Hello, and welcome to the first in a series of guides designed to explore the various features and options of Leonardo AI and other AI art tools. In this guide, we will explore how to create hyper-realistic images using Leonardo AI. Whether you’re a seasoned digital artist or new to the AI art experience, this guide will teach you how to use Leonardo AI realistic prompts and unlock the full potential of the AI tool.
Introduction
So, how does it work in practice? Before I show you how to do that, let’s review the magic words that make images ‘come alive’ with realism. When developing your prompts, be sure to include the following terms:
1. Photorealistic
2. Hyper-detailed
3. Ultra-high resolution
4. 8K
5. Lifelike
6. Textured
7. Volumetric lighting
8. Ray tracing
9. Depth of field
10. Cinematic
But you can take it even further than that: try using words like ‘studio lighting,’ ‘high-definition,’ ‘sharp focus,’ or even ‘photogrammetry.’
We’re going to get our hands dirty now and dive into the details of Leonardo AI’s presets and how to apply them to create images so real you’ll forget that you’re looking at an AI.
Understanding Leonardo AI Presets for Hyper-Realism
Leonardo AI ships with several presets intended to help you realize different looks and levels of realism. Here they are one by one:
Cinematic Kino Preset
This preset is what you use to create images that look like the cutting-room floor of a big-budget movie. Dramatic scenes, haunting portraits, anything with that Tinseltown feel.
Example prompts:
- A single astronaut is walking on Mars. Extreme resolution, cinematic lighting, depth of field, volumetric dust, 8K quality
- Cyberpunk street scene at night, lights, hyperdetailed, raytracing, cinematic composition
- Two lovers entwined in the rain, shot from behind, with a street lamp behind, cinematic style, shallow depth of field, 8K resolution.
Leonardo AI Realistic Prompts for Portrait Perfect Preset
This preset is recommended for creating portraits with the most realistic effect possible, including headshots, character profiles, or when the subject of an image is someone’s face.
Example prompts:
- Close-up portrait of a freckled teenager with bright blue eyes, natural soft lighting, hyper-detailed skin texture, 8K resolution.
- Profile view of a pensioner with a long white beard, side lighting, ultra-high resolution, textured skin.
- Portrait of a smiling woman with vitiligo, golden hour lighting, photorealistic skin details, and depth of field.
Stock Photography Preset
This preset creates images that could be mistaken for something from a stock photo library. Perfect for lifestyle shots or anything that needs to look more business-like.
Example prompts:
- Diverse coworkers are sharing an open space in a modern office, natural light, depth of field, lifelike expressions, and 8K detail.
- Family having a picnic in a sunny park, bokeh background, ultra-high resolution, genuine smiles, photorealistic.
- Close-up of the hands typing on a laptop keyboard, shallow depth of field, soft inside lighting, hyper-detailed.
Leonardo Lightning Preset
This preset is all about dramatic lighting and atmosphere. Use it to edit your images to have dramatic contrast, moody ambiance, or striking light.
Example prompts:
- Lighting hits a single tree in an open field. Volumetric lighting. High contrast. Ultra-high resolution. Moody feel.
- Sunbeams pierce storm clouds over a mountain range – ray tracing – cinematic – 8K resolution.
- Bioluminescent waves are crashing on the beach, and there is a night-time ethereal glow, volumetric lighting, and a photorealistic water texture.
Leonardo AI Realistic Prompts for Phoenix Preset
The Phoenix preset is your wild card. It’s particularly good for creating surreal and fantastical images that still feel real. Use it when you want to get a little crazy.
Example prompts:
- A phoenix from the ashes, quintillion-polygons, volumetric lighting, ray tracing, 8K UHD resolution, photorealistic skin …and so on.
- “Underwater city with bioluminescent architecture, ultra-high resolution, volumetric lighting, lifelike aquatic life”
- Floating islands, pastel sky, photorealistic undergrowth, ray-traced clouds, depth of field, cinematic composition.
Mastering Leonardo AI Realistic Prompts Using PhotoReal Model
But now we get to the fun part: because Leonardo AI’s PhotoReal model is the real cherry on your hyper-realistic sundae. It’s available for the Cinematic Kino, Portrait Perfect, and Stock Photography presets – and can take your images to the next level of realism.
Just flip the PhotoReal model on when using one of these presets. It works by refining the detail and texture in your image to make it even more realistic. Pro tip: when using PhotoReal, try to be even more specific in your prompts. The more detail you give, the better the model will be able to understand what you’re picturing.
So, for example, rather than ‘portrait of a woman,’ you might go for ‘detail portrait of a middle-aged woman aged 45-55 with auburn hair, subtle smile lines, and green eyes, soft ambient lighting, ultra-high resolution, photographic skin texture’.
Some more PhotoReal-specific prompts to try:
- Hyper-realistic close-up of a human eye, with a cityscape reflected in it, able to capture the smallest details of the iris, photorealistic textures, 8K resolution.
- The details of the athlete in repose, muscle definition, sweat on the skin, intense expression, studio lights, and ultra-high resolution are included.
- Macro shot of butterfly wing, photorealistic scales, depth of field, sunlight, 8K detail.
Legacy Mode: Generating Realistic Images
It might sound like an antiquated feature, but there are still a few tricks up its sleeve. Switching on the ‘PhotoReal’ model option when running Legacy Mode will give the image realism, especially if you want to have a bit more control over what your final output looks like.
Legacy Mode is just right when you need to generate images with a little more predictability (perhaps you want something a little more repeatable to replicate a style in several images) or when you want to tap into the power of Leonardo AI’s image generation, but your old friend is good enough for the task at hand.
Try these Legacy Mode prompts:
- Photorealistic still life of fruit in a wooden bowl, soft window light, textured surfaces, 8K resolution.
- “Hyper-detailed landscape of a misty forest at dawn, ray-traced sunbeams, volumetric fog, ultra-high resolution.”
- Close-up of weathered hands holding delicate flowers, shallow depth of field, natural lighting, textural skin.
Crafting the Perfect Prompts
Ok, prompts: this is where the magic happens, people. A good prompt can be the difference between a ho-hum image and one that blows people’s minds. Here are some suggestions:
1. Be detailed: The more detail, the better. Don’t say a cat’, say ‘a fluffy orange tabby cat with green eyes and a white-tipped tail.’
2. Describe the scene in detail: Use descriptive words such as ‘glistening,’ ‘weatherbeaten,’ ‘vivid,’ or ‘muted’ to give your image a sense of texture.
3. Talk about the light and ambiance: Words like ‘golden hour lighting,’ ‘moody shadows,’ or ‘soft diffused light’ can completely alter the tone of your picture.
4. Throw in a few technical words: 8K resolution, ray tracing, depth of field, and the list goes on. You want it to be as realistic as possible.
5. Call out real-world styles: You can ask the AI to emulate a particular style – for example, ‘in the style of Annie Leibovitz’ or ‘like a National Geographic cover.’
6. Describe in layers: Begin with a statement about the subject, followed by more details about the setting, lighting, and atmosphere.
7. Try new camera angles: ‘Bird’s eye view,’ ‘extreme close-up,’ and ‘low angle shot’ can each provide an unusual view of the subject.
Remember, this is literally what the AI ‘sees,’ so the more guidance you give it about its task, the better it will be at achieving your goal. Some examples of layered, detailed prompts:
- A lighthouse perched on a rocky point. The storm reaches its peak. The lightning flickers aggressively. Long shadows and volumetric light. Realistic water textures. UHD resolution. Wide shot. Moody.
- Close-up portrait of an aged Tibetan monk. Wise older man with a weather-beaten face. Soft light with fine detail showing every wrinkle and pore. Ultrahigh-resolution. Soft color pallet, shallow depth of field with focus on eyes.
- A humming futuristic market in the domed city on Mars. Signs in various alien languages. Different alien lifeforms mixed with human colonists. Ray-traced reflections on metallic surfaces. Volumetric light streaming through the dome. 8K resolution, photorealistic textures, cinematic composition.
Practical Applications
Now you have some realistic photos generated with Leonardo AI – what do you do next? Here are some ideas of what you can do with the image generated by Leonardo AI:
1. Stock Photography: The Stock Photography preset will produce images that you can use for your own projects or sell in your own stock photo storefront. Images of busy business meetings, lifestyle shots, or just conceptual images that never go away.
2. YouTube thumbnails: Thumbnails should be the best they can be in terms of realism to make you stand out from the other noise and show dramatic scenes or atmospheric portraits that relate to the subject of your video.
3. Blog Post Images: If your blog has a particular aesthetic, an image that suits your content is icing on the cake. Imagine a tech blog with a retro-future look or a travel blog with exotic images. I guarantee you’ll be amazed at how useful Leonardo AI is.
4. Social Media Content: Design beautiful images for your feeds and social media that will ‘stop the scroll’ and look professional and attractive. Find yourself a style or theme for your brand.
5. Book Covers: Create your own believable, better-than-stock photo cover for your self-publishing needs — or your clients.
6. Concept Art: With Leonardo AI, game developers and film producers can create realistic concept art for characters, environments, and props instantaneously.
7. Digital Art Prints: Give your artwork digital expression with vibrant digital art prints. Digitally enhance landscapes, portraits, or abstracts with rich detail.
8. Textbooks, Online Courses, and Educational Websites: Make functional diagrams or illustrations for real textbooks, online courses, or educational websites.
Tips and Tricks for Hyper-Realistic Image Generation
You now know all of the basic rules of Leonardo AI, but how can you take these skills to the next level? HERE ARE SOME PRO TIPS:
1. Lighting: Play with it. The golden hour. Dramatic chiaroscuro. Soft studio lighting. Whatever. Play.
2. Composition: Give the AI directives using terms such as ‘the rule of thirds’, ‘leading lines,’ or ‘symmetry.’
3. Set the mood: Adjectives like ‘misty,’ ‘hazy,’ and ‘crisp clear day’ create atmosphere.
4. Background, background, background: And the background too. Even if your object is the focus, background details ground it – and the viewer – in reality.
5. Try a camera view: ‘Low angle shot,’ ‘bird’s eye view,’ and ‘extreme close-up’ are all cue cards for viewing the scene from a different angle.
6. ‘Stack’ your prompts: basic facts, atmosphere, mood, light, then the technical bits.
7. Reference images: You can’t embed images directly into Leonardo AI, but you can describe images or styles of art that you already have.
8. Play with color: make reference to specific color palettes or color theories, such as ‘complementary colours’ or ‘monochromatic blue scheme’ in your prompts.
FAQ Section
Q: What are the best keywords for creating realistic images in Leonardo AI?
A: The top keywords for realistic images in Leonardo AI are ‘photorealistic,’ ‘hyper-detailed,’ ‘ultra-high resolution,’ ‘8K’, ‘lifelike,’ ‘textured,’ ‘volumetric lighting,’ ‘ray tracing,’ and ‘depth of field.’
Q: How do I use the PhotoReal model in Leonardo AI?
A: To use the PhotoReal model in Leonardo AI, toggle it on when using the Cinematic Kino, Portrait Perfect, or Stock Photography preset. The more precise you are in your instructions, the better the result will be with PhotoReal.
Q: What is the Cinematic Kino preset in Leonardo AI used for?
A: The Cinematic Kino preset in Leonardo AI can give your photos a look like they came straight from a movie with a 50 million budget. Perfect for dramatic scenes, moody portraits, and anything else that needs a Hollywood touch.
Q: Can Leonardo’s AI create hyper-realistic portraits?
A: Sure, you can get Leonardo AI to do hyper-realistic portraits using the Portrait Perfect preset combined with the PhotoReal model and detailed text prompts describing facial features and lighting.
Q: What’s the difference between Legacy Mode and other presets in Leonardo AI?
A: In Legacy Mode, the outputs of Leonardo AI can be more predictable, and it can be used for reliable style recreation. It can even produce equally good synthetic but highly realistic images, depending on the task’s difficulty, particularly if the PhotoReal model option is used.
Q: How can I improve my prompts for realistic images in Leonardo AI?
A: To create better prompts for realistic images in Leonardo AI, get specific and descriptive, include lighting and atmosphere, include technical terms such as ‘8K resolution’, start with the subject, and add details about the environment and mood.
Q: I can create realistic pics with Leonardo AI, but can I edit them?
A: Yes, you can edit the realistic images created with Leonardo AI using external software such as Photoshop or GIMP for further touchups or specifications.
Conclusion
And that’s it! Your recipe to create realistic images with Leonardo AI. From selecting the best presets to crafting the perfect prompt, you are now ready to create images that are so realistic that people will hardly know whether they’re looking at a photo or an AI image.
The guidance is to explore, explore, explore. Don’t be afraid to play, to mix techniques in new ways, to take this system in new directions. The more you work with Leonardo AI, the more you’ll discover what works for you, what kind of voice it fosters, and what kind of help it can afford you.
Remember that you are using an AI. Your creativity and your vision are what bring the image to life and make it beautiful. Use Leonardo AI as an extension for inspiration – and not a replacement. Often, the most powerful images are a merger of AI capabilities and creativity.
But come back to Leonardo AI straight away because the field of AI image-making is changing fast, and new possibilities are cropping up all the time. Hang out with fellow artists online, keep an eye on our official social media channels, and share your work!
Hence, fire up Leonardo AI and generate mind-bogglingly realistic pictures; your next AI-imaginary ‘work of art’ could be just one prompt away. Go crazy and generate amazing AI pictures! The sky is the limit.
Leave a Reply