Updated: 4 November 2026

Realistic portrait photo

This Stable Diffusion prompt describes a candid portrait in soft window light with an 85mm look. It comes with a negative prompt against plastic skin and bad hands, and the size, steps and CFG to start from.

image-sd-portrait-photo — stable diffusion — 72 words

Photo of [SUBJECT, e.g. a woman in her 30s with short curly hair] in [SETTING, e.g. a sunlit cafe by the window], looking slightly off camera, natural soft window light, 85mm lens, shallow depth of field, natural skin texture, warm muted colours, candid editorial photography.

Negative prompt: cartoon, illustration, 3d render, plastic skin, extra fingers, deformed hands, blurry face, watermark, text

Settings: 1024x1280 (SDXL) or 896x1152 (SD 3.5), 30 steps, CFG 5-6

Edit in the builder

Use a photo-focused checkpoint and keep the CFG low for natural skin. High CFG makes faces look waxy.

Get a better result

What you will get

A realistic portrait of your subject in the setting you chose, looking slightly off camera in soft window light, with natural skin texture, shallow depth of field and a candid editorial feel.

Common mistake

Skin looks waxy and over-smooth.

Fix: Follow the tip: lower CFG to 5 to 6, use a photo-focused checkpoint and keep “plastic skin” in the negative prompt.

Also watch for

Hands or fingers are deformed. Keep hands out of the frame, or ask for “hands relaxed in the lap, out of focus”. Keep the negative terms for fingers.
The size does not match the model. Use the sizes listed for your model, 1024 by 1280 for SDXL or 896 by 1152 for SD 3.5. A wrong size can cause stretched faces.

Try a variation: golden hour outdoors

Change the setting to “a park path at golden hour with backlight and a soft hair light”, and keep the lens and skin words.

Still not right? Add this and run it again

Same prompt and settings. Make the light softer and warmer, add a little film grain and reduce the smoothness of the skin.