Stable Diffusion Prompt Guide

Stable Diffusion is an AI system that generates images from text prompts. Writing effective prompts is key to creating high-quality AI art with Stable Diffusion. This guide will provide tips, examples, and resources to help you become an expert at crafting Stable Diffusion prompts.

What Makes a Good Prompt?

A good prompt clearly communicates what you want the AI to generate. It should describe the subject matter, style, composition, and other key details. Good prompts are:

• Specific: Include lots of descriptive details. The more guidance you give the AI, the better.
• Concise: Use only necessary keywords. Limit prompts to 75-100 tokens.
• Unambiguous: Avoid words with multiple meanings.
• Positive: Describe what you want to see, not what you don’t.

Prompt Structure

Well-structured prompts improve results. Generally, start prompts with the subject matter and end with style details:

[Subject] [Style details] [Composition] [Other details]

Subject: The main focus like “astronaut”, “cat”, “flower”.

Style details: Artistic style, color scheme.

Composition: Pose, framing, arrangement of elements.

Other details: Lighting, texture, objects in the scene.

Essential Prompt Elements

These elements are building blocks for great prompts. Mix and match them.

Subject Matter

The main focus of your image. Use specific nouns like “tabby cat”, “rose”, or “wizard”.

Style

References artistic styles or other images. Examples:

• oil painting
• impressionist
• Miyazaki
• trending on ArtStation

Composition

Describes pose, angle, arrangement. Examples:

• centered
• looking to the left
• close up portrait

Emotion

Conveys a desired mood. Examples:

• solemn
• joyful
• serene

Lighting

Indicates light source, intensity, color. Examples:

• soft lighting
• cinematic lighting
• neon pink lighting

Advanced Prompting Techniques

Take your prompts to the next level with these advanced tactics.

Attention Control

Use parentheses around keywords to make them “louder” to the AI:

(very detailed) flower in a glass vase

Higher attention numbers have more influence.

(extremely detailed:4) flower in a (intricate:2) glass vase

Negative Prompts

Add “negative prompts” with dashes to exclude unwanted elements:

beautiful woman -ugly -old -wrinkles

Variation Control

Reduce variation between generations with same:

(same face) person wearing different hats

Or allow more variation with different:

(different color) roses

Prompt Examples

Here are some prompt examples to give you ideas and inspiration:

Simple Prompt

an astronaut playing a guitar, digital art

Detailed Prompt

A Siamese cat wearing steampunk goggles and a jetpack flying over a vibrant city, matte painting, sharp focus, illustration by Artgerm and Greg Rutkowski 

Prompt with Attention Control

A (extremely detailed:5) rose with (intricate:4) drops of (glistening:3) dew in the early morning sunlight, by Henri Fantin-Latour

Prompt with Negative Prompt

An owl wearing a suit and tie, digital art by Greg Rutkowski, highly detailed face, sitting on a branch -no background

Resources for Stable Diffusion Prompts

Here are some useful websites to find more AI prompt examples and ideas:

• PromptHero – Searchable database of prompts
• Nightcafe Creator – Create AI art and browse prompts
• Lexica – Get AI-generated prompt ideas

With practice, you’ll be an expert at writing prompts for Stable Diffusion in no time! Remember to experiment, take notes on what works, and leverage examples from other artists. Have fun creating dazzling AI art!