Writing a custom scene that the model understands

Describe the photograph, not the feeling

"Somewhere romantic" gives the model nothing to render. "Standing on a stone balcony at dusk, city lights out of focus behind them, warm side lighting" gives it a location, a time of day, a background treatment and a light direction — four decisions it would otherwise make for you.

The useful mental exercise is to describe the photo to someone who has to recreate it, rather than to describe the mood you want to come away with.

The four things worth specifying

Most of the quality gap between a vague description and a good one comes down to these.

• Setting — where, specifically. "A narrow whitewashed alley in a Greek island town" beats "on holiday".
• Time and light — golden hour, overcast afternoon, candlelit interior. Light does most of the work in a photograph.
• Wardrobe — formal, casual, a specific colour. Left unsaid, the model guesses, and it tends to guess formal.
• Framing — close portrait, waist-up, full-length wide shot. This changes the picture more than the location does.

Keep it under the limit and keep it concrete

Descriptions are capped at 500 characters, which is more room than most good ones need. Long descriptions are not better descriptions; a paragraph of adjectives competes with itself and the model resolves the conflict by ignoring some of it.

Avoid naming real people, brands or copyrighted characters — those requests are refused. Describe the look you want instead of the person who has it.

When to use a preset instead

The 28 presets exist because certain scenes are asked for constantly and have been tuned. If what you want is close to a classic wedding portrait, a beach ceremony or a coffee date, start from the preset — you will usually beat your own description, and you can always run a custom scene afterwards with a credit you saved.