Film look prompt builder
AI images often look “digitally perfect” in a way that real photography never does. Naming a real film stock and a cinematic grade is the fastest way to add the colour science, tonality and texture that make an image feel shot on film. This builder turns a stock, a grade and a grain level into a paste-ready prompt for Midjourney, DALL·E or Stable Diffusion.
How it works
Each film stock carries a distinct colour signature and contrast curve — Kodak Portra flatters skin with warm pastels, Fuji Velvia super-saturates landscapes, Ilford HP5 gives gritty high-contrast black and white. The builder pairs that stock description with a cinematic grade (the post-production colour look) and a grain setting (the film texture). Together they tell the model not just what to render but how the photograph was captured and finished, which is what sells the analog feel.
Tips and notes
- Match stock to subject. Portrait stocks for people, slide film for landscapes, black-and-white stocks for documentary and noir.
- Don’t over-stack grades. One grade plus one stock is usually enough; piling on conflicting looks muddies the result.
- Grain is mood. Fine grain = clean and premium; heavy grain = vintage and raw. Choose deliberately rather than maxing it out.
- Lock the look, vary the frame. Keep the film and grade words fixed and re-roll for composition so every shot in a set matches.