Creative AI in Practice — Part 2: 16 ChatGPT and Nano Banana Prompts to Create Professional Images from Your Own Photos

Creative AI in practice: when prompts stop being guesswork and become visual direction. In Part 2, we explore how to turn your own photos into professional images using ChatGPT and Nano Banana, with creative control and strong visual identity.

AI image creation has entered a new phase. It has moved beyond being merely experimental and now speaks directly to identity, aesthetics, and personal storytelling. Today, the goal is no longer just to “generate something beautiful,” but to build coherent, realistic, and conceptually strong scenes — capable of translating personality, branding, and visual imagination with a level of control that, until recently, would have required a studio, a full team, and a far-from-friendly budget.

In Part 2 of this series, you’ll find another curated selection of carefully structured prompts designed to elevate your own photos to more professional results. Each proposal was crafted to preserve identity, realism, and visual impact, while still allowing room for creative freedom. You’ll move through artistic portraits, fashion editorials, cinematic photography, surreal scenes, conceptual symbolism, and even 3D optical illusions — all ready to be used, adapted, and refined according to your goals.

Additionally, we’ll compare the results generated by ChatGPT and Nano Banana, the image generator integrated into Gemini, Google’s AI. Feel free to use the prompts freely. Test them, tweak them, combine styles, and discover the version that best represents your creative vision — whether for social media, a portfolio, personal projects, or professional branding.

Prompts

Below, you’ll find a new sequence of prompts exploring a wide range of visual styles, from editorial and cinematic to conceptual and experimental. In most cases, providing reference photos is essential to ensure facial consistency, identity preservation, and realism. If your goal is to generate characters entirely from scratch, simply adjust the prompt accordingly. Some prompts may also require you to fill in, replace, or remove specific fields. Read each prompt carefully and tailor it to match your creative objective.

The prompts are provided in Portuguese, Spanish, and English. Personally, I often prefer working in English, as it tends to offer greater precision in more complex styles and scenes, although in many cases the results across languages are quite similar. The best approach is to experiment and decide which workflow suits you best. While these prompts were tested using ChatGPT and Nano Banana, they should also perform well across other image-generation platforms such as Higgsfield, Kling AI, Grok, and others. Results may vary depending on the model — and that variability is part of the creative process. Having multiple options is what expands creative control and increases the chances of achieving the desired outcome.

1.0 Artistic Typographic Portrait with Preserved Identity

Typography as structure. When text follows contour and rhythm, identity survives abstraction.

Prompt:

Create an artistic typographic portrait using the person from the provided reference photo. Show a side profile facing left.

The entire image — including the face, hair, and facial features — must be composed exclusively of repeated white calligraphic text: “TECH, LOVE, HONESTY, TRUST, GRATEFUL, RESPECT, AI, INFLUENCE”

The text should follow the natural contours of the face and hair to clearly form the person’s profile. Use a deep dark blue background with strong contrast.

The style should be clean vector art, with sharp, well-defined edges.

Output in high resolution (4K quality). The person’s facial identity must be accurately preserved, remaining fully consistent with the original reference photo. Do not use additional colors, textures, or watermarks. A subtle gradient may be used only to help define contours.

Aspect Ratio: Recommended for Instagram Post or Story

2.0 Artistic Sculptural Portrait in Natural Wood

Material and texture are what make the portrait feel sculpted, not illustrated.

Prompt:

Create a highly detailed artistic portrait of a person’s face, constructed entirely from small wooden branches and natural fibers. The face should be front-facing, centered, and symmetrical, with intense, realistic eyes and a calm, neutral expression.

Facial features such as the eyes, nose, lips, beard, wrinkles, and overall facial structure, when applicable, must be formed using loosely intertwined wooden branches, with visible woven strands and realistic dry bark texture, conveying a handcrafted and natural appearance. The branches should naturally follow the contours of the face and hair, allowing the person to remain clearly recognizable as the same individual from the reference photo.

Use soft studio lighting to highlight the wood texture and the intricate details of the branches. Keep the background neutral, simple, and distraction-free.

The overall look should be hyper-realistic, highly detailed, and artistic, resembling a handcrafted wooden portrait sculpture. No text. No watermarks. Clean composition.

Aspect Ratio: Recommended for Instagram Post or Story

3.0 Nighttime Cinematic Portrait with Futuristic Car

Lighting tells the story before the subject does.

Prompt:

Create a realistic, cinematic nighttime photograph of a [Futuristic Concept Porsche] parked inside a dark indoor garage, with the headlights fully turned on. The intense white headlights should produce strong light beams and striking reflections throughout the scene.

A person is seated on the ground directly in front of the car, in a powerful pose, wearing a black leather jacket and black jeans. The person should have their legs bent and arms resting on their knees. The body must remain centered and symmetrical, with the head slightly lowered, while the eyes look directly into the camera, conveying a confident facial expression. The person’s physical appearance must remain consistent with the individual provided in the reference photo.

The mood should be dramatic and intense, with the headlights casting harsh light and deep shadows across the person. Subtle fog and smoke spread across the floor, with light beams cutting through the haze. The concrete floor should be slightly reflective, enhancing the lighting effects.

High contrast, dark atmosphere, visually striking composition, professional high-impact photography in a premium stock style.

Aspect Ratio: Recommended for Instagram Post or Story

4.0 Luxury Editorial Portrait with Porsche 911

Luxury works best when realism stays untouched.

Prompt:

Create an ultra-realistic, natural photograph showing a confident person leaning against a matte black Porsche 911. The person’s physical appearance must remain fully consistent with the individual provided in the reference photo, without excessive skin retouching, maintaining a realistic and authentic look.

The person is wearing a tailored light blue suit with subtly textured fabric, a white dress shirt, a light-toned tie, black leather dress shoes, and classic dark sunglasses.

The setting should feature a modern urban environment, with contemporary architecture, concrete walls, and clean lines. The camera is positioned at eye level, simulating a real photograph captured with a professional Samsung DSLR camera equipped with a Zeiss 24mm lens at f/2.8.

Lighting should be natural daylight, with realistic shadows, sharp details, and a clean, elegant composition, following a luxury lifestyle editorial aesthetic.

Aspect Ratio: Recommended for Instagram Post or Story

5.0 Nighttime Cinematic Scene with Classic Porsche 911

Reflections turn the scene into something lived-in, not staged.

Prompt:

Create a nighttime cinematic photograph featuring a classic red Porsche 911 parked on a wet urban street, with the headlights fully on. A person casually leans against the front of the car, with a relaxed posture fully integrated into the scene, conveying a confident and introspective mood. The person is wearing casual jacket and pants, appropriate for a nighttime urban setting.

The person’s physical appearance must remain fully consistent with the individual provided in the reference photo.

Steam and smoke rise around the car, creating a dramatic and immersive atmosphere. In the softly blurred background, urban neon signs and storefront facades are visible. The rain-soaked asphalt reflects red and yellow lights in a diffused manner, producing realistic reflections on the car’s body, the ground, and the person.

Low-light environment, shallow depth of field, cinematic color grading, and a dark, atmospheric mood. Professional photography captured with a Sony camera using a Zeiss 24mm lens at f/2.8, with high detail and realism.

Aspect Ratio: Recommended for Instagram Post or Story

6.0 Expressive Illustrated Portrait with Handwritten Text

Handwritten chaos works as emotion, not decoration.

Prompt:

Create a dramatic, high-impact portrait rendered in an expressive ink sketch style with mixed-media illustration, using the person from the provided reference image as the base. The portrait must maintain consistent facial likeness and proportions with the original.

The person is depicted in side profile, with an intense and chaotic presence. The face and upper body are partially overlaid with enigmatic handwritten text, symbols, and abstract glyphs that wrap around the facial contours, suggesting inner conflict, hidden meanings, and mystery.

The person wears a dark, abstract jacket heavily textured with rough ink strokes, sharp angular lines, and vibrant paint splatters, creating a raw and rebellious visual energy. The illustration style is bold and experimental, combining fine pen detailing with aggressive brush marks, splashes, and controlled distortion.

The background features a pale aged parchment tone with subtle grain, worn paper texture, delicate lines, ink drips, and light stains, evoking the feeling of an ancient manuscript or a forgotten sketchbook.

High contrast, expressive composition, and artistic chaos balanced with precision, where editorial art meets conceptual illustration. The mood is slightly dark, intense, and emotionally charged.

Aspect Ratio: Recommended for Instagram Post or Story.

7.0 Hyper-Realistic Cartoon Portrait with Exaggerated Features

Exaggeration works only when identity remains recognizable.

Prompt:

Transform the person from the provided reference image into a hyper-realistic cartoon in 4K resolution.

Exaggerate facial features such as the eyes, nose, and mouth while preserving the core identity of the face, using playful and comedic proportions similar to a caricature. The head should be larger in proportion to the body, while facial details remain extremely precise, with smooth and realistic textures.

Colors should be vibrant, well-defined, and balanced, creating a refined and polished cartoon look while maintaining the visual quality associated with hyper-realism.

Use lighting that enhances facial features, adding depth and contributing to a realistic appearance. The background should be minimalistic, slightly blurred yet detailed, remaining consistent with the context of the original photo.

Output in high-resolution 4K. No text. No watermarks.

Aspect Ratio: Recommended for Instagram Post or Story.

8.0 Cinematic Winter Chaos in an Extreme Environment

Visual contrast is what makes absurdity feel intentional.

Prompt:

Create a high-quality photographic image of a chaotic winter scene, shot with direct flash, inside a real, inhabited igloo in the Arctic, blending dark humor with raw, rebellious, cinematic energy.

Use the provided reference photo to accurately reproduce the person’s appearance in the scene, maintaining strict facial consistency with no changes to facial structure, proportions, skin texture, age, or identity. The face must be sharp and photorealistic, without smoothing or retouching.

The person is seated in a relaxed, casual pose on a low improvised table inside the igloo, surrounded by thick wolf and bear fur blankets, carved ice walls, simple wooden objects, thermal bottles, and everyday household items typical of life in extreme cold. The space feels genuinely inhabited, functional, worn, and cozy despite the frozen environment.

In the background, a white Porsche 911 GT3 RS has crashed through the ice wall of the igloo, shattering blocks of ice and snow into the interior. Cracked ice, frozen debris, and powdered snow scatter across the floor. The metallic body of the car and its bright red taillights create a striking contrast against the blue-white interior. The wheels are fitted with snow and ice chains.

The person wears a patterned oversized sweater and voluminous black oversized pants. One leg rests on the table, the elbow on the knee, and the chin supported by the hand. Beyond the destroyed igloo walls, an endless frozen landscape stretches into constant darkness, with extreme cold visible in the air.

The harsh, direct camera flash freezes every detail of the scene: ice textures, fur fibers, frozen dust, and rough surfaces, creating gritty realism with subtle film grain and imperfect exposure.

The mood is ironic and celebratory, with cultural contrast, cinematic chaos, and the energy of an underground fashion editorial. Slightly dark aesthetic with visible film grain.

Aspect Ratio: Recommended for Instagram Post or Story

9.0 Raw Nighttime Scene with Paparazzi Aesthetic

Raw flash and imperfect framing create authenticity.

Prompt:

Create a raw nighttime photographic image lit with direct flash at a gas station, captured in a gritty paparazzi or underground fashion photography style.

In the foreground, a person is captured eating a double sandwich, sauce spilling, holding it with both hands. The appearance must remain fully consistent with the person from the provided reference photo. They wear a heavy oversized black fur coat and Oakley sunglasses, despite it being night, with a neutral, distant, casual expression. Their hair is black, wet, and curly, reaching the chin.

Behind them, instead of regular cars, a military tank is parked as if refueling. The silhouette is instantly recognizable, featuring a matte metal body, characteristic coloring, and blue and red LED lights.

The aggressive camera flash creates intense highlights on the face, skin, metal, and food, casting deep shadows in the background. Cool blue-white neon gas station lights reflect across surrounding surfaces. Slight film grain, spontaneous framing, and a raw, unposed aesthetic.

Aspect Ratio: Recommended for Instagram Post or Story

10.0 Dramatic Urban Portrait with Extreme Low-Angle Perspective

Extreme angles change scale, not just perspective.

Prompt:

Create a high-impact photographic portrait with a dramatic aesthetic and intense urban atmosphere. The image should be ultra-realistic, featuring an extreme level of detail, cinematic depth of field, and a strong sense of scale amplified by perspective.

The person must maintain exactly the same facial identity as in the provided reference image, with no changes to facial features, proportions, age, hair or expression. Their hair is wet, and curly, reaching the chin. The person wear a heavy-textured oversized black coat and black sunglasses, naturally integrated into the look.

The scene takes place at night in a dense metropolis. The camera is positioned at an extremely low angle, close to the ground and pointing upward. Tall skyscrapers surround the subject and slightly lean toward the center of the frame, creating an oppressive, cinematic “urban canyon” effect. The sky is dark and cloud-filled, with cool, dramatic tones.

Lighting is dominated by urban neon lights, with strong contrasts between deep shadows and intense highlights. Colorful reflections hit the face, hands, and coat, reinforcing a futuristic nighttime aesthetic. Skin, fabric, and hair textures must be highly visible and realistic.

Dramatic pose: the subject is crouching close to the camera, leaning forward. One hand extends toward the lens, occupying the foreground and appearing intentionally larger due to perspective. The other hand partially covers the lower part of the face, creating mystery and visual tension.

The overall mood is dark, powerful, and urban, conveying isolation, intensity, and a dominant presence. Visual style inspired by high-impact editorial photography, with cyber-noir influence, deep color grading, subtle grain, and strong contrast.

No text, logos, or graphic overlays.

Aspect Ratio: Recommended for Instagram Post or Story

11.0 Hyper-Realistic 3D Diorama Map of London Emerging and a Cartoon Character

Scale turns geography into storytelling.

Prompt:

Create a highly detailed, realistic top-down geographic map accurately representing England. From the surface of the map, a miniature 3D diorama of the city of London emerges, positioned precisely at its real geographic location.

The Palace of Westminster, featuring the iconic Big Ben, appears as the central element of the composition, sculpted with extreme architectural accuracy. It is accompanied by the London Eye, symmetrical gardens, a lake, and surrounding urban elements that seem to organically rise from the printed map. The transition between the two-dimensional map surface and the three-dimensional diorama is smooth and natural, reinforcing a strong sense of scale and depth.

Use ultra-realistic materials such as detailed marble, mineral surfaces, refined vegetation, and visible micro-textures. Depth of field must be precise, with selective focus highlighting the Imperial War Museum while peripheral areas remain softly blurred. Lighting should be soft and studio-like, with delicate and realistic shadows, creating an elegant, cinematic composition.

Standing on top of the diorama, with open arms and an inviting posture, is a stylized person described as follows. Based on the provided reference image, create a hyper-realistic cartoon character rendered in 4K resolution, maintaining strong visual consistency. Exaggerate facial features such as the eyes, nose, and mouth while preserving the essence of the face through humorous proportions and expressive caricature-style traits. The head should be proportionally larger than the body, with extremely precise details, smooth and realistic textures, and vibrant, well-defined colors. Use appropriate lighting to enhance facial features and add depth.

Premium macro photography style, hyper-realism, accurate scale, clean and balanced composition.

Aspect Ratio: Recommended for Instagram Post or Story, 4K render, photorealistic, ultra-high level of detail.

12.0 Neo-Japanese Cinematic Movie Poster with Modern Anti-Hero

Strong symbols work best when left unexplained.

Prompt:

Create a high-impact cinematic movie poster featuring a stylish, well-defined young man. Preserve with absolute accuracy all facial features from the provided reference image, without altering facial structure, skin tone, expression, or proportions.

The character is casually leaning against a sleek black vintage car, holding a katana resting naturally on his shoulder. His posture is relaxed yet authoritative, conveying self-control, cold composure, and the quiet confidence of a modern anti-hero.

He wears a dark tailored coat over a minimalist black shirt, paired with well-fitted dark trousers. Rounded black sunglasses enhance the sharp, contemporary look, with strong urban and cinematic influence.

The setting blends traditional Japanese sumi-e art with a dramatic graphic composition. Expressive brush strokes of deep black and intense red form the background. A massive crimson sun dominates the sky behind the character, painted with organic, textured strokes, creating a partial silhouette that adds visual tension and symbolic power.

Lighting is cinematic and controlled, featuring strong contrast, soft rim light outlining the character, and deep shadows that enhance depth and drama.

The visual style is inspired by contemporary action films, neo-Japanese aesthetics, and auteur cinema posters.Ultra-detailed image, precise focus, premium poster composition, 4K resolution, cinematic color grading, and professional movie-poster finish.

Aspect Ratio: Recommended for Instagram Post or Story

13.0 Surreal Black-and-White Editorial Portrait with Dual Scale

Repeating the subject shifts perception of presence.

Prompt:

Create a surreal black-and-white fashion editorial photograph featuring an extreme low-angle close-up of a man’s face, filling nearly the entire frame. The camera is positioned below face level and slightly tilted upward, creating a sense of scale, presence, and controlled distortion.

The face must remain exactly identical to the provided reference image. Do not alter facial structure, skin texture, expression, eyes, nose, mouth, or proportions. The identity must be preserved with absolute precision.

The expression is neutral and restrained, with gently closed lips and the gaze directed slightly downward past the camera, suggesting introspection, distance, and self-control. The man wears a black high-neck garment visible around the jawline and neck, reinforcing a clean, graphic, minimalist silhouette.

At the lower center of the background, a smaller full-body version of the same man appears at a distance. He wears a long-sleeve black top and wide-leg black trousers, with hands in his pockets. His posture is relaxed, confident, and static, serving as a silent counterpoint to the dominant portrait.

The background is a clean white studio with a soft gradient and fully diffused lighting. Shadows are delicate and natural, subtly shaping facial contours without harsh contrast.

Contemporary fashion editorial style, minimalist and conceptual, with defined black-and-white contrast, bold perspective, and precise composition. A refined, modern, and timeless visual.

Aspect Ratio: Recommended for Instagram Post or Story

14.0 Surreal Fashion Editorial with Chess Symbolism

Floating objects act as visual metaphors, not props.

Prompt:

Create a surreal fashion editorial portraying a man suspended in midair inside a minimalist light-gray studio, with a subtle soft grunge texture in the background.

Large symbolic chess pieces — king, knight, and pawn — float around him at varying distances and slight angles, as if time has frozen a moment of strategic tension and gravity itself has been suspended.

The man wears a monochromatic suit in soft gray tones, featuring relaxed tailoring, a tonal shirt, and matching footwear, reinforcing a restrained, intellectual, and sophisticated aesthetic.

His body drifts diagonally across the frame. One arm extends outward as if searching for balance, while the legs remain slightly bent, suggesting a controlled loss of stability. His facial expression is calm and introspective, eyes open, conveying emotional detachment from the symbolic chaos surrounding him.

Lighting is diffused and even, creating extremely soft and subtle shadows beneath the floating elements, enhancing the sensation of lightness and suspension.

The composition is clean, precise, and intentional, blending cinematic surrealism, fashion editorial aesthetics, and conceptual symbolism. Use the provided reference image exclusively for the face, maintaining the facial identity exactly the same, without any alteration.

Aspect Ratio: Recommended for Instagram Post or Story

15.0 High-Contrast Black-and-White Cinematic Portrait with King Symbolism

What’s hidden can feel more powerful than what’s shown.

Prompt:

Create a high-contrast black-and-white portrait with a classic, cinematic atmosphere. An adult man appears extremely close to the camera, occupying nearly the entire frame.

His face is partially obscured by a chess piece — the white king — positioned prominently in the foreground on a chessboard. The central piece is perfectly in focus, solid and imposing, while only one of the man’s eyes is visible behind it, staring directly into the lens with silent intensity.

On the right side of the frame, a black knight appears slightly out of focus, reinforcing the sense of strategy, threat, and imminent movement.

Lighting is low and directional, coming from the side, creating deep shadows that sculpt the face and heighten the psychological tension of the scene. The background is completely dark and indistinct, isolating the subject and symbolic elements.

Shallow depth of field, standard lens perspective, visible film grain, and a timeless fine art photography aesthetic, evoking power, strategic calculation, and inner conflict. Use the provided reference image as the sole facial reference, keeping the identity exactly unchanged.

Aspect Ratio: Recommended for Instagram Post or Story

16.0 3D Anamorphic Optical Illusion — Character Emerging from Paper

What’s hidden can feel more powerful than what’s shown.

Prompt:

Use the provided photo exclusively as the primary facial reference, ensuring that identity, proportions, facial structure, expression, and individual characteristics remain absolutely faithful and realistic to the original subject (male or female, according to the reference).

Create a hyper-realistic 3D artwork exploring anamorphic optical illusion, where the character appears to physically emerge from an open, lined notebook, visually breaking the boundary between the two-dimensional plane of paper and real three-dimensional space.

The character’s body emerges from the waist up, with extremely detailed paper tears revealing layers, fibers, and natural irregularities of the paper. Both hands rest organically on the torn edges, conveying real weight, depth, and convincing physical presence.

Hair and clothing must faithfully follow the style of the original photo, with realistic fabric textures, visible fibers, and natural folds.

In the foreground, include a real human hand outside the notebook, holding a pencil and drawing the character’s shoulder, creating a precise visual interaction between creator and creation. Perspective must be accurate, with natural, coherent shadows reinforcing the integration of all elements.

The notebook rests on a wooden table with clearly visible natural texture. Use a top-down camera angle (overhead view) with a balanced cinematic composition.

Hybrid lighting: soft, controlled studio lighting on the character, combined with natural ambient light on the table and notebook.

Rendered in 4K, hyper-realistic, extremely high level of detail, precise depth of field. No illustrative or cartoon-like appearance.

Aspect Ratio: Recommended for Instagram Post or Story.

Style: Hyper-realism, 3D optical illusion, cinematic photography.

Conclusion

Creating images with AI today is far less about “clicking a button” and much more about knowing what to ask, why you’re asking it, and how far you’re willing to push the tool. The prompts in this article aren’t magic formulas — they’re structures. Starting points. Open ideas that only gain real strength when they meet intention, reference, and critical thinking.

ChatGPT, Nano Banana, Gemini, whatever AI is trending right now — none of them creates on their own. Identity, narrative, mood, and limits are still defined by you. The AI simply responds to the level of clarity (or chaos) it’s given. And that’s liberating. The more you test, tweak, and pay attention to details, the clearer it becomes: the real differentiator isn’t the model, it’s the creative direction.

Use these prompts without hesitation. Break them, remix them, simplify, exaggerate. Swap references, shift styles, push unlikely scenarios. Some images will fail. Others will surprise you. That’s part of the process. Creating with AI is a conversation, not a command. When that conversation clicks, the result stops feeling “generated” and starts feeling intentional.

If Part 1 was about exploring possibilities, Part 2 is about gaining control. And control, in the end, is what turns curiosity into a personal visual language.

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