15+ Popular ChatGPT Image Editing Prompts
ChatGPT is no longer just for writing, it can now enhance, retouch, and transform photo with simple text instructions. This makes image editing accessible to creators, marketers, small businesses, and those who are beginner to AI tools. In this guide, you’ll find more than 15 popular ChatGPT image editing prompts you can directly copy and paste to customize your own images. These prompts not only help users improve image quality but also offer new possibilities for creativity and efficiency.
How ChatGPT Image Editing Works?
To edit your image with ChatGPT, simply upload your photo and describe the change you want using natural language. ChatGPT can understand detailed text prompts and intelligently interpret your instructions to generate an updated version of your image.
For the best results, use a clear and specific prompt. Include key details such as the subject, visual style, lighting, areas to edit, background or environment, and any elements you want to add, remove, or refine. Avoid using vague instructions like “make it better”. Instead, precise descriptions help the AI deliver results that closely match your version. To help you out, we’ve listed the following ChatGPT image editing prompts.
15+ Popular ChatGPT Image Editing Prompts
Time-based Image Editing
Time-based image editing prompts go far beyond basic filter adjustments. They require the AI to realistically re-evaluate lighting conditions, surface materials, weather effects, and environmental changes as time progresses. These prompts are especially effective for use cases such as seasonal marketing campaigns, narrative illustrations, and visuals that convey powerful emotions like survival, isolation, or transformation. These strong source materials give the AI a solid visual foundation to accurately simulate the passage of time and its impact on the scene.
Season Change Prompt: “Transform this sunny summer street scene into a deep winter blizzard. Add heavy, realistic snow accumulation on the rooftops, cars, and tree branches. The atmosphere should be overcast, cold, and foggy, with snowflakes actively falling.
Golden Hour Relighting Prompt: “Completely re-light this image to take place during ‘golden hour’ sunset. The light source should come from the back-left, creating long, dramatic shadows and adding warm, rim lighting to the edges of the main subjects and buildings.”
Style Transfer
Style transfer means analyzing and recreating the artistic characteristics of a reference image. The AI interprets elements such as brushstroke texture, color harmony, visual rhythm, and compositional aesthetics. With ChatGPT, you can transform your photos into a wide range of aesthetics - including anime, vintage, gaming, and many other creative styles while preserving the core subject. For best results, upload scenic images or clean, candid photos of people or other characters.
Photo to Ghibli Prompt: “Redraw this photograph in the beautiful hand-painted anime style of Studio Ghibli. Focus on soft watercolors, lush clouds, gentle color palettes, and a sense of nostalgic warmth, while keeping all original elements prominent.”
Photo to Oil Painting Prompt: “Transform this portrait into a 17th-century Dutch Golden Age oil painting. Apply rich, deep colors, dramatic chiaroscuro lighting, and visible, textured brushstrokes across the entire canvas.”
Photo to Film Simulation Prompt: “Give this image an authentic 1970s Kodak film look. Introduce realistic film grain, slight color bleeding, faded warm tones, and subtle light leaks along the edges of the frame.”
Cartoon to Realistic Prompt: “Transform this cartoon image into a high-realism photographic style. Accurately preserve the main character’s defining features, color scheme, and personality, while converting them into lifelike human proportions, textures, and lighting. Apply natural skin tones with subtle imperfections, realistic fabric materials with visible weave and folds, finely detailed hair strands, and soft, directional shadows to achieve a photo-realistic appearance. Maintain the original pose, facial expression, and overall composition so the character remains instantly recognizable.”
Basic Image Editing
You can also use ChatGPT for basic AI image editing, including photo enhance, color balance, object remove, and color change. The following ChatGPT prompts help analyze your photo and automatically apply optimized adjustments so the image looks clearer, brighter, and more balanced overall.
Extraction Prompt: “Extract the main object from the image and remove the background completely. Preserve the object’s original shape, colors, and details with clean, precise edges. Output the object on a transparent background.”
Image Color Change Prompt: "Change the color of [specific object or area] to [new color] while preserving the original texture, material properties, and surface details. Ensure the new color interacts naturally with existing lighting, shadows, and reflections so it appears physically accurate and well integrated with the scene. Keep the image in high resolution and leave all other elements unchanged."
Photo Restoration Prompt: “Restore this damaged vintage photo. Repair all tears and creases, remove sepia tones to reveal realistic colors, and reconstruct the missing parts of the people's faces surrounding the torn edges.”
Atmospheric Change Prompt: “Introduce a thick, mystical morning fog into the forest background. Add visible volumetric light rays (God rays) filtering through the tree canopy to create depth and mood.”
Creative Outpainting
Outpainting extends your existing image by generating new content beyond its original boundaries while seamlessly matching the original style, color palette, lighting, and perspective. Using the right ChatGPT prompt, you can naturally expand a scene - transforming a close-up portrait into a fully realized environment or turning a simple landscape into a wide, immersive view that feels cohesive and intentional.
Scene Extension Prompt: “Zoom out completely. The original image of the cabin should now be a small part of a vast, towering mountain landscape surrounded by a dense, ancient pine forest under a dramatic sky.”
Portrait Editing
ChatGPT’s AI image tool also supports advanced portrait editing. It can intelligently detect facial features such as skin, eyes, hair, and background elements, then apply precise, targeted enhancements. These include facial refinements, virtual makeup and hairstyle try-ons, and natural-looking skin smoothing - while preserving the subject’s identity and realistic details.
Age Progression Prompt: “Age the person in this portrait by about 40 years. Add realistic wrinkles around the eyes and mouth, thin out the hair and turn it silver, and introduce age spots, while keeping the person's original bone structure and identity recognizable.”
Y2K Makeup Try-on Prompt: “Apply a Y2K-inspired makeup look. Add glossy, high-shine lips with soft pink or nude tones, lightly frosted or pastel eyeshadow, thin arched eyebrows, subtle shimmer on the eyelids and cheekbones, and softly defined lashes. Keep the skin smooth, luminous, and natural-looking. Preserve the subject’s facial features, expression, and lighting while maintaining a playful, early-2000s aesthetic without over-editing.
Hairstyle Change Prompt: “Change the hairstyle to a layered bob. Preserve the subject’s facial features and natural hair texture, keeping realistic volume, strand details, and soft shadows. Ensure the layers flow naturally around the face, maintain proper lighting and highlights, and retain a polished, lifelike appearance. The final result should look seamless and fully integrated with the original image.”
Animal Editing
Animal editing with AI goes far beyond simple filters and color tweaks. ChatGPT can enhance, retouch, and even reimagine your pet or wildlife photos.
Vintage Pet Prompt: “Adorn the pet in the original image with an elaborate 18th-century noblewoman's pearl necklace. Set the background in a lavish, candlelight-lit portrait studio, while maintaining the pet's realistic fur texture and expression. Position a vintage ornate picture frame centrally, with the pet inside it. On the left side of the frame, place an exquisite vintage vase holding a bouquet of red roses. The overall style should be a retro pet portrait.”
Cute Pet Prompt: “Maintain the current appearance and face of the pet, rendering a realistic cat. Place the cat in an outdoor scene on sunlit grass, wearing a collar made of flowers and greenery, and surrounded by yellow, green, and white fresh flowers. The overall image should be fresh and vibrant. An oil painting stands upright behind the cat, featuring the same cat against the identical grass and flower background.”
Photo to 3D Prompt: “Transform the pet in the original image into an ultra-detailed 3D cartoon style, similar to an IP character/mascot. Ensure the realistic texture of the fur is maintained, and pay close attention to preserving the pet's detailed facial features from the original image.”
Final Thoughts
ChatGPT image editing prompts go far beyond the examples above, offering powerful ways to edit, transform, and create a wide variety of visuals. To streamline your workflow and achieve stunning results with ease, try using the ChatGPT image generation tool in iMini AI - designed to make creative image editing faster, smarter, and more accessible.