ChatGPT Image Prompt Guide: 13 Tips from 9 Months of Tests
Content with custom graphics performs 74% better than stock photography
ChatGPT has established itself as the leading consumer AI tool, and its image generator is no exception. With the right prompts, you can create detailed, professional-quality visuals in a wide range of styles, even without design experience.
Unlike traditional image tools, ChatGPT works best as an iterative assistant — something you bounce ideas off of and refine with each generation. Instead of expecting a perfect image from a single prompt, it's more effective to guide the image generator through trial and revision. It excels at refining ideas, not inventing them from scratch.
After nine months of testing, I’ve compiled the most useful strategies for writing better image prompts. This guide includes real examples, practical advice, and a breakdown of common mistakes to avoid.
Table of Contents
13 Best ChatGPT Image Prompt Tips
These extra tips can help you avoid common mistakes, speed up your workflow, and get more consistent results using the ChatGPT image generator.
While using a preset image prompt is a great starting point, learning to write your own opens up far more creative possibilities. Once you understand how to write prompts in ChatGPT’s preferred style, generating high-quality images becomes faster, easier, and more consistent.
Below are 13 practical techniques and tips I use to improve prompt results, especially when working on custom visuals.
1. Use Long Prompts to Ensure Detail
The most reliable way to get accurate results is by writing detailed prompts. This means taking the time to describe what’s happening across the entire image, not just the subject, but also the background, lighting, mood, and overall style. The more specific you are, the less room the model has to make incorrect assumptions.
Instead of writing something vague like:
A sailboat at sea
Try this instead:
"A modern, small wooden sailboat with visible grain detail and sleek design, cresting moderate ocean swells with whitecaps. The boat is centered in the frame at a dynamic angle, sails full, ropes and rigging visible. Overhead, a stormy sky with dense, low-hanging clouds and breaks of golden sunset light cast dramatic, realistic lighting across the scene. Cinematic perspective with high contrast and photorealistic style, capturing the tension between sea and sky in a wide landscape composition.
This level of specificity gives the model a clear direction and sets you up for easier revisions if needed.
2. Use Short Prompts for Inspiration
There’s one exception to the rule of writing long, detailed prompts: sometimes, writing the shortest possible version of your idea can help you see things more clearly.
If your prompt isn’t working and you’re not sure why, simplify it. Strip it down to the core subject. For example:
A picture of a sailboat
By default, the sky is clear and the background is empty. These are details I now recognize that I want to change in the final version.
This stripped-down version will likely be incomplete or miss the tone you had in mind, but that’s the point. Letting the AI fill in the blanks helps you spot which details you do or don’t want in your final image.
Essentially, this turns the process into a more collaborative one, which tends to lead to better results.
3. ChatGPT Can Help Write Your Prompt
If you’re stuck or unsure how to phrase something, use ChatGPT to help you write the prompt itself. Since generating and refining text is its core strength, it’s surprisingly effective at improving visual prompts too.
Just ask something like:
Can you help me improve this image prompt for more realism?
or
Make this more detailed without changing the main subject.
Use ChatGPT to revise image prompts before generating
ChatGPT can expand on your idea, add context, and rewrite your original phrasing in a way that works better for image generation. Paying attention to what it adds or changes is a great way to improve your own prompt-writing skills over time.
4. Don't Get Stuck Making Revisions
Sometimes, when revising an image, you’ll hit a wall where ChatGPT simply can’t make the requested change. Maybe it keeps misinterpreting your edit, or it reverts something you already liked. When this happens, don’t waste too much time in a loop.
My rule of thumb is simple: if the model fails to get it right after three tries, stop revising and start fresh. Use what you learned from the failed attempts to write a more detailed prompt for a new image instead.
Start a new chat to avoid repetitive generations or loading errors.
5. New Conversations Are Key
One thing I’ve noticed is that ChatGPT sometimes carries over stylistic cues or visual assumptions from earlier images in the same conversation, even if you don’t ask it to. If you’re getting strange or repetitive results when generating variations, it’s probably because the model is subtly referencing your previous prompts or outputs.
To avoid this, start a brand new chat anytime you want to generate a fresh batch of unrelated images. All of your past creations are still accessible from your image library, so you won’t lose anything by doing this.
Open the Library to access all generated images across your conversations.
6. Always Specify Image Orientation
ChatGPT currently doesn’t support exact aspect ratio control, but you can still guide the framing by including terms like “vertical” or “horizontal” in your prompt. This is especially useful for thumbnails, portrait shots, or social content where layout matters.
Specifying your image orientation is crucial for positive results.
If you need a specific size for publishing or posting, I recommend touching up your image afterward using an online image resizer like the one built into Kapwing. It’s an easy way to clean up the framing without sacrificing quality.
7. Don't Ask For Too Much at Once
While detailed prompts help, stuffing one prompt with several complex characters and layered interactions often leads to messy results. The model might drop or distort important elements. Focus on one clear subject with a few supporting details.
For more complex designs like video thumbnails, posters, or layered graphics, it’s often better to build your image piece by piece. Rather than asking ChatGPT to generate an entire scene, you can prompt it to create individual objects on clean, editable backgrounds. This gives you more flexibility later when arranging or repurposing elements in an external editor.
This approach is especially useful when your final design includes characters, props, or text-based components that need to be moved, resized, or swapped out.
For example, if you need a character or prop for your design, try a prompt like:
Photorealistic image of a [single horse wearing sunglasses and smoking a cigar], centered in frame, standing against a pure white studio background with even lighting and no shadows or noise. Full [body] in clear view, high contrast between subject and background for easy background removal.
Once the image is generated, you can use an automatic background remover to isolate the subject and export it as a transparent PNG.
This horse was generated using ChatGPT, then isolated with an online background remover.
While similar assets are available online, generating them in ChatGPT gives you full control over pose, styling, lighting, and originality — all without worrying about licensing or overused stock content.
Adding ChatGPT subjects to thumbnails ensures they are original and free of copyright constraints.
8. Avoid Repeating Words
Stacking the same word multiple times — like “realistic fish in a realistic hat and a realistic smile” — won’t help. In fact, it often confuses the generator or results in awkward exaggerations. Stick to clear, concise descriptors without unnecessary repetition.
Requesting a “realistic fish with a realistic hat and a realistic smile” is a good example of why repetition should be avoided in image prompts. While each element may appear realistic on its own, the overall image lacks cohesion, resulting in an awkward and confusing generation.
9. Use Lighting to Set the Mood
Just like in photography, lighting plays a huge role in the tone and quality of your final image. Phrases like “cinematic lighting,” “soft window light,” or “golden hour” can dramatically change the feel of an image without adjusting anything else.
The lighting style described in your prompt makes a big difference in your final image.
10. Specify Medium and Art Style
If you want a stylized image, say so directly. Keywords like “digital painting,” “watercolor,” “Studio Ghibli style,” or “action figure photo” help the model lock into a visual language.
Even if you plan on generating a relatively simple image, try experimenting with different art styles from time to time for inspiration.
Each of these images were generated with identical prompts but different art styles: (1) cartoon drawing, (2) watercolor, (3) photorealism, (4) graffiti.
This is especially useful when trying to mimic meme styles or artistic trends.
11. Use Camera Language for Realism
Adding camera terms helps guide realism and composition. Use phrases like “shallow depth of field,” “fish-eye lens,” or “macro close-up” to create more photographic outputs.
You can also describe cinematic framing techniques like “overhead shot,” “close-up portrait,” or “wide-angle landscape” for more specific results.
Specifying cinematic details like the camera angle of your image yields very different results.
12. Learn From Your Results
The fastest way to improve your ChatGPT image prompts is to study the results. If an image turns out especially well — maybe the lighting looks perfect or the subject is framed just right — save the prompt and reuse it as a base for future projects.
When an image misses the mark, don’t just scrap it. Ask yourself what went wrong. Did the style clash with the subject? Was the background too vague? Use the flawed result as a starting point to isolate what needs adjusting.
This prompt was not specific enough, leading to an image featuring unwanted text.
13. Use Contrasts to Refine Your Prompts
If you're unsure why your image isn’t working, try writing two opposite versions of the same prompt. For example, create one that’s “bright and colorful, cartoon style” and another that’s “dark and moody, cinematic style.”
Creating contrasting images can give you a sense for how ChatGPT interprets different art styles. Above features a "colorful water-color image" and a "moody charcoal drawing."
By comparing the results side by side, you’ll get a clearer sense of how specific words affect tone, lighting, and layout. This contrast method is especially helpful when you’re stuck between two styles or trying to decide what direction to take your prompt next.
My 5 Favorite ChatGPT Image Prompts
Based on my testing, these prompt formats consistently deliver strong, reusable results. Each one is structured to highlight a specific use case and is flexible enough to adapt to your own creative goals.
Note: All prompt examples featured in this article include bracketed sections (e.g., [object], [style], [background]) intended for you to customize based on your own needs.
Thumbnail Image Prompt
Prompt: A YouTube thumbnail showing a person looking [shocked] at a [giant glowing object in the sky], bold composition, cinematic lighting, high contrast, [horizontal] format.
90% of top-performing YouTube videos use custom thumbnails — generating them makes things much easier.
Product Photo Prompt
Prompt: A high-quality photo of a [pair of headphones] placed on a [white background], clean studio lighting, soft shadows, slight reflection beneath, and realistic style.
Generating product photo mockups saves time but might result in less branded items.
Character Portrait Prompt
Prompt: A detailed portrait of a [young woman] wearing a [hooded cloak], dramatic lighting, soft shadows, [dark studio background], shallow depth of field, [digital painting] style, [vertical] format
Generating character portraits is a quick way to avoid personal privacy conflicts with existing images.
Cinematic Environment Prompt
Prompt: A wide shot of a [futuristic city street] at night, glowing lights, reflections on wet pavement, moody atmosphere, [neon pastel color palette], [cinematic] style, [horizontal] format
Developers and video creators often use cityscapes as backgrounds in social media content.
Scenic Painting Prompt
Prompt: A serene [mountain lake at sunrise], [oil painting] style, soft color palette, [subtle light reflections on the water], [wide landscape] format.
Not all of us are professional painters. Fortunately, generated art can work in a pinch when assembling online content.
