DALL-E prompt ideas: photography

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Get DALL-E to generate the photos you want with these creative prompt ideas.

🛑 Remember, photorealistic images of human faces should not be shared.

Autochrome

Early colour photography process used between 1900 and 1930: greens and pinks tend to pop, while oranges and blues are often faded.

Autochrome photo of an alien flowers, extraterrestrial biology.

Autochrome photo of an alien flowers, extraterrestrial biology.

Autochrome photo of a pink Cadillac on the streets of Berlin.

Autochrome photo of a pink Cadillac on the streets of Berlin.

Autochrome photo of a woman in a red dress, weeding a garden.

Autochrome photo of a woman in a red dress, weeding a garden.

CCTV and surveillance

Not DALL-E’s favourite genre, but try terms like CCTV, security, footage, recording, dashcam, surveillance, grainy, black-and-white to create ‘evidential’ images. For narrative purposes only, of course!

Grainy low-res dashcam footage of elephant blocking the street, car dashcam recording.

Grainy low-res dashcam footage of elephant blocking the street, car dashcam recording.

Surveillance footage of an empty supermarket at night, black-and-white recording.

Surveillance footage of an empty supermarket at night, black-and-white recording.

Grainy, black-and-white security footage of a grizzly bear in a mall.

Grainy, black-and-white security footage of a grizzly bear in a mall.

Daguerrotype

The first publicly available photographic process, widely used during the 1840s and 1850s.

‘Daguerreotype portrait of a playful kitten.’

‘Daguerreotype portrait of a playful kitten.’

Daguerreotype still life of a student's desk with laptop, in front of a window.

Daguerreotype still life of a student's desk with laptop, in front of a window.

Daguerreotype portrait of a vintage robot drinking tea.

Daguerreotype portrait of a vintage robot drinking tea.

Disposable camera

Creates lower-quality, oddly-composed photos: often provides film grain, vigenette effects, camera flash and amateur framing. Fun!

Making a purple smoothie in a blender, photograph from a disposable camera.

Making a purple smoothie in a blender, photograph from a disposable camera.

Shadowy figure in hotel corridor, photograph from disposable camera.

Shadowy figure in hotel corridor, photograph from disposable camera.

A skateboarding meerkat, photograph from disposable camera.

A skateboarding meerkat, photograph from disposable camera.

Double exposure