Free sample · Day 17 of 30
Prompt like a photographer
A saved hero still for a real job, written like a photographer's shot list, built from a real reference and checked against a written must-have list.
Why this matters
Prompting like a photographer costs nothing extra. It is the highest return habit in this entire stage. A real photographer has to make specific choices: where the camera stands, what lens is on it, when the shoot happens and what is cleared out of the frame. When your prompt makes those same choices, the model copies that kind of photo.
Art direction that avoids the AI look taught you what to decide. This lesson teaches you to write it at a professional level, with three real prompts to study, then add the piece beginners skip: real reference photos.
Trade owners can spot fake geometry fast. If you text-prompt a garage, the model invents one. If you start from real photos and state the layout, it gets much closer.
The steps
One sentence: what would a photographer be hired to shoot? Example: "A storefront at golden hour, square-on from across the sidewalk."
List what the real thing needs before you prompt. A house needs a garage, driveway, front walk and believable size. A room needs doors, windows and a sensible layout.
Ask Claude to search Wikimedia Commons and Openverse for real images of this place or equipment. Save them in refs/real with their license sources.
python3 scripts/find_refs.py "[EXACT SUBJECT]" "[SECOND SEARCH]" --out refs/
The client's photos and footage come first, if your contract permits. Check for AI clauses before uploading, as in AI clauses and client files.
Open the contact sheet. Choose the photo closest to your shot and layout. Generic trade photos help less than the exact view.
Tell the model what to copy from it, such as "copy the composition of the first reference". References only guide, so spell out what matters.
Start with words such as "Photoreal unedited architectural photograph" or "premium e-commerce studio product photograph". This sets the genre.
Use a real pairing: 24mm tilt-shift for architecture, 35mm for street, 100mm macro for product. Add f-stop if depth matters.
Height and position: "at eye height from the end of the driveway", "square-on to the facade". Add "verticals straight" for buildings.
Name the time of day, the color of the light, and for studio work, where each light sits. Example: "a large softbox top-left, a thin strip-light rim on the right edge".
Name each surface: "walnut pivot door", "honed dark grey travertine", "matte coating". Material words give real micro-texture instead of plastic CGI.
Say which walls show, what is on the left and right, and what stays out of frame. This stops models inventing geometry.
Include chipped paint, brick texture or subtle grain. Real wear is what makes it read as a photo.
Ask for empty space for copy. For anything that will become a video start frame, ban people, cars and text so the frame stays clean.
For a short sign, quote it and cap it: read exactly: "MAPLE & ROE" and nothing else. For anything longer, add it later with Put exact brand text on images.
Name what the model tends to add here: no people, no cars, no other signs, no logos, no brand names.
Say where each finger touches and what gets pressed. Then add a forbidden list. See the prompt below.
Ask Claude to mark anything that the prompt leaves up to the model. Fill the gaps before spending.
Change the angle or light. Stills are cheap and video is not, so 2 or 3 variants per important still is the normal plan.
Get the model, exact settings and credits, then say go. Log it in credits.md and prompts.md.
Tick each item against the actual image. A beautiful house with no garage fails.
Zoom to 100%. Look for faux handwriting on chalkboards, faint figures behind glass and invented signs. Note them. Small flaws can be fixed with an edit in the next lesson.
Does the layout make physical sense? Would someone in this trade accept it? Note anything that fails and rewrite that part.
Keep the approved still at full size with its prompt, since every edit and clip after this builds on it.
Real example
These come from our example set (2026-10-30, Higgsfield, fictional subjects, Nano Banana Pro at 4K, 4 credits each at the time). Confirm costs before you spend.
Studio product (B1).
Photoreal premium e-commerce studio product photograph, shot on a medium-format camera with a 100mm macro lens, f/8, tethered studio look... It stands on a low plinth of honed dark grey travertine stone, slightly left of centre, with generous empty space above it for later copy... Lighting: a large softbox top-left creating one long soft specular highlight running down the bottle's left edge, a thin strip-light rim on the right edge separating it from the background, a subtle realistic reflection of the bottle on the polished top of the plinth, a soft contact shadow under the base.
The bottle sits on the stone instead of floating, because the prompt described a real studio set. Asking for empty space planned ahead for the text.
Storefront (C1).
Photoreal unedited street photograph of a fictional independent neighbourhood cafe storefront in late-afternoon golden light, shot on a 35mm lens at eye height from across a quiet sidewalk, camera square-on to the facade, verticals straight... a single painted wooden fascia sign with simple gold serif letters that read exactly: "MAPLE & ROE" and nothing else.
The sign rendered exactly. An honest flaw: the chalkboard got squiggly faux-handwriting despite "no legible writing", and there was a faint figure behind the glass. Fine for a demo. For a final, fix it with an edit.
Hand (B6). A CONTACT PHYSICS block stated where the thumb and fingers go, and it passed the gate. A free reference search found only museum artifacts, so no real photo was usable. Be honest when that happens, and let the contact block do the work.
When text-only failed. On an electrical demo, a text-only garage came back with a side wall jammed against the doors and what looked like three doors. Jordan rejected it. The fix was real photos as references and a written layout: where the camera stands, which walls show and what stays behind the camera.