100 ChatGPT visual codes

🧠 How to actually use one

Every code here goes in the same place, right after what you want a picture of:

[what you want a picture of], shot as a [code], [one more code if you want]

For example: a flat white coffee on a wooden table, shot as a flat lay, soft window light. Same coffee, completely different picture to the one you would have got. And it works just as well on ideas as on objects: explain compound interest, as a comic book explainer.

🎬 The four you already saw

1. drone view Straight down from high above. Makes anything look designed: a table, a street, a beach.
2. worm view Camera on the floor looking up. Makes a person or a building look powerful and huge.
3. fish eye Bulging wide lens, curved edges. Skate video energy, fun and a bit chaotic.
4. nighttime flash Harsh direct flash in the dark. Party photo, slightly blown out, very now.

📐 Camera angle, where the camera is standing

1. drone view Straight down from high above. Makes anything look designed: a table, a street, a beach.
2. worm view Camera on the floor looking up. Makes a person or a building look powerful and huge.
3. fish eye Bulging wide lens, curved edges. Skate video energy, fun and a bit chaotic.
4. bird's eye view High and looking down, but not vertical like a drone. Good for showing where things sit.
5. low angle Slightly below eye line. The cheapest way to make a subject look confident.
6. high angle Slightly above, looking down. Makes a subject look smaller or younger.
7. dutch angle Tilted horizon. Instant unease, good for tension.
8. over the shoulder From behind someone, looking at what they see. Great for screens and conversations.
9. first person POV As if through your own eyes, hands sometimes in frame. Very native to Reels.
10. flat lay Perfectly top down on a surface. The default for products, food and desk shots.
11. three quarter view Turned 45 degrees. The most flattering angle for faces and products.
12. profile shot Straight from the side. Editorial and a bit cold.
13. extreme close up Fills the frame with one detail: an eye, a texture, a logo.
14. wide establishing shot Shows the whole space before you go close. Opens a sequence.

🔭 Lens and focus, what the camera is wearing

1. 85mm portrait lens Compressed, flattering, blurred background. The portrait default.
2. 24mm wide lens Takes in the whole room. Slight stretch at the edges.
3. telephoto compression Background looks closer and bigger than it really is. Very filmic.
4. tilt shift Makes a real scene look like a tiny model.
5. anamorphic lens Wide cinema frame with horizontal flares. Reads as expensive.
6. shallow depth of field Subject sharp, everything else soft.
7. creamy bokeh Background lights melt into soft circles.
8. macro lens Microscopically close. Skin, fabric, droplets, powder.
9. long exposure Moving things smear, still things stay sharp. Light trails and silky water.

💡 Lighting, the one that changes everything

1. nighttime flash Harsh direct flash in the dark. Party photo, slightly blown out, very now.
2. golden hour Low warm sun just after sunrise or before sunset. Forgiving and nostalgic.
3. blue hour Just after sunset. Deep blue sky, lights starting to glow.
4. rim lighting A bright outline behind the subject that separates them from the background.
5. backlit Light behind the subject. Halos, haze, silhouettes.
6. hard noon sun Short sharp shadows, high contrast. Harsh and modern.
7. softbox lighting Even studio light, almost no shadow. Clean product look.
8. window light Soft directional daylight from one side. Looks like a nice flat on a good day.
9. candlelight Warm, flickering, very low. Intimate and old.
10. neon lighting Coloured signage light on skin. Night city.
11. split lighting Half the face lit, half in shadow. Dramatic.
12. rembrandt lighting Small triangle of light on the shadowed cheek. Classic portraiture.
13. silhouette Subject fully dark against a bright background. Shape only.
14. overcast light Flat grey daylight. Honest, unglamorous, good for real-life shots.
15. high key Bright, airy, almost no shadows. Clean and commercial.
16. low key Mostly darkness with one light source. Moody.
17. god rays Visible shafts of light through dust or trees.
18. practical lights in frame Lamps, screens and signs doing the lighting, visible in shot.

🎞️ Film stock and era, where it looks like it came from

1. 35mm film grain Real photographic grain. Softer, warmer, less digital.
2. polaroid Washed, square, soft focus, slight colour shift.
3. disposable camera Flash, grain, imperfect framing. Deliberately cheap looking.
4. VHS Scan lines, bleeding colour, timestamp. Nineties home video.
5. super 8 Flickery, warm, slightly jumpy. Family footage from the seventies.
6. black and white No colour. Forces you to think about light and shape.
7. sepia Brown toned. Old and warm.

🎨 Colour and grade, the mood dial

1. teal and orange grade The blockbuster look. Warm skin, cool shadows.
2. muted pastel palette Low saturation, soft tones. Calm and premium.
3. monochrome red One colour in every shade. Graphic and bold.
4. high contrast Deep blacks, bright whites. Punchy.
5. desaturated Colour pulled almost out. Serious and documentary.
6. warm tones Pushed towards amber. Cosy.
7. cool tones Pushed towards blue. Clinical or lonely.

🌫️ Weather and atmosphere, free production value

1. heavy fog Depth and mystery for nothing. Separates layers.
2. rain on glass Droplets and distortion between you and the subject.
3. wet streets at night Reflections double every light. The cheapest cinematic trick.
4. dust motes in the air Floating specks in a light beam. Makes a room feel lived in.
5. smoke haze Softens everything and makes light visible.
6. falling snow Movement and quiet at the same time.
7. golden dust in sunlight Warm particles drifting through a window beam.

🧱 Composition, where things sit in the frame

1. rule of thirds Subject off centre. Natural and easy to look at.
2. centred symmetry Dead centre, balanced both sides. Formal and calm.
3. negative space Lots of empty around the subject. Great when text goes on top.
4. leading lines Roads, rails or edges pulling the eye to the subject.
5. framed through a doorway Shooting through an opening. Adds depth and voyeurism.
6. reflection shot Through a mirror, puddle or window.
7. foreground obstruction Something blurred in front. Makes it feel candid and real.
8. tight crop Cut in hard. Removes all context, keeps emotion.
9. extreme wide Subject tiny in a huge space. Loneliness or scale.

🧵 Texture and material, how it feels to touch

1. matte finish No shine at all. Expensive and understated.
2. glossy finish Wet looking reflections. Loud and premium.
3. translucent Light passes through. Frosted glass, skin, petals.
4. paper cutout Flat layered shapes with real paper edges and shadows.
5. clay render Matte grey 3D with no colour. Looks like a design mockup.

🏃 Motion and the moment

1. freeze frame Everything stopped mid air. Splashes, jumps, hair.
2. panning blur Subject sharp, background streaked sideways. Speed.
3. mid action Caught doing, not posing. The single best fix for a stiff photo.
4. splash moment Liquid caught the instant it breaks.

🖼️ The whole vibe, when you want a genre not a setting

1. editorial fashion Styled, confident, a bit cold. Magazine spread.
2. documentary photography Unposed, real, slightly imperfect.
3. street photography Candid, found moments, natural light.
4. cinematic film still Looks like a frame paused from a film, not a photo.
5. product catalogue Clean, lit evenly, no distraction.
6. behind the scenes Shows the lights, the crew, the mess around the shot.

📚 Learning and explaining, when the picture has to teach something

1. comic book explainer Turns a concept into panels with characters and dialogue. Weirdly effective for anything abstract.
2. flashcards Front and back cards on one sheet. Term on one side, plain-English answer on the other.
3. infographic One topic, broken into labelled blocks with icons. The default for a carousel slide.
4. timeline Events along a line with dates. Instantly shows what came before what.
5. flowchart Boxes and arrows for a process. Shows the order and where it branches.
6. decision tree If this then that, drawn out. Great for anything with rules.
7. labelled diagram One object with lines pointing at every part. School textbook, and it works.
8. cheat sheet Everything on one page, dense, no fluff. Made to be screenshotted.
9. before and after Two states side by side. The fastest way to prove a point.
10. illustrated step by step Numbered panels, one action each. For anything someone has to follow along with.
11. mind map Central idea with branches. Shows how things connect rather than their order.
12. cross section cutaway Sliced open to show the inside. Perfect for how something actually works.
13. annotated screenshot A real interface with arrows and callouts on top. The most useful one for teaching software.
14. storyboard A sequence of frames with notes. Plan a video before you film it.

🥞 How to stack them without making mush

A photographer makes four decisions, and you can borrow all four. Pick one from each line, in this order, and stop:

1. 📐 Where is the camera? Low angle, flat lay, over the shoulder. This is the one that changes the picture most, so choose it first.
2. 💡 What is the light doing? Golden hour, nighttime flash, window light. This is the one that changes the feeling.
3. 🎞️ What was it shot on? 35mm film grain, polaroid, VHS. Only add this if you want it to feel like it came from a particular time.
4. 🎨 How is it graded? Muted pastel, teal and orange, desaturated. Last, and usually optional. If the first three are right you often do not need it.

💾 Make this actually useful

• 📌 Pick your ten. Nobody uses a hundred.
• 📱 Screenshot the lighting section. It is the one that earns its keep daily.
• 🔁 Keep one subject as your test image, a coffee, your product, your face, and run new codes against it so you can actually compare.