Should I name a camera body?

Only to ask for a look. Black Forest Labs recommends naming camera models for FLUX.2, and Google’s guide mentions a "Fujifilm camera for authentic color science". OpenAI says detailed specs may be read loosely. A body name adds a style, so follow it with the look in plain words.

What is the best focal length for a product hero?

Start at 85mm to 100mm with the camera a little below the product’s middle. From that distance the product keeps its proportions and the background stays simple. Go wider only when the setting is the point of the shot.

Why do the edges of my flat lay look stretched?

Wide-angle framing stretches objects near the edges of the frame. Ask for the camera directly overhead at 50mm, with focus even across the whole surface, and check that straight edges stay straight.

Camera and lens words for AI image prompts

Checked September 24, 20268 min read

Short answer

Write one sentence of camera words per prompt: focal length, aperture, camera height and angle, and where the focus sits. For products, 50 to 100mm keeps shapes true, f/8 to f/11 keeps a whole pack sharp, and f/2.8 to f/4 softens the background. Models treat these as hints. OpenAI says detailed camera specs "may be interpreted loosely", so judge the picture, not the numbers.

Which camera words do models follow?

It varies by model, and the makers say different things. OpenAI’s prompting guide for GPT Image warns that detailed camera specs "may be interpreted loosely" and suggests using them for the overall look. Google’s guide for Nano Banana uses camera language in its own examples, such as "a low-angle shot with a shallow depth of field (f/1.8)", "wide-angle lens" and "macro lens". Black Forest Labs tells FLUX.2 users to name camera models, lenses and film stocks for photorealism.

The kept Nano Banana prompts from our agency’s 2026 campaigns each had one sentence of camera and lens, such as "Shot on a 100mm macro lens at f/4, hyper-crisp focus riding the button and the adjacent thread structure, 1:1 square crop centered on the placket." One sentence fixes the lens, the focus point and the crop without a stack of specs. How to write a product prompt shows where that sentence sits, and the steps to test what your model follows are at the end of this page.

Focal lengths and what they do to a product

The longer the focal length, the narrower the view and the bigger the subject in the frame. The shape of the product changes because of where the camera stands, not because of the lens itself: with a wide lens you move close to fill the frame, and the near parts of the product grow; with a long lens you stand back, and the product keeps its proportions while the background looks pulled in behind it. Angles below are diagonal, on a full-frame camera.

Focal length	Angle of view	What it does to a product	Use it for
24mm	About 84 degrees	A wide scene; up close, the near side swells, and things at the frame edges look stretched	Rooms and landscapes with the product small in frame
35mm	About 63 degrees	A natural wide view with context; some stretch when close	Lifestyle scenes, street and travel apparel
50mm	About 47 degrees	Little distortion at normal distances	Flat lays from above, tabletop scenes, general product shots
85mm	About 29 degrees	Flattering on faces; the product keeps its shape; the background looks closer and blurs easily	On-model shots, portraits, product heroes
100mm macro	About 24 degrees	Focuses close enough to record the subject life-size on the sensor (1:1); very shallow focus up close	Labels, stitching, textures, jewelry, droplets
135mm to 200mm	About 18 to 12 degrees	The background looks compressed and large behind the subject	Outdoor fashion, a product in front of distant scenery

Aperture and depth of field

Aperture, written as an f-number, sets how deep the zone of sharp focus is. A small f-number such as f/1.8 gives a thin slice of focus, and a large one such as f/11 keeps more in focus. Depth of field also gets thinner as you move closer, which is why product close-ups need higher f-numbers than portraits. Say where focus sits as well as the f-number.

Aperture	What you get	Use it for
f/1.4 to f/2	Very thin focus; at close range, parts of a pack go soft	Portraits with a product in hand, mood shots. Risky for packshots.
f/2.8 to f/4	Subject sharp, background soft	Lifestyle and on-model shots with separation
f/5.6 to f/8	Most of a product sharp, background softened	Tabletop heroes, detail shots
f/8 to f/11	The whole product sharp front to back	Packshots and flat lays
f/16 and smaller	Deep focus; on real cameras, diffraction starts to soften fine detail at apertures this small	Rarely needed; in a prompt it reads as "everything sharp"

A kept food prompt paired a middle aperture with an exact focus point: "Shot at 90mm, f/4, focus locked on the middle brownie’s glossy peak, framed as a tight vertical stack filling the center." The f-number sets how quickly things fall out of focus; the focus phrase says what must stay sharp.

Camera angles

Angle	Where the camera is	What it does
Eye level (straight on)	Level with the product, facing it	Honest shape and a readable label. Product pages.
Low angle (hero)	Below the product’s middle, looking up	The product looks bigger and more imposing. Bottles, shoes, heroes.
High angle	Above, looking down	Shows tops and contents; the product feels smaller. Food, open packs.
Top-down (flat lay)	Straight above, pointing down	Stresses shape and makes a flat, graphic layout. Sets of items, food, apparel flat lays.
Three-quarter view	The product turned partly away from the camera	Shows the front and one side, so the product has depth. The usual hero.
Profile (side)	Square to the product’s side	A clean silhouette. Shoes, bottles, anything with a strong side shape.
Dutch tilt	The camera tilted so the horizon and verticals slant	Energy and unease. Rarely right for products; label text tilts with it.

Framing words

Word	What it means	A line to try
Extreme close-up	One detail fills the frame	"Extreme close-up of the stitching at the collar"
Tight crop	The product fills the frame, edges close	"Tight crop, the jar filling the frame, lid cut by the top edge"
Full length	A whole person, head to feet	"Full length, head and shoes inside the frame, clean margin all round"
Negative space	The empty part of the frame around the subject, often kept for text	"Product on the right third, the left half empty wall for a headline"
Rule of thirds	The subject placed where lines one third into the frame cross	"Bottle placed on the left third line"
Centered, symmetrical	The subject in the middle, balanced	"Perfectly centered, symmetrical composition"
Fill	How much of the frame the product takes up. Amazon asks for 85% or more on main images; see Amazon image requirements.	"The product filling about 85% of the frame"

Set the aspect ratio in the tool’s size setting as well as in words. Google’s Nano Banana models take a fixed list of ratios, including 1:1, 4:5, 9:16 and 16:9, and OpenAI’s GPT Image models take set sizes or custom sizes within limits. For one campaign across many shapes, see how to adapt one campaign to every ad size.

Motion, shutter and a few more lens words

Word	What it means	A line to try
Fast shutter, frozen motion	A fast shutter freezes movement; a slow one records it as blur	"Crumbs frozen mid-air, every piece sharp"
Flash freeze	In a dark studio, the flash’s own burst sets the exposure; Canon says a flash at low power can fire for as little as a few hundred microseconds	"Splash frozen by a short flash burst, droplets sharp"
Motion blur	Movement drawn as streaks during a longer exposure	"Slight motion blur on the falling pieces, the product itself sharp"
Bokeh	The look of the out-of-focus parts of a photo	"Soft, round bokeh from the café lights behind"
Tilt-shift	Shift keeps vertical lines straight; tilt moves the plane of focus	"Shot with a shift lens, the tall bottle’s edges perfectly vertical"

Film stocks and color science

Film names are shorthand for a whole look: grain, contrast, saturation and how skin and neutrals render. Use one, then spell out the look in plain words, as our kept prompts did: "Color science references Kodak Ektar 100, high contrast, saturated midtones". Grain as a finishing touch is covered in how to make AI product photos look real.

Name	What the maker says, or what it is	Use it to ask for
Kodak Portra 400	Kodak calls it the world’s finest-grain high-speed color negative film, with strong skin tones and saturation	Natural color for people and apparel
Kodak Ektar 100	Kodak: high saturation, ultra-vivid color, and what it calls the finest grain of any color negative film available	Vivid, punchy product color
Kodak Gold 200	Kodak: warm, saturated color	Warm, everyday snapshot color
Kodachrome	A color slide film. Kodak stopped making it in 2009, and the last rolls were developed in December 2010.	The look of mid-century color slides
Fujifilm Velvia 50	Fujifilm: very high color saturation and vibrancy	Saturated landscapes; risky when product color must stay true
Fujifilm Provia 100F	Fujifilm: ultrafine grain, medium saturation and contrast	A more neutral slide look
CineStill 800T	Tungsten-balanced film with no anti-halation backing, so bright lights get a slight glow (halation)	Night scenes with lamps and signs
Kodak Tri-X 400, Ilford HP5 Plus	Black and white films; Ilford calls HP5 Plus fine grain and medium contrast	Black and white with visible texture
Medium format digital	A bigger sensor than full frame: Fujifilm’s GFX100 II sensor is 43.8 by 32.9 mm, against about 36 by 24 mm for full frame	A clean, detailed look with shallower focus at the same framing

Test what your model follows

Take a prompt that already works and hold every sentence except the camera one.
Render it with "24mm" and again with "100mm". Compare how big the background looks and whether the product’s near edge swells.
Render it with "f/2" and again with "f/11". Compare how sharp the back of the product and the background are.
If nothing changes, the model is ignoring the number. Describe the effect in words instead: "the background falls into a soft blur", "the whole pack sharp from front to back".
Keep the version that worked in your saved prompts, and test again when the model version changes.

Questions people also ask

Should I name a camera body?: Only to ask for a look. Black Forest Labs recommends naming camera models for FLUX.2, and Google’s guide mentions a "Fujifilm camera for authentic color science". OpenAI says detailed specs may be read loosely. A body name adds a style, so follow it with the look in plain words.
What is the best focal length for a product hero?: Start at 85mm to 100mm with the camera a little below the product’s middle. From that distance the product keeps its proportions and the background stays simple. Go wider only when the setting is the point of the shot.
Why do the edges of my flat lay look stretched?: Wide-angle framing stretches objects near the edges of the frame. Ask for the camera directly overhead at 50mm, with focus even across the whole surface, and check that straight edges stay straight.

Where Overs fits

In Overs, a brand’s usual lens and grain are part of its visual DNA, next to its colors and light, and every photo’s prompt is written after that step.

Free for 40 photos a month. The AI that makes the photos is billed separately, on your own key, with no markup from Overs.

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Sources

Checked on September 24, 2026. Prices, specs and rules change; follow the links for the current versions.