Plain Light: 12 Image Prompts That Don't Look AI (PDF, with examples)

Twelve art-directed image prompts, each printed beside the image it made on the first try.

Most prompts look AI because they stack adjectives and effects. These name four real things instead: one light (a single fluorescent tube, a north window, an on-camera flash), one medium (Kodak Portra 800, Tri-X 400, a two-ink risograph, a cyanotype, a linocut), a palette in hex, and a list of what to leave out.

What's inside the 14-page PDF:

• 12 complete prompts: subject, composition and lens (24mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, 1:1 macro), light, palette with hex swatches, texture, mood, and a negative list
• The example image for every prompt, on the same page
• A swap-in template version of each prompt: drop [YOUR SUBJECT] into the art direction
• A one-page method sheet so you can write your own

Why curated beats a prompt library: libraries give you thousands of unsorted prompts and no reason any of them works. This is twelve that do, with the reasoning written down.

All 12 are free to read and copy at plainlight.sites.tab.bot. The PDF is pay what you want; $0 is fine.

Isaac Oppenheimer Studio