Have you ever generated an AI portrait only to have it come back with an extra finger, a strange third eye, or a surreal background that completely ruins the mood? You’re not alone. While we spend so much time thinking about what we want in our prompts, the true secret to perfection often lies in what we don’t want. This is the art of the negative prompt.
Think of the negative prompt as your clean-up crew. It’s the list of things you tell the AI to avoid at all costs. It’s the silent director that ensures your vision stays on track. It’s just as important as the main prompt, especially with models like LeonardoAI and KlingAI, which can create hyper-realistic images that are often prone to subtle errors.
So, what should you include in your negative prompt list? I’ve spent a lot of time perfecting mine, and here’s a short list of common issues to banish:
- Anatomical Oddities:
extra fingers, deformed hands, mutated hands, multiple limbs, extra limbs, extra arms, fused fingers, malformed body, extra eyes. - Uncanny Valley Effects:
ugly, bad anatomy, bad quality, blurry, disfigured, poorly drawn, poorly lit, out of frame, out of focus. - Artistic Style Errors:
cartoon, anime, 3d render, CGI, watermark, text, signature.
For a portrait, the hands and fingers are the most common trouble spots. The AI still struggles to render them perfectly, so a strong negative prompt can save you a lot of frustration and re-generation time. My general rule is to start with a standard negative prompt list and then add to it as I notice specific issues.
The beautiful thing about a negative prompt is that it gives you more creative control without cluttering your main prompt. You can keep your core vision focused on what you want to create and let the negative prompt quietly handle all the things you don’t. It’s a powerful tool for turning a good AI portrait into a great one.