Skip to main content
All CollectionsGenerating images
How can I optimize photographic terminology in prompts?
How can I optimize photographic terminology in prompts?
Christopher John avatar
Written by Christopher John
Updated over a year ago

Pencil can interpret a range of photographic terminology and although it can’t be guaranteed that generated images will reflect precisely what's included in your prompt, its use broadens your creative potential when generating images.

You can define lenses or focal lengths as well as aperture values, e.g.

  • ‘an 85mm lens set to f1.8’ or simply ‘an 85mm f1.8 lens’.

For greater depth of field using, for example, a 28mm focal length you might define

  • ‘28mm f8’.

Aperture format f/8 would also be acceptable

You can also simply define a ‘shallow depth of field’ or ‘wide angle lens’ or ‘portrait lens’ for example. You can refer to 'bokeh' (the particular quality of the out of focus areas of an image).

You can also include in your prompt, for example, ‘taken on a smartphone’, or ‘taken on an iPhone 16 Pro’.

Here are some articles linked to specific photographic terminology:

Did this answer your question?