86 visual terms for your ChatGPT image prompts

Straight down from high above. Makes anything look designed: a table, a street, a beach.

Camera on the floor looking up. Makes a person or a building look powerful and huge.

Bulging wide lens, curved edges. Skate video energy, fun and a bit chaotic.

High and looking down, but not vertical like a drone. Good for showing where things sit.

Slightly below eye line. The cheapest way to make a subject look confident.

Slightly above, looking down. Makes a subject look smaller or younger.

Tilted horizon. Instant unease, good for tension.

From behind someone, looking at what they see. Great for screens and conversations.

As if through your own eyes, hands sometimes in frame. Very native to Reels.

Perfectly top down on a surface. The default for products, food and desk shots.

Turned 45 degrees. The most flattering angle for faces and products.

Straight from the side. Editorial and a bit cold.

Fills the frame with one detail: an eye, a texture, a logo.

Shows the whole space before you go close. Opens a sequence.

Compressed, flattering, blurred background. The portrait default.

Takes in the whole room. Slight stretch at the edges.

Background looks closer and bigger than it really is. Very filmic.

Makes a real scene look like a tiny model.

Wide cinema frame with horizontal flares. Reads as expensive.

Subject sharp, everything else soft.

Background lights melt into soft circles.

Microscopically close. Skin, fabric, droplets, powder.

Moving things smear, still things stay sharp. Light trails and silky water.

Harsh direct flash in the dark. Party photo, slightly blown out, very now.

Low warm sun just after sunrise or before sunset. Forgiving and nostalgic.

Just after sunset. Deep blue sky, lights starting to glow.

A bright outline behind the subject that separates them from the background.

Light behind the subject. Halos, haze, silhouettes.

Short sharp shadows, high contrast. Harsh and modern.

Even studio light, almost no shadow. Clean product look.

Soft directional daylight from one side. Looks like a nice flat on a good day.

Warm, flickering, very low. Intimate and old.

Coloured signage light on skin. Night city.

Half the face lit, half in shadow. Dramatic.

Small triangle of light on the shadowed cheek. Classic portraiture.

Subject fully dark against a bright background. Shape only.

Flat grey daylight. Honest, unglamorous, good for real-life shots.

Bright, airy, almost no shadows. Clean and commercial.

Mostly darkness with one light source. Moody.

Visible shafts of light through dust or trees.

Lamps, screens and signs doing the lighting, visible in shot.

Real photographic grain. Softer, warmer, less digital.

Washed, square, soft focus, slight colour shift.

Flash, grain, imperfect framing. Deliberately cheap looking.

Scan lines, bleeding colour, timestamp. Nineties home video.

Flickery, warm, slightly jumpy. Family footage from the seventies.

No colour. Forces you to think about light and shape.

Brown toned. Old and warm.

The blockbuster look. Warm skin, cool shadows.

Low saturation, soft tones. Calm and premium.

One colour in every shade. Graphic and bold.

Deep blacks, bright whites. Punchy.

Colour pulled almost out. Serious and documentary.

Pushed towards amber. Cosy.

Pushed towards blue. Clinical or lonely.

Depth and mystery for nothing. Separates layers.

Droplets and distortion between you and the subject.

Reflections double every light. The cheapest cinematic trick.

Floating specks in a light beam. Makes a room feel lived in.

Softens everything and makes light visible.

Movement and quiet at the same time.

Warm particles drifting through a window beam.

Subject off centre. Natural and easy to look at.

Dead centre, balanced both sides. Formal and calm.

Lots of empty around the subject. Great when text goes on top.

Roads, rails or edges pulling the eye to the subject.

Shooting through an opening. Adds depth and voyeurism.

Through a mirror, puddle or window.

Something blurred in front. Makes it feel candid and real.

Cut in hard. Removes all context, keeps emotion.

Subject tiny in a huge space. Loneliness or scale.

No shine at all. Expensive and understated.

Wet looking reflections. Loud and premium.

Light passes through. Frosted glass, skin, petals.

Flat layered shapes with real paper edges and shadows.

Matte grey 3D with no colour. Looks like a design mockup.

Everything stopped mid air. Splashes, jumps, hair.

Subject sharp, background streaked sideways. Speed.

Caught doing, not posing. The single best fix for a stiff photo.

Liquid caught the instant it breaks.

Styled, confident, a bit cold. Magazine spread.

Unposed, real, slightly imperfect.

Candid, found moments, natural light.

Looks like a frame paused from a film, not a photo.

Clean, lit evenly, no distraction.

Shows the lights, the crew, the mess around the shot.