AI image prompts that look like real photos

Creative direction: a playful hero image for an independent café's new menu, treating one cappuccino like a sculpture. Art direction: a single cappuccino in a handmade speckled cup balanced on top of a tall, slightly leaning stack of six mismatched saucers on a marble café table, one sugar cube resting on the rim of the top saucer. Product material: matte off-white stoneware with brown speckles and an uneven glazed rim, thick milk foam with a slightly broken leaf of latte art. Palette: cream, espresso brown, cool grey marble and one terracotta saucer. Lighting: low morning sun from a window on the right, the long crisp shadow of the stack falling across the marble. Photography: 50mm lens at f/4, straight-on at table height, 4:5 portrait, the cup sharp. Mood: quiet, witty, unhurried. Post-processing: natural colour, fine grain, foam bubbles and marble veins kept sharp.

Creative direction: [what the image is for and who will see it]. Art direction: [what happens in the frame, where things are, what the subject is doing]. Material: [the subject: what it is made of, its colours, textures and details; for a person, their age, features, skin and clothes]. Palette: [three or four colours]. Lighting: [one main light, where it comes from, how soft or hard]. Photography: [lens or camera, distance, height, framing, aspect ratio, what is in focus]. Mood: [two or three words]. Post-processing: [the finish: colour, contrast, grain, what not to retouch].

Creative direction: a portrait of a ceramicist for her studio's About page that feels like an editorial, not a headshot. Art direction: she sits on a wooden stool in front of a floor-to-ceiling wall of unfired bowls stacked in neat columns, holding one freshly thrown wet bowl up beside her face with both hands, clay running down her wrists. Subject: a woman in her late forties with grey-streaked dark hair tied back, clay dust on her forearms, a faded indigo linen apron over a cream T-shirt. Palette: raw clay, chalky off-white and one deep indigo. Lighting: soft daylight from one tall window on the left, the wall of bowls falling gradually into shade. Photography: 85mm lens at f/2.8, eye level, framed from the waist up, slightly off-centre, focus on her near eye and the wet bowl. Mood: calm, capable, quietly proud. Post-processing: natural skin with visible pores and fine lines, neutral white balance, light film grain, no smoothing.

Creative direction: a spring flyer for a running club that feels like a sports campaign, not a stock photo. Art direction: a young man mid-stride on an empty athletics track at dawn, a long orange ribbon tied to his wrist streaming behind him in a perfect curve, the lane lines leading into the distance. Subject: a man in his mid-twenties with short curly hair damp at the hairline, a light-grey half-zip running top with a small sweat patch at the collar, bright orange running shoes. Palette: brick-red track, white lines, pale dawn sky and the orange of the ribbon and shoes. Lighting: low sun just above the horizon behind him, a warm rim light on his hair and shoulders, soft fill from the sky. Photography: 70mm lens at f/4, low angle from the inside lane, full figure off-centre, 4:5. Mood: light, energised, free. Post-processing: true-to-life colour, gentle contrast, fine grain, no beauty retouching.

Creative direction: a bold hero image for a small skincare brand's rosehip face oil, for the top of its product page. Art direction: the bottle lying on its side, half buried in a deep bed of hundreds of glossy red rosehips, shot from directly above, one rosehip split open beside it showing its seeds, a single golden drop running down the glass. Product material: a 30 ml amber glass dropper bottle with a matte black rubber bulb and a plain cream paper label printed with small black serif text. Palette: rosehip red, deep orange, amber and black only. Lighting: hard midday sun from the upper left, crisp shadows between the berries, bright highlights on the glass and the drop. Photography: straight down from above, 100mm lens, 4:5 portrait, the label sharp and readable. Mood: rich, natural, confident. Post-processing: saturated but true colour, crisp detail, no glow.

Creative direction: a playful hero image for a small-batch granola brand's social feed. Art direction: the open pouch floating in mid-air above a white bowl of yoghurt, a frozen arc of golden granola clusters and blueberries pouring out of it into the bowl, a few clusters suspended mid-fall, against a sky-blue background. Product material: a matte kraft-paper stand-up pouch with a resealable top and a simple one-colour green label facing the camera. Palette: sky blue, oat gold, kraft brown, deep green and blueberry. Lighting: bright, hard studio light from the upper right, crisp shadows of the falling clusters on the bowl. Photography: straight-on at bowl height, 50mm lens, 4:5 portrait, everything sharp, the pour frozen mid-air. Mood: joyful, generous, a little cheeky. Post-processing: clean, saturated but true colour, crisp detail, no glow.

Creative direction: a lifestyle frame for a reading-light brand that feels like a still from a film. Art direction: a single armchair alone in the middle of a vast, empty concrete room at dusk, a woman curled in it reading a paperback, the lamp beside her the only light, its warm pool drawing a circle on the floor around the chair; floor-to-ceiling windows behind her turning deep blue. Subject: a woman in her thirties in an oversized oatmeal cardigan, socked feet tucked under her, hair loosely clipped up. Palette: warm lamplight, oatmeal, raw concrete grey and dusk blue. Lighting: the lamp as the only light, warm and pooled on the page, her hands and the floor; cool blue dusk from the windows. Photography: 35mm lens at f/2.8, wide, from across the room at seated height, the chair small and centred in the frame, the lamp and her hands in focus. Mood: cosy, private, cinematic. Post-processing: gentle grain, mixed colour temperature kept as it is, deep but soft shadows, no added glow.

Creative direction: a believable phone photo a customer might post after receiving a tote bag, for a brand's "how you wear it" story. Art direction: a mirror selfie in a slightly messy hallway, the phone covering part of her face, the tote on her shoulder, shoes and a coat hook visible behind her. Subject: a woman in her early twenties in a white T-shirt, straight-leg jeans and trainers, a natural-canvas tote with a small black printed logo on her right shoulder. Palette: off-white, denim blue, natural canvas, a little hallway clutter colour. Lighting: the overhead hallway bulb plus daylight from an open door, slightly uneven. Photography: shot on a smartphone's main camera in the mirror, vertical 9:16, a little tilted, everything in focus, slight phone-camera noise in the shadows. Mood: casual, pleased, unstaged. Post-processing: straight from the phone, no filter, a smudge on the mirror left in.

Creative direction: a fun night-out photo for a canned-drink brand, the kind a friend takes on the way to dinner. Art direction: two friends laughing on a city pavement at night, one holding the can towards the camera, a lit shop window and a parked scooter behind them. Subject: two women in their late twenties in leather jackets, one with a short bob, one with braids; the can is matte coral aluminium with a small white wordmark. Palette: coral, black, warm streetlight orange. Lighting: direct on-phone flash, hard and bright on faces and the can, the background falling into dark ambient light. Photography: smartphone flash snapshot, vertical 4:5, slightly off-centre, a touch of motion blur at the edges. Mood: spontaneous, loud, happy. Post-processing: flash-hot highlights left as they are, no smoothing, natural skin shine.

Creative direction: a fashion-editorial image for a knitwear label's autumn lookbook that treats the jumper like sculpture. Art direction: a model stands in an empty concrete stairwell, arms wrapped around herself, one shoulder of an oversized chunky jumper slipping, a single long shadow across the steps. Subject: a woman with close-cropped hair and freckles wearing a rust-orange cable-knit wool jumper with visible stitches and a few loose fibres, grey wide trousers. Palette: rust, concrete grey and black. Lighting: one hard beam of late sun through a high window, sharp-edged light and deep shadow. Photography: medium-format feel, 80mm lens, low angle from three steps below, full figure off-centre with negative space on the right. Mood: still, strong, slightly austere. Post-processing: rich but true colour, deep blacks, fine grain, wool texture crisp.