Prompt library
Copy-ready prompts for portraits indistinguishable from photographs, with light, lens and framing described.
Short answer
A photorealistic portrait prompt must contain four things: a description of the person, the direction and quality of the light, a focal length (85mm gives natural proportions) and the background. Without these four the model drifts into its default stock-portrait aesthetic.
In photorealistic portraiture what determines the result is not the description of the person but the technical description of the photograph. Write "a portrait of a woman" and the model drifts to its default stock aesthetic; describe the light, the lens and the framing and it moves towards a real photograph.
The prompts below contain that technical layer. Change the description of the person to suit your need and leave the technical part as it is.
Each prompt explains why it is written that way. Change the subject to suit you and leave the technical part as it is.
professional headshot of a woman in her forties, plain charcoal blazer, soft diffused window light from the left, neutral grey seamless background, shot on 85mm f/2, shallow depth of field, natural skin texture, calm confident expression, catchlight in the eyes
Works well in these tools: flux, stable-diffusion, midjourney
Note: The phrase "natural skin texture" is critical: without it models over-smooth skin and the result looks plastic.
candid portrait of an older man laughing, seated by a cafe window, warm late afternoon sunlight raking across his face, blurred street behind, shot on 50mm f/1.8, film grain, muted warm colour grade, documentary photography
Works well in these tools: flux, midjourney
Note: The words "candid" and "documentary photography" break the posed stock-image feel.
beauty portrait, close crop on the face, single large softbox directly in front creating even wraparound light, deep black background, shot on 100mm macro, crisp detail in the eyes and lips, subtle skin pores visible, high-end editorial retouching
Works well in these tools: flux, stable-diffusion
Note: Stating the light source's position ("directly in front") directly determines the shadow character.
environmental portrait of a ceramicist in her workshop, hands dusted with clay, standing beside a wheel, soft north-facing window light, shelves of unglazed pots behind slightly out of focus, shot on 35mm, natural colours, quiet documentary mood
Works well in these tools: flux, midjourney, stable-diffusion
Note: Describing a wide lens like 35mm gives framing that shows the person together with their environment.
black and white character portrait of a fisherman in his sixties, weathered face, heavy knit sweater, hard side light from a single window creating deep shadow on one half of the face, high contrast, visible grain, shot on medium format, timeless documentary style
Works well in these tools: midjourney, flux
Note: In black and white, describing the hardness of the light matters more than in colour; contrast is the only expressive tool.
fashion editorial portrait, model in a structured oversized coat against a raw concrete wall, overcast daylight, cool desaturated palette, full body three quarter angle, shot on 50mm, sharp fabric texture, confident still pose, magazine spread composition
Works well in these tools: flux, midjourney
Note: "Overcast daylight" gives soft, shadowless illumination — the most reliable light description for fashion work.
night street portrait, young man under a neon shop sign, magenta and cyan light falling across his face, wet pavement reflections behind, shallow depth of field, shot on 85mm f/1.4, high ISO grain, cinematic colour grade, quiet urban mood
Works well in these tools: flux, midjourney, stable-diffusion
Note: Naming two colours in neon light (magenta and cyan) lets you control the model's palette.
portrait of a child around seven years old sitting on grass, looking slightly off camera, soft golden hour backlight creating rim light in the hair, blurred meadow behind, shot on 85mm f/2, warm natural colours, gentle unposed expression
Works well in these tools: flux, midjourney
Note: "Rim light in the hair" is the glow backlight creates along the hair's edge — the single most effective description for adding depth to a portrait.
Models do not know as a rule that a hand has five fingers; they only learn statistical patterns. The fix is threefold: use framing that keeps hands out of shot, add "extra fingers, deformed hands" to the negative prompt, and prefer Flux, which is markedly better on hands.
Models over-smooth skin by default. Adding "natural skin texture", "visible skin pores" or "unretouched skin" to the prompt corrects this markedly. Describing soft rather than hard light also makes the texture more believable.
Yes, because models were trained on photographic archives where most images carried lens metadata. Writing "85mm" naturalises facial proportions, "35mm" gives a wider frame including the environment, and "f/1.8" blurs the background.