Step 1 · Photo → Aesthetic
Christmas Eve Tree Portrait
Fairy lights, a cable-knit sweater and warm tree glow — the Christmas Eve portrait, with your own face and your own smile kept.
The prompt
Transform this photo of me into a cozy Christmas Eve portrait. I sit on a rug beside a decorated Christmas tree hung with warm white fairy lights, wearing a cream cable-knit sweater, the soft glow of the tree lights falling across my face, out-of-focus lights forming round bokeh behind me, a few wrapped presents nearby. Warm tungsten colour grade, visible knit texture, gentle film grain. Keep my exact facial features and my own smile from the photo, do not change my face or expression in any way.
How to use it
Only edit photos you have permission to use, including permission from the people pictured.
- Pick a source whose pose and expression already suit the mood, so fewer changes to the person are needed.
- Attach the source in an AI image editor compatible with this prompt (Gemini · ChatGPT (any AI image editor)), then paste the prompt. Choose the wardrobe and setting before generating. Remove conflicting pose or expression requests if you want to keep those from the source.
- Check that the new light still leaves the face recognizable. Inspect hands near props and simplify the prop or pose if they are distorted.
- Save the accepted image separately from the original and label it as AI-edited when sharing. Use the saved edit as the source if you choose to animate it next.
What happened when we tested it
We ran this twice. The first version ended on 'the quiet feeling of Christmas Eve', and the model read that mood as an instruction for her face: the wide grin in the source came back as a small closed-mouth smile, and much of the likeness went with it. The published version drops the mood line and asks to keep your own smile, and the grin held. The fairy-light bokeh and the cable-knit texture came out right both times.
