travelphoto
/wildlife
/macrophoto
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These aren't simply “quality settings.”

They describe different visual goals.

For example:

Portrait
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usually emphasizes:

  • subject identity,
  • facial lighting,
  • expression,
  • skin detail,
  • composition.

Whereas:

Street photography
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might emphasize:

  • candid moments,
  • environmental context,
  • natural lighting,
  • urban composition,
  • documentary realism.

2. Perspective Is a Design Decision

The camera position can completely change an image.

Consider:

/topdown
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You see the scene from above.

/lowangle
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The subject can appear larger and more imposing.

/highangle
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The subject may appear smaller or more vulnerable.

/wideangle
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creates a stronger sense of spatial depth.

/telephoto
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can compress the apparent distance between objects.

So instead of:

“Show a futuristic car.”

you could specify:

Low-angle automotive photograph,
camera positioned close to ground level,
wide environmental perspective,
dramatic city architecture in background.
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Now the camera becomes part of the storytelling.

3. Depth of Field Controls Attention

Two useful lenses are:

/depthoffield
/bokeh
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They are related but not identical.

A shallow depth of field can separate a subject from the background.

For example:

Professional portrait,
85mm portrait-lens look,
shallow depth of field,
soft background separation,
natural skin texture.
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The visual hierarchy becomes:

SUBJECT
  ↑
sharp

BACKGROUND
  ↓
soft
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This is useful because visual attention is partly controlled through focus.

4. Lighting Is One of the Strongest Prompt Variables

Lighting can completely change the emotional character of an image.

The toolkit includes:

/goldenhour
/bluehour
/sunset
/sunrise
/nightmode
/neon
/moody
/dramaticlighting
/volumetriclight
/rimlight
/silhouette
/backlit
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For example:

Mountain landscape at golden hour,
warm directional sunlight,
long shadows,
soft atmospheric haze,
natural volumetric rays.
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Compare that with:

Mountain landscape at blue hour,
cool ambient light,
deep shadows,
subtle mist,
cinematic atmosphere.
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Same subject.

Completely different emotional result.

5. Lighting Should Describe Direction

Instead of simply saying:

“Beautiful lighting”

try describing:

Key light
+
Fill light
+
Rim light
+
Light direction
+
Intensity
+
Color temperature
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For example:

Portrait with soft key light from camera-left,
subtle fill light,
thin rim light separating the subject from the background,
natural skin tones,
controlled contrast.
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That's much more actionable visually.

6. Film and Analog Aesthetics

The toolkit includes:

/blackandwhite
/filmgrain
/kodak
/fujifilm
/polaroid
/vintage
/retro
/80s
/90s
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These are useful for specifying a visual era or photographic character.

But an important distinction:

A film aesthetic isn't only a color filter.

It can involve:

Color response
+
Contrast
+
Grain
+
Exposure
+
Highlight roll-off
+
Lens characteristics
+
Composition
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For example, instead of:

Make it look vintage.
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you could describe:

Analog-inspired editorial photograph,
subtle film grain,
soft highlight roll-off,
moderate contrast,
slightly muted colors,
natural imperfections,
archival photographic character.
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7. Futuristic Worlds

The collection also contains environment-oriented lenses:

/cyberpunk
/steampunk
/dieselpunk
/solarpunk
/postapocalyptic
/fantasy
/scifi
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These shouldn't be thought of as simple “style buttons.”

They describe world-building directions.

For example:

Solarpunk

Think:

Renewable energy
+
Green architecture
+
Human-centered cities
+
Natural materials
+
Clean technology
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Cyberpunk

Think:

Dense urban environment
+
High technology
+
Strong artificial lighting
+
Weathered infrastructure
+
High visual contrast
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The interesting part is understanding the visual ingredients behind the label.

8. Space and Natural Environments

The collection includes:

/space
/planet
/galaxy
/nebula
/underwater
/ocean
/mountains
/forest
/desert
/cityscape
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These are primarily environment generators.

A useful environmental prompt can combine:

Subject
+
Scale
+
Atmosphere
+
Terrain
+
Lighting
+
Weather
+
Camera
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Example:

Massive alien observatory on a rocky planet,
vast planetary horizon,
thin atmospheric haze,
distant nebula visible in the sky,
small human-scale structure emphasizing enormous environment,
cinematic wide-angle composition.
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The scale relationship is what makes the scene believable.

9. Architecture and Interior Visualization

For architectural visualization:

/architecturephoto
/interior
/minimalinterior
/luxury
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The prompt can specify:

Building geometry
+
Materials
+
Lighting
+
Camera height
+
Time of day
+
Interior styling
+
Environmental context
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For example:

Minimal contemporary interior,
natural stone surfaces,
warm indirect lighting,
large floor-to-ceiling windows,
clean geometric furniture,
soft daylight entering from the right,
architectural photography,
balanced composition.
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This is much closer to an architectural brief than a generic image prompt.

10. Product Visualization

Product-focused lenses include:

/productphoto
/packaging
/advertising
/billboard
/brandingmockup
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A product image can be specified as:

Product
+
Material
+
Surface
+
Lighting
+
Camera
+
Background
+
Brand placement
+
Composition
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For example:

Premium wireless headphones,
matte black finish,
minimal studio environment,
softbox lighting,
controlled reflections,
dark gradient background,
three-quarter product angle,
commercial product photography.
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This gives the model a much clearer visual target.

11. Branding and Graphic Design

The collection also includes:

/logo
/iconset
/mascot
/characterdesign
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These require a different type of thinking.

A logo prompt should focus more on:

Shape
+
Geometry
+
Symbolism
+
Typography
+
Scalability
+
Visual simplicity
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A character prompt might focus on:

Silhouette
+
Proportions
+
Clothing
+
Expression
+
Color
+
Personality
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The visual objective changes depending on the artifact.

12. Traditional Art

The toolkit includes:

/oilpainting
/watercolor
/acrylic
/charcoal
/pencilsketch
/inkdrawing
/crosshatching
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These are useful when the desired output is not photographic.

For example:

Mountain village,
traditional watercolor illustration,
transparent layered washes,
visible paper texture,
soft edges,
limited color palette,
delicate atmospheric perspective.
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The important part is to describe how the medium behaves, not just name the medium.

13. Illustration and Sequential Art

For illustrated storytelling:

/comicbook
/manga
/anime
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the prompt can specify:

Character
+
Panel composition
+
Linework
+
Expression
+
Perspective
+
Lighting
+
Background
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For a comic panel:

Dynamic comic-book panel,
hero standing on rooftop during heavy rain,
strong perspective,
expressive pose,
dramatic backlighting,
architectural city background,
clear foreground-midground-background separation.
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The scene becomes much easier to control.

14. 3D and Game-Engine Visualization

The collection includes:

/lowpoly
/voxel
/pixelart
/clayrender
/3drender
/octanerender
/unrealengine
/blender
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These represent different rendering and visual-development directions.

For example:

Low-poly 

Simplified geometric forms
+
Flat surfaces
+
Controlled polygon count
+
Stylized lighting
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Photorealistic 3D 

Physically plausible materials
+
Realistic lighting
+
Surface detail
+
Depth
+
Accurate reflections
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Clay render 

Monochromatic material
+
Geometry emphasis
+
Soft studio lighting
+
Minimal textures
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Again, the useful part is understanding the visual characteristics.

15. Prompt Engineering Itself

The final two lenses are particularly important:

/midjourneystyle
/imageprompt
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The most useful one conceptually is:

/imageprompt
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because it turns an idea into a structured visual specification.

A practical structure is:

SUBJECT
+
ACTION
+
ENVIRONMENT
+
COMPOSITION
+
CAMERA
+
LIGHTING
+
MATERIALS
+
COLOR
+
ATMOSPHERE
+
STYLE
+
QUALITY
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For example:

SUBJECT:
Futuristic electric motorcycle

ENVIRONMENT:
Dense metropolitan city

COMPOSITION:
Three-quarter front view

CAMERA:
Low-angle wide-angle photography

LIGHTING:
Blue-hour ambient light with controlled neon reflections

MATERIAL:
Matte metal and carbon fiber

ATMOSPHERE:
Light rain and atmospheric haze

STYLE:
Premium cinematic automotive photography

DETAIL:
Highly detailed surfaces and realistic reflections
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That is essentially a visual specification.

A Better Prompt Architecture

I would structure complex prompts like this:

┌──────────────────────────────┐
│           SUBJECT            │
├──────────────────────────────┤
│           ACTION             │
├──────────────────────────────┤
│         ENVIRONMENT          │
├──────────────────────────────┤
│        COMPOSITION           │
├──────────────────────────────┤
│        CAMERA / LENS         │
├──────────────────────────────┤
│          LIGHTING            │
├──────────────────────────────┤
│        MATERIAL / TEXTURE    │
├──────────────────────────────┤
│       COLOR / PALETTE        │
├──────────────────────────────┤
│        ATMOSPHERE            │
├──────────────────────────────┤
│       ART DIRECTION          │
└──────────────────────────────┘
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Not every image needs every layer.

But when an image is difficult to control, this gives you a systematic way to diagnose the problem.

Prompt Debugging

This is one of the most useful ways to think about AI image generation.

Suppose the result is wrong.

Don't immediately add 50 more adjectives.

Ask:

Wrong composition?

Change:

/composition
/camera
/perspective
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Wrong mood?

Change:

/lighting
/moody
/goldenhour
/bluehour
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Wrong realism?

Change:

/photorealistic
/material
/depthoffield
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Wrong environment?

Change:

/architecturephoto
/cityscape
/forest
/desert
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Wrong visual medium?

Change:

/oilpainting
/watercolor
/3drender
/pixelart
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This is essentially debugging a visual specification.

The 100-Lens Visual System

The complete system can be represented as:

                         IDEA
                           │
                           ▼
                      ┌─────────┐
                      │ SUBJECT │
                      └────┬────┘
                           │
             ┌─────────────┼─────────────┐
             ▼             ▼             ▼
        ENVIRONMENT    COMPOSITION     CAMERA
             │             │             │
             └─────────────┼─────────────┘
                           ▼
                       LIGHTING
                           │
                           ▼
                      MATERIALS
                           │
                           ▼
                       COLOR
                           │
                           ▼
                     ATMOSPHERE
                           │
                           ▼
                    ART DIRECTION
                           │
                           ▼
                    FINAL IMAGE
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This is the core philosophy behind the 100 prompts.

The 100 AI Image Prompting Lenses

# Shortcut Purpose
201 /photorealistic Ultra-realistic image style
202 /hyperrealistic Extreme realism
203 /cinematicphoto Movie-like photograph
204 /portrait Professional portrait
205 /headshot Corporate headshot
206 /editorial Magazine editorial look
207 /fashion Fashion photography
208 /lifestyle Lifestyle photography
209 /streetphoto Street photography
210 /travelphoto Travel photography
211 /wildlife Wildlife photography
212 /macrophoto Macro photography
213 /droneview Drone aerial view
214 /360drone 360° aerial concept
215 /topdown Top-down composition
216 /lowangle Low-angle perspective
217 /highangle High-angle perspective
218 /wideangle Wide-angle lens look
219 /telephoto Telephoto compression
220 /fisheye Fisheye perspective
221 /depthoffield Shallow/deep focus control
222 /bokeh Soft background blur
223 /goldenhour Golden-hour lighting
224 /bluehour Blue-hour lighting
225 /sunset Sunset atmosphere
226 /sunrise Sunrise atmosphere
227 /nightmode Night photography
228 /neon Neon lighting
229 /moody Dark cinematic mood
230 /dramaticlighting Strong dramatic lighting
231 /volumetriclight Volumetric light
232 /rimlight Rim lighting
233 /silhouette Silhouette composition
234 /backlit Backlit subject
235 /blackandwhite Monochrome style
236 /filmgrain Film-grain aesthetic
237 /kodak Kodak-inspired film aesthetic
238 /fujifilm Fujifilm-inspired color aesthetic
239 /polaroid Instant-photo aesthetic
240 /vintage Vintage aesthetic
241 /retro Retro design
242 /80s 1980s-inspired aesthetic
243 /90s 1990s-inspired aesthetic
244 /cyberpunk Cyberpunk world-building
245 /steampunk Steampunk world-building
246 /dieselpunk Dieselpunk aesthetic
247 /solarpunk Sustainable-future aesthetic
248 /postapocalyptic Post-apocalyptic environment
249 /fantasy Fantasy artwork
250 /scifi Science-fiction artwork
251 /space Outer-space visual
252 /planet Planetary environment
253 /galaxy Galaxy visualization
254 /nebula Nebula artwork
255 /underwater Underwater scene
256 /ocean Ocean landscape
257 /mountains Mountain scenery
258 /forest Forest environment
259 /desert Desert environment
260 /cityscape Urban skyline
261 /architecturephoto Architectural photography
262 /interior Interior visualization
263 /minimalinterior Minimal interior concept
264 /luxury Luxury visual aesthetic
265 /productphoto Product photography
266 /packaging Packaging mockup
267 /advertising Advertising visual
268 /billboard Billboard mockup
269 /posterdesign Poster concept
270 /brandingmockup Brand identity preview
271 /logo Logo concept
272 /iconset Custom icon system
273 /mascot Mascot character
274 /characterdesign Original character design
275 /conceptart Concept art
276 /environmentart Environment concept art
277 /mattepainting Matte-painting-inspired environment
278 /digitalpainting Digital painting
279 /oilpainting Oil-painting medium
280 /watercolor Watercolor illustration
281 /acrylic Acrylic-painting medium
282 /charcoal Charcoal sketch
283 /pencilsketch Pencil drawing
284 /inkdrawing Ink illustration
285 /crosshatching Cross-hatching technique
286 /comicbook Comic-book visual language
287 /manga Manga-inspired visual language
288 /anime Anime-inspired visual language
289 /ghibli Hand-painted animated-film-inspired aesthetic
290 /pixar Polished 3D animated-film-inspired aesthetic
291 /lowpoly Low-poly 3D
292 /voxel Voxel art
293 /pixelart Pixel art
294 /clayrender Clay-render visualization
295 /3drender Photorealistic 3D render
296 /octanerender High-end physically based render aesthetic
297 /unrealengine Real-time-engine cinematic aesthetic
298 /blender Blender-style 3D visualization
299 /midjourneystyle Structured generative-art prompt direction
300 /imageprompt Convert an idea into a detailed image prompt

How I Would Use the 100 Lenses

Don't use all 100 at once.

That's probably the fastest way to create an over-specified prompt.

Instead, choose one lens from each relevant category.

Example: Professional Portrait 

/portrait
+
/depthoffield
+
/rimlight
+
/editorial
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Example: Futuristic City 

/cityscape
+
/wideangle
+
/bluehour
+
/scifi
+
/cinematicphoto
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Example: Product Advertisement 

/productphoto
+
/advertising
+
/dramaticlighting
+
/minimal
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Example: Fantasy Environment 

/environmentart
+
/fantasy
+
/volumetriclight
+
/wideangle
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This creates a modular prompting system.

One Idea → Multiple Visual Directions

Suppose the base idea is:

“A futuristic electric motorcycle.”

You could generate completely different directions.

Cinematic 

/cinematicphoto
/lowangle
/bluehour
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Commercial 

/productphoto
/advertising
/minimal
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Sci-Fi 

/scifi
/neon
/wideangle
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Concept Art 

/conceptart
/environmentart
/dramaticlighting
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3D 

/3drender
/blender
/rimlight
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Same concept.

Different visual language.

The Real Skill Is Visual Decomposition

The most important skill isn't memorizing 100 commands.

It's learning to look at an image and ask:

What is the subject?

Where is the camera?

What lens perspective is being simulated?

Where is the light coming from?

What is sharp?

What is blurred?

What materials are visible?

What is the environment?

What creates the mood?

What visual medium is being used?
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That is essentially visual reverse engineering.

And once you can decompose an image, you can reconstruct the idea as a prompt.

Final Framework

I think AI image prompting is moving from:

“Write a creative sentence.”
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toward:

“Specify a visual system.”
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A strong prompt can be thought of as:

IDEA
 ↓
SUBJECT
 ↓
ENVIRONMENT
 ↓
COMPOSITION
 ↓
CAMERA
 ↓
LIGHT
 ↓
MATERIAL
 ↓
COLOR
 ↓
ATMOSPHERE
 ↓
STYLE
 ↓
IMAGE
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The 100 lenses are simply shortcuts for controlling different parts of that system.

The goal isn't to use more keywords.

The goal is to make better visual decisions before generating the image.

Question for the Community

If you could keep only 5 image-prompting lenses, which would you choose?

Would you prioritize:

/photorealistic
/cinematicphoto
/dramaticlighting
/wideangle
/conceptart
/3drender
/imageprompt
/productphoto

—or something else?

I'd love to hear how photographers, designers, developers, artists, and AI creators approach prompting differently.

AI #GenerativeAI #AIArt #ImageGeneration #PromptEngineering #DigitalArt #Photography #Design #ArtificialIntelligence #CreativeAI #AICreators #DevCommunity

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