Nano Banana AI Prompts That Actually Work
Battle-tested Nano Banana AI prompts for product photos, portraits, and creative edits. Learn what works, what doesn't, and how to write effective prompts that produce usable results.
Nano Banana AI Prompts That Actually Work
I've been messing around with Nano Banana AI for the past week, and honestly, most of my early attempts were terrible. Turns out there's a real art to writing prompts that don't produce weird, unusable results.
After burning through probably 200+ edits (thank god for that daily reset), I've figured out which prompts consistently work and which ones are a waste of time. Here's what I learned.
Product Photos (The Money Makers)
If you're selling stuff online, these prompts can save you hundreds on product photography:
"Remove the background completely and replace with pure white studio lighting" This one's gold for Amazon listings. Works about 90% of the time, though occasionally it leaves weird shadow artifacts.
"Show this same product in black, white, red, and navy blue versions" My friend who sells phone cases tried this and got 4 usable product photos from 1 shot. Not perfect - sometimes the lighting shifts between colors - but way cheaper than reshooting.
"Place this on a marble countertop with soft natural window light from the left" Great for kitchen products, jewelry, anything that needs to look premium. Just be specific about light direction or you'll get some wonky shadows.
The lifestyle one I've had mixed results with: "Show someone using this product in a clean, modern kitchen" Sometimes brilliant, sometimes the person looks like a stock photo reject. Worth trying though.
Portrait Tweaks (Actually Useful)
The portrait stuff is where Nano Banana really shines, but you have to be careful about consistency:
"Change the background to a professional office setting, keep everything else identical" Perfect for LinkedIn headshots. I used this to turn a casual photo into something work-appropriate.
"Add studio lighting that makes the skin look smooth and professional" This works, but don't go overboard or people start looking plastic.
"Change the shirt to a navy blazer, don't alter the face or pose" Hit or miss. Sometimes the blazer fits perfectly, sometimes it looks like it was painted on.
One that surprised me: "Make the lighting more cinematic, like a movie poster" No idea why this works so well, but it consistently makes photos look more dramatic and polished.
Style Changes (Hit or Miss)
The artistic stuff is fun but inconsistent:
"Turn this into a Pixar-style 3D character" Works great on close-up portraits, terrible on full body shots. Also tends to make everyone look like they're 12 years old.
"Make this look like a watercolor painting" Beautiful when it works, but about 30% of the time you get something that looks more like a filter than actual watercolor.
"Convert to cyberpunk neon style" This one's addictive. Even mundane photos look cool with neon lighting, though it can get repetitive fast.
Background Swaps (The Tricky Ones)
Background replacement is powerful but needs specific instructions:
"Replace background with Tokyo skyline at sunset, keep the same lighting on the person" The "keep the same lighting" part is crucial. Without it, the person often looks pasted in.
"Put this person in front of the Eiffel Tower, make sure the perspective and scale match" Adding "perspective and scale match" helps avoid that obvious fake look.
I tried that super detailed prompt from online tutorials: "Modify the image so the setting is inside the 50th story of a skyscraper in Tokyo, Japan. Large windows show the Tokyo skyline at mid-day. Change all clothes to simple white uniforms..."
It's way too complicated. Simpler prompts usually work better.
Creative Experiments (When You're Bored)
These are more for fun than practical use:
"Extreme close-up of an eye reflecting a city skyline" Looks cool but you'll probably never use it for anything.
"Hyper-realistic macro shot of water droplets on a leaf" Great for desktop wallpapers, terrible for actual work projects.
What I Learned About Writing Prompts
Keep it simple. Those paragraph-long prompts from Reddit usually fail. One clear instruction works better than five competing ones.
Be specific about what NOT to change. "Don't alter the face" or "keep the same pose" prevents unwanted mutations.
Lighting matters more than you think. "Natural window light" vs "studio lighting" vs "golden hour" all produce very different moods.
Test variations. Sometimes "change the shirt to blue" fails but "make the shirt navy blue" works perfectly.
Know when to give up. If a prompt fails three times, try a completely different approach instead of tweaking words.
The Stuff That Doesn't Work
Save yourself some edits and avoid these:
- Anything involving text or logos (always gets mangled)
- Complex scenes with multiple people (faces start morphing)
- Requests to add specific branded items (legal issues aside, it just doesn't work well)
- Super long prompts with multiple instructions (pick one thing to change)
Real Talk
Nano Banana AI is genuinely useful, but it's not magic. Maybe 60-70% of my prompts produce something usable on the first try. The rest need tweaking or just don't work.
The key is treating each edit like an experiment. Some will be amazing, some will be garbage, and that's fine. Just don't expect every prompt to be a home run.
Also, save your good results immediately. I've lost some great edits because I got distracted and the browser refreshed.
If you're just starting out, pick 2-3 prompts from this list and master those before moving on to complex stuff. Better to get really good at background removal than mediocre at everything.
And yeah, you'll probably waste a bunch of edits on weird experiments. That's part of the fun.
📚 Related Resources
Want to master AI tools and discover more practical prompting strategies? Check out these comprehensive guides:
- Nano Banana AI Pricing: What You Actually Need to Know (2025) - Complete breakdown of free vs paid plans and daily limits
- So what's this Nano Banana thing everyone's talking about? - Deep dive into Google's mysterious AI model and its capabilities
- The Ultimate Indie Hacker Tech Stack for 2025 - Discover the tools successful makers use to build and scale products
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