Guide · Image
AI images fail the realism test for predictable reasons: perfect light, perfect skin, perfect symmetry. Real photographs are full of small accidents. Prompt for the accidents and the output starts to look like photography.
Shot on 35mm, f/1.8, natural grain does more for realism than the word photorealistic ever will. Camera language pushes the model toward the physics of real glass: shallow depth of field, slight vignetting, honest color.
Ask for one believable light source: window light from the left, overcast afternoon, golden hour through trees. Avoid studio perfect lighting unless you are making a packshot. Real light has direction and falloff, and naming both makes the image sit in a real place.
Candid framing, slight motion blur, flyaway hair, a crease in the shirt. One or two imperfections per prompt is enough. This is the single highest-leverage trick for making product-in-hand and lifestyle shots feel shot, not generated.
When you need a consistent face, product, or style, stop describing it and attach it. Plenty Labs lets you use your own images as references, which locks identity and style far more reliably than any adjective. Describe the scene, reference the subject.
