Prompt Engineering Playbook

AISTONE Content Team April 2025 12 min read

🎯 Why this playbook matters

🚀 Grammar foundations

Structure prompts so primary subjects and modifiers never get lost.

⚡ Weight control

Balance competing instructions with explicit weighting syntax.

🚫 Negative prompts

Eliminate artefacts, odd limbs, and unwanted styles with reusable filters.

🎨 Style fusion

Blend multiple artists, mediums, and lighting setups without losing cohesion.

📝 Prompt grammar essentials

1. Lead with the subject

Open with the primary noun phrase so the model locks onto your hero element.

✅ Correct: a cinematic portrait of a bioluminescent jellyfish
❌ Incorrect: cinematic, lighting, deep ocean, jellyfish portrait

2. Order modifiers by importance

Describe style, lighting, camera, and mood from most to least critical. This reduces conflicting signals and makes weight tuning easier.

3. Include context & action

Short clauses about location or motion (“in a rain-soaked alley”, “hovering above a neon city”) dramatically improve coherence, especially for cinematic shots.

⚖️ Weight control & syntax

Use weighting syntax to emphasise or downplay specific attributes. AISTONE supports both parenthetical weights and colon weights familiar to diffusion users.

((primary subject))::1.4, intricate filigree::1.2, depth of field::0.9, background ::0.5
  • 1.4+ — hero element, must-read instructions.
  • 1.0 — default priority for supporting descriptors.
  • < 1.0 — gentle hints; the model may ignore them if overwhelmed.

Combine weights with comma-separated structure. For multi-sentence prompts, restate the subject at least once so the model stays anchored.

🧼 Negative prompts that actually work

Instead of maintaining enormous blacklists, build focused negative prompt bundles per asset type. Start with this baseline for portraits:

negative prompt: blurry, distorted eyes, extra limbs, watermark, text logo, low contrast, exaggerated teeth

Maintain separate bundles for products (scratches, reflections), environments (tiling, stretched textures), and typography (warped lettering, bevel). Name them in your team documentation so everyone reuses the same guardrails.

🎨 Style blending workflows

  1. Establish the base medium. Photography, oil painting, cel-shaded illustration — pick one anchor to avoid muddy results.
  2. Add two complementary influences. Example: “shot on Kodak Portra 400” + “lighting by Gregory Crewdson”.
  3. Limit conflicting adjectives. “Minimalist” and “baroque” rarely work together unless intentionally juxtaposed.
  4. Use references sparingly. Link to mood boards or concept art only when necessary; otherwise rely on textual cues.

For iterative campaigns, log the final prompt + seed + reference assets so future shoots can recreate the signature look within minutes.

🛠️ Production checklist

  • Prompt repository: Store approved prompts in a shared doc with screenshots.
  • Versioning: Append campaign + model + iteration to filenames (e.g., `launch_flux_v3`).
  • Review log: Capture stakeholder comments and resolutions for future training.
  • Hand-off package: Provide prompt, seed, aspect ratio, and any upscaling notes to downstream teams.

Pair this checklist with AISTONE’s prompt history so anyone can trace how a hero image evolved from first draft to final delivery.