How to Write AI Image Prompts That Actually Work [2025]

Ever been frustrated when your AI art looks nothing like what you imagined?

I still cringe thinking about my first attempts at AI image generation – generic landscapes that could’ve been anyone’s work.

Getting started with prompts isn’t magic – it’s about learning how to write AI prompts for images that communicate exactly what you want.

Over 15 billion images were created since 2022, a milestone that took traditional photography nearly two centuries to achieve since the first photo in 1826.

Bad prompts waste hours of creative time, making it nearly impossible to get the image you want.

You might be typing too little or too much, missing key details that make your images shine.

This guide breaks down exactly how to write AI image prompts that work across AI tools like Midjourney, DALL-E, and Stable Diffusion.

Keep reading for the practical techniques I’ve learned through countless attempts!

Getting Started with AI Image Prompts

I spent my first week with AI art tools typing things like “beautiful sunset” and wondering why my results looked like generic stock photos.

AI image prompts are just text instructions that inform the AI what to create, but the detail matters more than I first thought.

These text-to-image models work by connecting words to visual concepts they’ve learned from millions of images.

Since the launch of DALLE-2 people have been creating an average of 34 million images per day – that’s a lot of prompts being written!

Take this simple example:

• “Woman with a cat”

This might give you a random woman holding any cat in a range of different styles as you can see from these generated examples from DALL- E 3:

But with a more detailed and specific ai prompt, we can get exactly what we want instead of guessing and hoping for the best.

Here’s an example of an improved and far more specific AI image prompt:

• “Prompt: Close-up portrait of a freckled woman with red hair holding a grey British Shorthair cat, soft lighting, 85mm lens” 

This gives the AI much more to work with and we get more consistant outputs based on what we ask for as you can see here:

Different tools like Midjourney, DALL-E, and Stable Diffusion all have their quirks in how they interpret prompts, but these core principles work across all of them.

Key things to remember when you generate images:

• Be specific about subjects, styles, and settings
• Include technical details like lighting and perspective
• Start simple and add complexity gradually
• Learn each AI tool’s specific prompt format

Why You Need To Learn How to Write AI Image Prompts 

I used to waste hours trying to create an image that matched what I had in mind.

Typing random words, getting frustrated, and starting over. Once I learned to write descriptive prompts, everything changed.

Better prompts don’t just save time—they give you predictable results you can count on.

What’s really cool is that these skills transfer between Midjourney, DALL-E, and other generative AI tools with minor tweaks.

For businesses, this is huge. Imagine being able to create consistent brand visuals without hiring a designer for every single image. That’s what good prompts can do.

The way you engineer your prompts completely transforms your creative process. Instead of hoping the AI guesses what you want, you’re guiding it step by step.

I saved so much time and turned my usual AI content creation tasks into a breeze because I could get through them so quickly.

The satisfaction of seeing exactly what you pictured appear on screen is worth the effort of learning prompt craft.

7 Steps to Create Good AI Image Prompts

Now, let me share my approach to prompt writing that combines both structure and creativity while keeping things simple.

1. Start with a Clear Subject 

The difference between good and great AI art starts with how you describe your subject.

“A cat” gives random results, but “a fluffy orange tabby cat with green eyes” guides the AI much more effectively.

Try to use specific nouns rather than generic terms.

Compare these examples:

• Vague: “Woman dancing”
• Better: “Young ballet dancer in white tutu”
• Specific: “Redheaded ballerina performing a grand jeté in a white classical tutu”

For effective AI art prompts, focus on key details like color, size, age, and distinctive features first.

I’ve found that starting with simpler subjects helps build your skills before tackling complex scenes.

2. Set the Scene and Environment 

Your subject might be perfect, but floating in empty space?

Not so great.

The background and setting give context that transforms your entire image. Looking at AI art prompt examples shows how crucial this is.

The same subject can create dramatically different images based on how you describe the environment.

My ‘Scene Setting Spectrum’ should help you to write better and more effective prompts by helping you to better describe what kind of environment you want to see.

The level of specificity in your environment description dramatically affects results with key elements also include:

• Time and location: “Morning mist rising over alpine meadows” vs “neon-lit rainy cyberpunk street at midnight”
• Lighting conditions: “Golden hour sunlight,” “moody low-key lighting,” or “bright studio lighting with soft shadows”
• Camera perspective: “Shot from below,” “aerial view,” or “intimate close-up with bokeh background” for specific artistic direction
• Mood elements: “Foggy,” “serene,” “tense,” or “vibrant” to set emotional tone

Once I started describing the scene better and not just the main character or subject, my images became much more satisfying.

3. Choose Your Artistic Style 

Artistic style makes or breaks your AI image. A detailed prompt should always specify the style to help the AI understand your vision.

You can reference specific styles like:

• Artistic mediums: “oil painting,” “watercolor,” “digital art,” “pencil sketch”
• Visual styles: “anime,” “photorealistic,” “abstract,” “minimalist”
• Art movements: “impressionism,” “art deco,” “cyberpunk,” “vaporwave”

Referencing known artists works brilliantly: “in the style of Monet” or “like Studio Ghibli.”

Even better, combine approaches: “digital art with watercolor elements, art nouveau style.”

Some styles are more reliable – photorealistic and anime consistently produce good results across platforms.

Emphasizing style words with extra weight (“highly detailed oil painting”) strengthens the style influence.

4. Adjust Technical Settings

I banged my head against the wall for weeks trying to figure out why my AI art looked pixelated and oddly cropped.

Turns out I was completely ignoring the technical settings that make a massive difference when working with any AI model!

My biggest discovery was sampling steps —they’re the number of times the AI refines your image from random noise to the final output. 

When I started using 25-30 steps instead of the default 20, my desired image suddenly had much clearer details and fewer artifacts.

Resolution and aspect ratio are equally important for quality results when you generate AI art:

• Resolution: Start with 1024×1024 for crisp images (512×512 looks too grainy for most uses)
• Aspect ratio: Choose based on purpose (1:1 for social posts, 16:9 for blog headers)
• Sampling steps: 25-30 gives the best balance between quality and generation time
• Guidance scale: Around 7 makes the AI follow your prompt closely without looking artificial

Default settings work fine for quick tests, but customizing these parameters for final pieces gives substantially better results.

I’ve found the sweet spot is 28 sampling steps with a guidance scale of 7.2 – this gives me professional-quality outputs without excessive wait times.

![Image: Side-by-side comparison showing the same prompt with default settings vs. optimized technical parameters]

5. Add Descriptive Details 

I tried my first serious AI prompt using basic nouns and returned a boring, generic image.

 When I started adding descriptive details, everything changed!

Creating rich, detailed images became so much easier.

The best prompts for AI art always include strong adjectives.

Adding “mysterious” before “forest” or “weathered” before “spaceship” gives the AI so much more to work with.

These descriptive words guide the style, mood, and even color palette of your final piece.

What really improved my results was learning these specific techniques:

• Stack complementary adjectives (like “ethereal, glowing, ancient temple”)
• Use specificity about materials (“brushed copper,” not just “metal”)
• Add mood words that set the emotional tone (“melancholic,” “jubilant”)
• Include lighting descriptors (“rim-lit,” “soft diffused light”)
• Mention texture details (“rough stone,” “smooth glass”)

Different AI tools handle emphasis differently.

With Stable Diffusion, I put ((double parentheses)) around important elements.

In Midjourney, adding “::1.5” after a word increases its importance.

When you experiment with different descriptor combinations, you’ll discover what works best for your style.

I found that pairing contrasting qualities (“delicate but powerful”) creates more interesting tensions in the image.

At the end of the day, the more detail and context you can give the AI tool, the better your result will be, much the same as a human artist would do

6. Use Negative Prompts Effectively

Creating images with AI can be tricky when you keep getting those annoying recurring issues in your images.

In my case, I constantly had issues with images having weird text floating around that made no sense.

It was super frustrating until I learned about negative prompts. These work like guardrails that keep the AI from adding things you don’t want in your images.

When I create AI art now, I include specific instructions about what to avoid.

This helps me generate unique images without those common AI mistakes.

Here’s what I always put in my negative prompts:

• “Low quality, blurry, distorted” (fixes most basic image problems)
• “Extra fingers, bad anatomy, wrong proportions” (prevents weird body parts)
• “Text, watermark, signature” (keeps random words out of my pictures)
• “Cropped, cut off edges” (ensures complete images)

Different AI tools handle negative prompts differently:

• Midjourney uses “–no bad hands” after your main prompt
• Stable Diffusion has a separate box specifically for negative prompts
• DALL-E actually struggles with negative prompts – instead of saying what you don’t want, focus on describing what you do want in detail

I keep a personal list of effective negative words saved on my phone. This makes it quick to add them to any new image I create.

The format of output improves dramatically when you use these techniques. Just remember not to overdo it—too many restrictions can make your pictures less interesting.

7. Test and Refine Your Prompts 

The first AI art I made was awful – a weird blob that looked nothing like the dragon I wanted.

After dozens of tries, I realized that getting good at text prompt writing is all about testing and tracking what works.

When I use any AI art generator now, I follow a simple system that saves me tons of time:

• Keep a “prompt journal” with screenshots of successful images and their exact text
• Change only ONE thing at a time when refining (like adding “::1.5” to important words)
• Save seed prompt templates when you get something close to what you wanted
• Learn from mistakes – sometimes the “failures” lead to cooler ideas
• Build personal templates (I use: [subject] + [setting] + [lighting] + [style])

My favorite prompt engineering trick is “style hopping” – if your cyberpunk scene isn’t working, try switching to vaporwave instead.

The biggest mistake beginners make is changing everything at once. When you do that, you can’t tell what actually fixed the problem.

I test my prompts like a scientist, making small, controlled changes and recording the results.

Common Mistakes When Writing AI Image Prompts 

I messed up so many images when I first started using AI art tools.

I’d enter a text prompt like “cool dragon” and get something that looked nothing like what I wanted!

After hundreds of tries, I’ve learned which mistakes to avoid.

When you use AI image generators, these are the biggest problems to watch out for:

• Trying to include too much: I once typed “a cyberpunk anime oil painting of a samurai in a forest at sunset with a cat” and got a jumbled mess. Stick to 3-5 main elements instead.
• Being too vague: Asking the AI for “beautiful landscape” gives generic results. I now use specific details like “misty pine forest at dawn with morning sunlight filtering through branches.”
• Mixing conflicting styles: Requesting a “watercolor photorealistic portrait” confuses the AI. Pick one main style – either realistic images OR artistic styles.
• Forgetting about perspective: I asked for “person in a forest” and got a weird aerial view! Now I always specify “eye-level view” or “close-up shot.”
• Ignoring negative prompts: My earliest portraits all had weird hands with extra fingers until I started adding “bad anatomy, extra fingers” to my negative prompts.

The most embarrassing mistake I made was showing a client an image with melting buildings because I didn’t check it carefully before my presentation!

Final Thoughts 

Writing AI art prompts seems tricky at first, but with practice, it gets much easier.

Trust me, I know – my first AI-generated images looked nothing like I wanted!

The key to success is being specific about what you want, using the right technical settings, adding descriptive details, including negative prompts, and testing small changes one at a time.

Each tool works a bit differently, but these basic ideas work across all of them.

What surprised me most was how my prompt style changed over time. I started with basic words and now use detailed descriptions that get much better results.

Don’t worry if your first attempts aren’t perfect – that’s normal! Just enter a prompt, see what happens, and keep making small improvements.

Save your best prompts in a journal so you can reuse what works.

I’d love to see what you create with these tips. Drop a comment below with your best AI art, or ask questions if you get stuck.

The sample prompts in this guide should get you started, but the real fun begins when you develop your own style!