Settings and references

Set every setting, attach only approved anchors, give each image one job, and write in plain prose.

Reference rules [proven]:

• Attach only approved anchors and the source photos: the client's own product photos and artwork, and the chosen photos of a real person. Never a near-miss, a presentation frame or a frame from a take.

• Star, not chain. Attach the original anchors to every image, like the points of a star; never make an image from an image made from an image. For stills only, an approved earlier still of the same scene may join for continuity of set, light and positions, but only one made directly from the anchors, or from such a still: never a chain of three or more. It never supplies identity.

• Never a storyboard (decided), in any role. Read it and write its framing in words.

• No texture photo (decided). A sheet or plate whose skin, hair or fabric reads cheap is remade with better surface words.

• One ownership sentence per image, in order: what it owns and what to ignore.

• Aim for 4–6 images; about 8 is the warning line [proven]. Over it, drop the image whose subject isn't visible, or split the job. Cut from the bottom of this order first: identity close-ups of faces that read; their sheets; the product view shown; the plate; the hero prop in hand; the label close-up; a coverage or continuity plate; sheets of people seen small or from behind, who are then written in words.

Prompt style [official guidance]: Nano Banana Pro reads flowing prose in full sentences. No capitals section headers (those are for edit passes only), no keyword lists, no JSON.

1. Open with the result and its purpose in one sentence.

2. One ownership sentence per reference, in order.

3. The content, in the order each topic below gives.

4. Exact text in quotes, and say that no other text appears.

5. One short exclusion line at the end, naming instances of known failures only (a second person, a face in a mirror, a wristwatch), never categories and never something the image needs. Write the wanted state first ("an empty, deserted rooftop").

Writing rules

• Stand-alone: each prompt repeats what matters in full. Never "the same woman" or "same light".

• Length: about 80–150 words for simple jobs. Sheets, plates and frames run longer; keep every prompt under about 2,000 characters [best available, not yet validated], cutting description the references already carry.

• No quality tags [official guidance]: never "8K", "hyper-realistic", "masterpiece", "cinematic". Realism comes from light, material and imperfection words.

• No real person's name (decided), anywhere: the prompt, a file name the model sees, or any field.

• The light rule, in every prompt with light: flare, bloom, halation and glow only where the treatment asks, with a physical cause; materials reflect light and give off none unless they are real sources; no flash as a transition.

• The palette: by default, each leading colour named with its material, the light on it and where it sits, plus the colours that must not appear; the 60/30/10 split with placement when you or the brief ask for it; a lighting ratio where it helps. Sheets use a palette lock on the wardrobe instead.

• Every item of the still-prompt list is required (decided) on plates and internal frames. In Nano Banana Pro, write them as prose. Open with the context line: what the image serves, what the viewer should feel, and what it must make clear. Add one edge-control sentence: what each edge cuts, with nothing the shots need touching an edge. Keep two or three revision levers (the named changes you would try next) in your take log (see Planning, budgets and takes → Your take log), never in the prompt. The full list: Still prompts, storyboard frames and diagrams → The still-prompt structure. Sheets have no context line or edge sentence; they carry only the revision levers.

• Camera words for plates and frames only: height, distance, angle, field of view. Plates get no aperture or depth-of-field words, except the film's lens family. Sheets get no camera words.

• The scene's capture [proven] on internal and presentation frames, written as its visible result, never a camera brand (see Writing the treatment → The camera sheet).

• Write an identity lock [official guidance] on any image with a face. Write the role sentence. Then list the structures that must match: the eyes' shape and spacing, lids and brows, nose and lips, cheekbones and jaw, hairline, marks of age, natural asymmetry and any visible marks. Add one line keeping them as the close-up shows them, and one line forbidding any reshaping, slimming, ageing, beautifying, symmetrising or averaging. Soft wording isn't enough.

Sources

• Google's Nano Banana Pro prompting tips (full sentences, the five-character limit, no quality tags); Higgsfield's katana workflow (star, not chain; the reference budget).