photoreal-image
Photoreal Image
Overview
A short request ("AC repair scene, symmetrical, from inside the unit") produces a generic image. The same request expanded into the physical facts a camera would have recorded produces a photograph. Expanded into the decisions a photographer would have made — it produces a good one.
Two axes, not one.
- Truth — would a camera have recorded this? Served by blocks 3, 4, 7, 8.
- Merit — is this frame worth looking at? Served by blocks 2, 5, 9, 10.
A prompt that only serves truth produces a convincing stock photo: real, and boring. Realism comes from constraint, not adjectives — "photorealistic, 8k, ultra detailed" is noise, while a named lens, a named source, a named flaw and a named material are signal. But merit comes from commitment: one moment, one light idea, one detail that could not be anywhere else.
Never ship a prompt without blocks 2 (Moment), 8 (Imperfections) and 9 (Punctum). Imperfection is what stops it reading as CGI. Moment and punctum are what stop it reading as stock.
Commit to one idea. Dramatic and soft, wide and intimate, moody and bright — the model averages conflicting instructions into mush. Pick the idea, then make every block serve it.