How to make AI images look like real photos

AI images often end up looking smooth and artificial. Three guides from fal.ai, Miraflow and Pixelbin offer concrete advice on how to write your message to the image model (a prompt) so the result looks like a real photo.

Describe the scene, not just keywords

According to fal.ai, you should describe the whole scene and the relationships between its elements instead of listing keywords. "A dog in a park" is too vague without a location, subject and mood. Materials should also be named precisely, such as navy wool tweed with visible weave or brushed steel, rather than just "fabric."

Miraflow suggests having the subject do something in mid-motion, such as laughing and turned toward the camera, rather than holding a static pose.

Learn the language of the camera

Fal.ai and Pixelbin especially recommend using camera terms. Focal length (measured in mm) controls how much ends up in the frame, and aperture (f/1.8, f/2.8 and so on) controls how much of the image is sharp. Pixelbin explains it this way:

- 24 mm is wide-angle with exaggerated depth. - 35 mm looks natural and wide. - 50 mm is versatile. - 85 mm is flattering for portraits and produces a compressed background.

Miraflow also suggests naming specific gear, such as "Sony A7III with 85 mm f/1.4," and using film grain or film stocks like Kodak Portra 400 (warm skin tones) and Kodak Tri-X (high-contrast black and white).

Lighting and small flaws

Fal.ai advises specifying the source, direction and quality of the light, such as golden hour, harsh side light or soft overcast light. Pixelbin prioritizes natural light, directional light with logical shadows and soft window light over harsh artificial light.

Miraflow recommends small imperfections like dust, fingerprints and condensation, as well as optical flaws like vignetting and lens flare. You should avoid asking for "perfect" or "flawless" conditions and symmetry.

What to avoid

Fal.ai discourages obvious quality words like "ultra realistic" and "masterpiece," as well as many competing instructions in the same sentence. Fal.ai recommends positive phrasing: "an empty street at dawn" rather than "a street without cars," because a negation can lead the model to draw the very thing you want to avoid.

Pixelbin lists typical mistakes: perfect symmetry, several photo styles mixed together, vague quality words on their own, distorted text, deformed hands, plastic-looking skin, impossible reflections and floating shadows. Pixelbin also suggests a fixed order: subject, camera settings, lighting, time of day and surroundings, texture and imperfections, and finally what should be avoided. The sources are thus somewhat at odds here: fal.ai discourages negations in the prompt itself, while Pixelbin suggests ending the prompt with elements to avoid.

Keep the caveat in mind

The guides come from companies with an interest in AI and imaging tools, and the advice consists of experience-based recommendations, not measured results. The effect may vary from model to model.

Fal.ai does note differences: according to the company, GPT Image 2 is suited to text-heavy work, Nano Banana 2 to fast and colorful prompts, Nano Banana Pro to complex compositions and FLUX 2 MAX to dense, texture-rich scenes.