Prompt Library

30 Best AI Photo Editing Prompts

30 copy-paste prompts

Upload a photo, paste a prompt, and let ChatGPT, Gemini, Nano Banana, or Grok do the editing — backgrounds, retouching, color grades, restyles, restorations, and viral transforms.

In short: This page contains 30 copy-paste ready prompts, organized into 6 categories with a description and pro tip for each. The first 15 prompts are free instantly — no signup needed. Hand-curated and tested by the AI Academy team.

By Louis Corneloup · Founder, Techpresso
Last updated ·Hand-curated & tested by the AI Academy team

Background Removal & Replacement

5 prompts

Clean Transparent Cutout

1/30

Edit [YOUR PHOTO]: cleanly remove the entire background and isolate the main subject on a fully transparent background. Preserve fine edge detail like hair strands, fur, and soft edges with natural anti-aliasing, no white halo or fringing. Keep the subject's original lighting, color, and proportions exactly intact. Output a high-resolution PNG with alpha transparency.

Produces a clean subject cutout on a transparent background ready for any composite.

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Pro tip: If edges look harsh, add 'feather the mask slightly for a natural blend' to the prompt.

Studio White Backdrop

2/30

Edit [YOUR PHOTO]: replace the background with a seamless pure-white studio backdrop (#FFFFFF) with a soft, even gradient and a subtle realistic ground shadow beneath the subject. Match the subject's lighting to a soft frontal key light so it sits naturally in the scene. Keep the subject sharp, uncropped, and unchanged.

Turns any photo into a clean e-commerce or catalog product shot on white.

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Pro tip: Swap #FFFFFF for any hex code to get a branded solid-color backdrop instead.

Scenic Location Swap

3/30

Edit [YOUR PHOTO]: keep the subject untouched but replace the background with a sun-drenched Santorini clifftop overlooking a deep blue sea at golden hour. Match the warm directional sunlight, color temperature, and shadow direction on the subject so the composite looks like a real photo taken on location. Add gentle atmospheric depth and a slightly blurred background for realistic depth of field.

Drops the subject into a believable new location with matched lighting.

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Pro tip: Describe the light direction ('sun from the left') so subject shadows stay consistent.

Blurred Bokeh Background

4/30

Edit [YOUR PHOTO]: keep the subject perfectly sharp and apply a smooth, creamy bokeh blur to the background as if shot on an 85mm f/1.4 lens. Create soft circular highlights, gradual depth falloff from the subject outward, and natural edge separation around the hair and shoulders. Do not blur or alter the subject.

Adds professional shallow depth-of-field to a flat phone snapshot.

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Pro tip: Increase realism by asking for 'soft circular bokeh from background light sources'.

Solid Brand Color Backdrop

5/30

Edit [YOUR PHOTO]: cut out the subject and place them on a flat solid background in deep teal (#0F766E) with soft studio lighting and a faint contact shadow at their feet. Keep the subject's edges crisp and natural, preserve original skin tones, and center the composition with comfortable negative space around the subject.

Creates an on-brand portrait or headshot against a single solid color.

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Pro tip: Pair the hex code with a complementary rim light to make the subject pop.

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Professional Retouch

5 prompts

Natural Skin Retouch

6/30

Edit [YOUR PHOTO]: perform a subtle professional skin retouch on the subject. Even out skin tone, reduce temporary blemishes and redness, and soften harsh shadows while keeping natural skin texture, pores, and freckles fully visible. Do not airbrush, do not change face shape, age, or identity. The result should look like flattering natural light, not plastic.

Delivers a magazine-quality but believable skin retouch that keeps texture.

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Pro tip: Add 'keep all natural skin texture' to avoid the over-smoothed plastic look.

Headshot Polish

7/30

Edit [YOUR PHOTO]: turn this into a polished professional LinkedIn-style headshot. Brighten and balance exposure, add a soft flattering key light on the face, whiten teeth and eyes naturally, tidy stray hairs, and gently sharpen the eyes. Keep clothing, identity, and expression unchanged. Output a crisp, high-resolution portrait.

Upgrades a casual photo into a corporate-ready headshot.

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Pro tip: Specify 'keep my expression and identity exactly' so the face stays recognizable.

Teeth & Eyes Brightening

8/30

Edit [YOUR PHOTO]: naturally brighten the subject's smile and eyes. Whiten the teeth without making them unrealistically bright, reduce eye redness, lift the whites of the eyes slightly, and add a subtle catchlight for life. Avoid any halo or unnatural glow, and leave the rest of the photo unchanged.

Makes a smile and gaze look fresh and awake without obvious editing.

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Pro tip: Keep it subtle — overdone teeth whitening reads as fake, so ask for 'realistic, slight'.

Wrinkle & Garment Cleanup

9/30

Edit [YOUR PHOTO]: clean up the subject's clothing by removing wrinkles, lint, stray threads, and creases, and smooth the fabric so it looks freshly pressed. Keep the garment's color, pattern, fit, and texture exactly the same. Do not alter the body shape or the background.

Tidies up wrinkled or messy clothing for a sharp, put-together look.

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Pro tip: Mention the fabric type ('cotton shirt') so texture and folds stay realistic.

Flattering Studio Lighting

10/30

Edit [YOUR PHOTO]: relight the subject with soft, flattering studio lighting — a large key light at 45 degrees, gentle fill to open shadows, and a subtle rim light to separate the subject from the background. Smooth uneven exposure across the face, recover blown highlights, and keep skin tones warm and natural.

Replaces flat or harsh lighting with professional portrait lighting.

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Pro tip: Change the key light angle ('butterfly lighting') to restyle the mood of the shot.

Color Grading & Film Looks

5 prompts

Cinematic Teal & Orange

11/30

Edit [YOUR PHOTO]: apply a cinematic teal-and-orange color grade. Push shadows toward cool teal, keep skin tones warm and orange, add gentle film contrast, lift the blacks slightly for a filmic fade, and finish with a subtle vignette. Keep the edit realistic and balanced — graded like a feature film still, not oversaturated.

Gives the photo a blockbuster, color-graded movie-still aesthetic.

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Pro tip: Ask to 'protect skin tones' so faces don't turn orange when you push the grade.

Warm 35mm Film Look

12/30

Edit [YOUR PHOTO]: emulate the look of warm Kodak Portra 400 35mm film. Add soft warm tones, gentle highlight roll-off, subtle grain, slightly muted greens, creamy skin tones, and a faint vintage halation around bright areas. Keep it natural and nostalgic without crushing detail in the shadows.

Recreates the soft, warm tones of classic 35mm color film.

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Pro tip: Swap in 'Fuji Superia' or 'Cinestill 800T' to get a different film stock vibe.

Moody Dark & Desaturated

13/30

Edit [YOUR PHOTO]: create a moody, cinematic atmosphere. Deepen the shadows, desaturate the overall palette while keeping a single accent color rich, add cool blue tones to the midtones, lower the highlights, and apply a soft vignette. The mood should feel dramatic and editorial, not muddy.

Transforms a flat image into a dark, atmospheric editorial mood.

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Pro tip: Name the accent color you want to keep vivid ('keep the red coat saturated').

Bright & Airy Lifestyle

14/30

Edit [YOUR PHOTO]: apply a bright, airy lifestyle color grade. Lift the exposure and shadows for a soft glow, reduce contrast slightly, add warm pastel tones, brighten whites, and give the image a clean, fresh, light-filled feel popular with lifestyle bloggers. Keep skin tones natural and avoid blowing out highlights.

Produces a soft, luminous, light-and-airy aesthetic for lifestyle content.

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Pro tip: Dial back if it looks washed out — ask for 'retain detail in the highlights'.

Vintage Faded Retro

15/30

Edit [YOUR PHOTO]: give it a faded retro 1970s look. Wash out the blacks with a milky lifted shadow, add warm yellow-amber tones, reduce saturation, introduce subtle grain and light leaks in one corner, and slightly soften the focus. Keep the composition and subject unchanged.

Adds a nostalgic, sun-faded vintage film aesthetic.

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Pro tip: Control the intensity by specifying 'subtle' or 'heavy' faded shadows.

Object Add & Remove

5 prompts

Remove Unwanted Object

16/30

Edit [YOUR PHOTO]: remove the [DESCRIBE OBJECT — e.g. trash can, photobomber, power lines] from the scene and seamlessly fill the space with matching background. Reconstruct textures, shadows, and patterns so there is no trace of the removed object, and keep the rest of the image pixel-identical. The result should look like the object was never there.

Cleanly erases a distracting object and rebuilds the background behind it.

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Pro tip: Be specific about what to remove and where it is in the frame for accuracy.

Remove People from Background

17/30

Edit [YOUR PHOTO]: remove all the people in the background while keeping the main subject in the foreground completely untouched. Reconstruct the empty scenery, architecture, and ground naturally where the people were standing, matching perspective and lighting. The location should look empty and quiet.

Clears crowds and bystanders out of a travel or portrait shot.

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Pro tip: Say 'keep the person in the foreground' explicitly so the subject is preserved.

Add a Realistic Object

18/30

Edit [YOUR PHOTO]: add a [DESCRIBE OBJECT — e.g. steaming cup of coffee] onto the table in front of the subject. Match the scene's perspective, scale, lighting direction, and color temperature, and add a realistic contact shadow and reflections so it looks naturally part of the photo. Do not change anything else in the image.

Inserts a new object into the scene with believable lighting and shadows.

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Pro tip: Name where it sits and how big it is so scale and perspective stay correct.

Erase Text, Logos & Watermarks

19/30

Edit [YOUR PHOTO]: remove any visible text, signage, brand logos, or watermarks from the image and reconstruct the underlying surface — wall, fabric, or background — so the area looks clean and natural. Match the surrounding texture and lighting exactly, and leave the subject and composition otherwise unchanged.

Removes distracting text and branding while keeping surfaces intact.

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Pro tip: Only remove content you have the rights to edit out of your own photo.

Swap an Element

20/30

Edit [YOUR PHOTO]: replace the [ORIGINAL ELEMENT — e.g. plain blue mug] with a [NEW ELEMENT — e.g. white ceramic mug with a gold rim], matching the original position, size, perspective, and lighting. Blend the new element so its shadows and reflections are consistent with the scene, and keep everything else in the photo the same.

Substitutes one object for another while preserving the scene around it.

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Pro tip: Describe both the original and the replacement clearly to avoid the wrong swap.

Restyle to Art Mediums

5 prompts

Watercolor Painting

21/30

Restyle [YOUR PHOTO] into a delicate watercolor painting. Use soft translucent washes, visible paper texture, gentle color bleeds at the edges, loose brush strokes, and pooled pigment in the shadows. Keep the subject clearly recognizable and the composition intact while embracing the soft, hand-painted look.

Reimagines the photo as a soft, hand-painted watercolor artwork.

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Pro tip: Add 'on cold-press paper' or 'with visible brush strokes' to control the texture.

Pencil Sketch

22/30

Restyle [YOUR PHOTO] into a detailed graphite pencil sketch. Render it in fine hand-drawn lines with cross-hatching for shadows, soft shading for midtones, and white paper showing through the highlights. Keep the subject's likeness and proportions accurate while giving it an artistic, sketched-by-hand feel.

Converts the photo into a realistic hand-drawn pencil drawing.

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Pro tip: Specify 'charcoal' or 'colored pencil' to switch the drawing medium entirely.

Oil Painting Portrait

23/30

Restyle [YOUR PHOTO] into a classical oil painting portrait. Use rich impasto brush strokes, deep warm tones, dramatic chiaroscuro lighting reminiscent of Rembrandt, and visible canvas texture. Keep the subject recognizable while rendering skin, fabric, and background as thick, layered oil paint.

Turns a portrait into a museum-style classical oil painting.

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Pro tip: Reference a painter ('in the style of Rembrandt') to steer the mood and palette.

Anime / Manga Illustration

24/30

Restyle [YOUR PHOTO] into a clean anime illustration. Use bold confident line art, cel-shaded flat colors, expressive large eyes, simplified backgrounds, and soft anime lighting. Keep the subject's hairstyle, outfit, and key features recognizable while translating everything into a polished Japanese animation style.

Reimagines the subject as a polished anime or manga character.

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Pro tip: Mention 'cel shading' vs 'soft shading' to control how stylized it looks.

Pop Art Poster

25/30

Restyle [YOUR PHOTO] into a bold Andy Warhol-style pop art poster. Use flat blocks of high-saturation color, halftone dot shading, thick black outlines, and a graphic two-to-four color palette. Keep the subject clearly identifiable while giving it a punchy, screen-printed retro poster look.

Transforms the photo into a vibrant, graphic pop-art poster.

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Pro tip: Pick a tight color palette ('pink, yellow, cyan') for the cleanest pop-art effect.

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Restore, Upscale & Viral Transforms

5 prompts

Restore Old Damaged Photo

26/30

Edit [YOUR PHOTO]: restore this old damaged photograph. Repair scratches, tears, creases, stains, and missing areas, reduce noise and dust, and reconstruct faded or torn details naturally. Preserve the original composition, faces, and era-accurate look — do not modernize clothing or features. Keep it black-and-white if the original is.

Repairs a damaged vintage photo while keeping its original character.

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Pro tip: Tell it to 'keep faces and details period-accurate' so it doesn't invent features.

Colorize Black & White

27/30

Edit [YOUR PHOTO]: colorize this black-and-white photograph with realistic, period-appropriate colors. Use natural skin tones, believable clothing and fabric colors, and accurate environmental hues for the era. Keep the colorization subtle and historically plausible rather than oversaturated, and preserve all original detail and contrast.

Adds lifelike, era-accurate color to an old monochrome photo.

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Pro tip: Mention the decade ('1950s') so clothing and colors match the time period.

Upscale & Sharpen

28/30

Edit [YOUR PHOTO]: upscale this low-resolution image to high resolution. Sharpen fine details, recover texture in faces and fabric, reduce blur and compression artifacts, and clean up digital noise — all while keeping the result natural and free of over-sharpening halos or fake detail. Preserve the original colors and composition.

Increases resolution and clarity of a small or blurry image.

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Pro tip: Avoid over-processing — ask for 'no artificial detail or sharpening halos'.

90s Yearbook Portrait

29/30

Transform [YOUR PHOTO] into a nostalgic 1990s high-school yearbook portrait. Use a mottled blue-gray laser studio backdrop, soft frontal flash lighting, era-appropriate styling, slightly faded film colors, and a centered chest-up composition. Keep the subject's face fully recognizable while leaning into the retro yearbook aesthetic.

Recreates the viral retro 90s yearbook photo trend from your portrait.

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Pro tip: Keep the face recognizable — ask it to 'preserve my exact facial features'.

Action Figure in Blister Pack

30/30

Transform [YOUR PHOTO] into a collectible action figure of the subject, sealed inside retro toy blister packaging. Show the figure as a detailed plastic toy with articulated joints, place small accessory items beside it, and add a printed cardback header with a fun product name and brand logo. Keep the subject's likeness, outfit, and pose recognizable.

Turns the subject into the viral boxed action-figure toy trend.

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Pro tip: Add accessories that match the person's job or hobby for a personalized cardback.

Frequently Asked Questions

They are written to be tool-agnostic, so they work in any AI that accepts an uploaded image plus a text instruction. That includes ChatGPT (with image editing), Google Gemini and its Nano Banana image model, and Grok. The wording is plain enough that you can paste the same prompt into whichever tool you prefer.
Upload your photo to the AI tool, then copy the prompt and paste it as your message. Replace any bracketed placeholders like [YOUR PHOTO] context or [DESCRIBE OBJECT] with your actual details before sending. The AI returns an edited version you can download or refine further.
Image models can drift on identity, especially with heavy restyles. To prevent it, add a line like 'keep the subject's exact facial features and identity unchanged' to any prompt. If the result still drifts, regenerate or start from a clearer, higher-resolution source photo.
Yes — the object-removal prompts handle text, logos, watermarks, and bystanders, and reconstruct the background behind them. Only remove content from photos you own or have the rights to edit. Avoid removing watermarks from images you do not have permission to use.
Be specific: name the light direction, the exact object and where it sits, and the look you want. Start with a sharp, well-lit source photo, and edit in steps rather than asking for everything at once. If an edit misses, refine with a short follow-up like 'make the shadow softer' instead of rewriting the whole prompt.

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