/image-master

05 — Prompt Library: Skeletons + Worked Examples

Every prompt here is built in the 8-block Capture Stack order, written positive-only (Reve/GPT-image/Nano Banana safe), blacklist-swept, with ONE motivated light. Adapt per 06-tool-adapters.md.

Generic discipline skeletons

Wildlife (NatGeo):

Documentary wildlife photograph. [Nikon Z9, 400mm f/2.8 at f/4, 1/2000s, ISO 800]. [animal] [precise action/pose], [gaze]. [environment, horizon on lower third, distant silhouettes hazy in the background]. [one light: golden-hour rim from camera-left, long shadows right]. [warm fur against cool background, teal-orange separation]. [individual backlit hair strands, wet nose, dust in the coat, breath in cold air]. [low eye-level angle, the subject's eye in sharp focus, negative space for the sky]. Mood: [device].

Portrait (real skin):

Candid editorial portrait. [Canon EOS R5, 85mm f/1.8], shot on Kodak Portra 400, subtle film grain. [person], [exact expression, closed-mouth], looking [direction], natural catchlights. [setting]. [one window light raking across the face from the right, soft falloff left]. visible skin pores, fine lines, vellus peach-fuzz, subtle sebum sheen, uneven skin tone, slight asymmetry, subsurface scattering. [tight head-and-shoulders, face large in frame].

Architecture / interior: lead with lens (24mm tilt-shift, f/8), name material + light behavior (raw concrete with form-tie marks, low sun raking the facade), atmospheric haze for depth, one-point or two-point perspective with a consistent vanishing point.

Product: studio product photograph, [single softbox key + reflector fill], [material + accurate speculars + fingerprint/wear micro-detail], seamless background, shallow DoF, one hero object dead-center.

WORKED SERIES: "When the Sky Falls" — the war through animal eyes

Concept: Israel's war seen by animals who don't understand it — apex predators and gentle creatures alike, reduced to fear and the instinct to shelter their young, under a sky of interceptors. The narrative engine is juxtaposition of opposites (the most powerful animals rendered helpless) + the anthropomorphic emotional hook (protective/terror gestures reading as human).

The physics anchor that makes all of these coherent: the Iron Dome interception bloom is the motivated key light — bright orange-white airbursts high in the night sky cast a single, justified, top-down/upward rim light on the animals and ground. That gives you (a) ONE coherent light source, (b) a natural teal-orange split (warm bursts vs cool night), (c) smoke-trail leading lines converging on the interception point, (d) figure-ground silhouettes. Night also forgives skin/texture noise while the rim light still reveals fur edges.

STRATEGIC FLAG (challenge, not flattery): the contest rewards Range as one of four criteria. Ten images of this one idea would score Narrative high but lose Range outright. Use ONE, at most two, of these as the emotional centerpiece of a 10-image set, and let the other 8–9 span different disciplines. Also: the baboon-hands-on-head vignette is the single riskiest to execute cleanly because it stacks the two most-penalized artifacts (primate hands + primate face) — recommended as a stretch shot to inpaint, not the hero.

Ranked by impact × artifact-safety (lead with #1):

1. HERO — "Witnesses" (tigers, backs to camera, watching the interception)

Safest + among the most powerful: backs turned = zero facial-symmetry and zero hand risk; the interception is the decisive moment; silhouettes = chiaroscuro + figure-ground.

Documentary war-photography still, shot on a Sony A1 with a 35mm f/1.8 lens, 1/250s, ISO 3200, subtle sensor noise and fine grain. Wide low-angle view from behind two Bengal tigers sitting motionless on a dark ridge in the foreground, seen from the back, heads tilted up toward the night sky. Beyond them the horizon sits on the lower third; a vast night sky fills the frame. High above, an Iron Dome interceptor meets an incoming rocket in a single brilliant orange-white airburst at the upper-right third — the decisive instant, debris and sparks blooming outward. Several curved interceptor smoke trails rise from the distant horizon and lead the eye up to the blast. The airburst is the only light source: it rim-lights the tigers' shoulders and the edges of their fur from above, leaving their bodies in deep silhouette. Warm orange firelight on the fur edges against a deep teal-blue night — strong complementary separation. Individual backlit hair strands catch the light along their spines and ears; the rest falls into black. Distant town rooftops are low, dark, and hazy on the horizon. Vast negative space of sky around the blast. Mood: silent awe and helplessness, the most powerful predators made small. Aspect ratio 3:2.

Artifact watch: backs-turned removes face/hand risk; check both tigers' ear and shoulder edges for fur strand realism; confirm all smoke trails and the rim light agree on the single airburst as the source; keep the distant town text-free (no signage).

2. "The Shield" (white lion over lioness and cubs)

The protective anthropomorphic hook — maximum emotion. Pose heads low/turned to limit facial risk; one clear hero animal.

Documentary wildlife-war still, Nikon Z9, 200mm f/2.8 at f/3.2, 1/200s, ISO 4000, subtle grain. A white lion crouches low and arches his body protectively over a lioness and two small cubs pressed beneath him on cracked earth in the foreground, his head turned down and away from camera toward the cubs, mane heavy and dust-laden. Mid-ground: low scrub and a concrete wall. Background: a dusk sky on the lower third where two Iron Dome interceptors bloom in distant orange-white airbursts, curved smoke trails rising. The airbursts are the single warm key light, raking from the upper background across the lion's mane and back, deep shadow underneath sheltering the cubs. Warm orange rim on the white fur against the cool teal dusk — complementary split. Texture: individual mane strands backlit and dust-matted, the cubs' soft fur, grit and dust on the cracked ground, the lion's muscles tense under the skin. The cubs are tucked, mostly hidden, eyes barely visible and catching a pinpoint of the distant light. Composition: the lion's arched back is a strong protective arc framing the cubs; vast threatening sky above as negative space. Mood: fierce tenderness, a body used as a shield. Aspect ratio 3:2.

Artifact watch: keep cub faces small and partly hidden (multiple small faces melt); lion's face turned down/away to avoid symmetry test; verify one light direction across mane, ground shadow, and the cubs' single catchlight; no human-made text.

3. "Late" (cheetah racing for the shelter)

Speed + dread + a ticking clock. Carries TEXT/UI risk — handle deliberately.

Documentary action still, Sony A1, 300mm f/2.8, panning shot at 1/60s — the cheetah razor-sharp, the background streaked with horizontal motion blur. A lone cheetah sprints at full extension across open ground toward a concrete bomb-shelter entrance at the right edge of frame, body stretched mid-stride, claws throwing up dust. Low evening sky behind: incoming rocket trails and one distant Iron Dome airburst on the upper left. The warm airburst plus a red emergency strobe over the shelter door are the motivated lights — red urgency glow on the near side of the cheetah, warm orange rim from the sky behind, deep teal dusk between them. Texture: spotted coat with individual sunlit hairs along the back, dust plume frozen at the paws, sweat-sheen and strain in the muscles, sharp focus locked on the eye. A single small illuminated sign over the shelter reads "SHELTER" in plain bold uppercase letters. Composition: strong leading line of the dust trail and the streaked background driving left-to-right toward the door; the cheetah placed on the left third running into the open right space. Mood: adrenaline, almost-too-late. Aspect ratio 16:9.

Artifact watch: the ONLY rendered text is the short uppercase word "SHELTER" — keep it that short or composite it in post; do NOT add a numeric countdown clock with the model (digits garble) — add any "red alert" timer/UI as a separate composite layer afterward, or replace with the wordless red strobe. Verify the panning blur is only on the background, cheetah edges crisp.

4. STRETCH — "Take Cover" (baboon shielding its head)

The riskiest. Primate hands + face = the two most-penalized artifacts. Shoot to hide them; plan to inpaint.

Documentary still, Canon EOS R5, 85mm f/2, 1/320s, ISO 3200, fine grain. A baboon crouches low against a concrete wall in the foreground, seen from a three-quarter rear angle, hunched with both forearms wrapped down over the back of its head and neck in a protective huddle — the head tucked and turned away from camera, face hidden. Behind, a night sky with an Iron Dome airburst blooming orange-white on the upper right, smoke trails rising. The airburst is the single key light, raking down over the baboon's hunched back and arms, deep shadow beneath. Warm rim on the fur against cool teal night. Texture: dense backlit fur strands across the shoulders and arms, dust on the coat, the concrete's pitted surface and grime. Composition: the curled body as a tight protective ball, the threatening sky as negative space above. Mood: primal terror, the instinct to cover the skull. Aspect ratio 4:5.

Artifact watch (critical): the rear three-quarter angle + tucked head HIDES the face; forearms-over-head reads the gesture WITHOUT showing fingers clearly. Still inspect hand/paw edges at 100% and inpaint the paws (denoise 0.4) if fingers fuse. If a clear primate face is wanted, expect a second inpaint pass on the face. This is a refine-heavily shot, not a one-shot.

Series notes

• Consistency across the set: keep the same film/grain, the same teal-orange airburst-as-key logic, and 3:2 / 16:9 so they read as one body of work even if used apart.
• Range counter-move: if Yuval wants more than 1–2 of these in the final 10, vary the discipline — e.g. one as a tight macro (a sparrow on a nest with the sky reflected in its eye), one as wide environmental scale (a lone elephant dwarfed under a sky of trails — the awe/sublime lever), one near-abstract (only smoke trails and blooms as a composition). That preserves the theme while spreading across the Range criterion.
• Reve execution: lock composition first, render native 4K, then edit single weak nodes (a paw, the "SHELTER" sign) rather than re-rolling — see 06.