A LITTLE DIRECTION
Think like a camera.
A cinematic image starts with where you put the camera. Pick a perspective, borrow the prompt, and bring your own story.
Find the feeling.
Browse the scenes. Look for the relationship between the subject, the foreground and the space around them. The lens is only part of the picture.
Copy the prompt.
Choose an image and copy its prompt into your preferred AI image tool. These are descriptive prompts; support for references and camera instructions varies by tool.
Make it yours.
Change the person, location or object. Keep the camera position and framing instructions while learning the technique. If your tool accepts references, you can attach your own subject image.
Look. Adjust. Repeat.
Check what the image actually shows. Is the camera low enough? Is the full body visible? Change one instruction at a time, then compare the results.
The words that shape the frame.
Camera position
Height, distance and direction determine your point of view. “Two centimeters above the pavement” gives a clearer target than “dramatic angle.”
Lens and perspective
A wide lens includes more of the environment. Moving close to a foreground object exaggerates its size relative to a distant subject. A long lens used from farther away can make layers of the scene appear closer together.
Framing and scale
Doorways, glass and foreground objects can frame the subject. Leaving a person tiny in a large environment creates a very different feeling from filling the frame with a face.
References and clothing
Use images you have permission to use. Tell your image tool what each reference is for: identity, clothing or color. A subject reference does not need to dictate the camera angle.
Color and light
This first collection uses a Gold, Steel Blue & Earth palette. Keep the scene’s lighting instructions and adapt the color finish to your own taste.
About the examples
The photographs are AI-generated examples. The copyable prompts are reusable adaptations, so they do not promise an exact recreation of the pictured people or every detail. Lens values are creative guidance to the image model.
Explore the scene library