Most weak Stable Diffusion outputs come from weak prompt structure, not from picking the wrong buzzword.
A cleaner prompt pattern
Use this order:
- subject
- medium
- setting
- camera or framing
- lighting
- style
- negative prompt
When to stop adding detail
If a prompt starts fighting itself, shorten it. More adjectives do not always mean better control.
When to switch to image-to-image
Switch when:
- composition is more important than novelty
- you already have a useful draft
- text-only prompting keeps drifting
From there, the image-to-image guide becomes more useful than adding another line of prompt text.
Templates to start from
The Stable Diffusion prompts page has 20 prompts in this order, from cinematic portraits to product shots and posters. Its four style templates carry a negative prompt as well.