TL;DR: Two Instagram creators, @thesanskaarsingh and @coderss_world, shared 20 AI image prompts that cover everything from viral 3D social media posts to professional photo retouching. This guide collects all 20 prompts in one place with exact wording you can copy and paste. No tweaking needed. Use them with ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or Midjourney.

This guide compiles prompt libraries shared by @thesanskaarsingh and @coderss_world on Instagram.

Why AI image prompts are the new creative currency in 2026

There is a massive gap between people who type “make me a cool picture” into an AI tool and get garbage, and people who use a carefully structured prompt and get something that looks like it came from a professional design studio. That gap has nothing to do with talent. It has everything to do with the prompt.

AI image generation has matured fast. Tools like ChatGPT with GPT-4o, Google Gemini, and Midjourney can now produce photorealistic images, stylized artwork, and complex visual compositions. But the quality of the output is almost entirely dependent on the quality of the input. A vague prompt gives you a vague result. A specific, structured prompt gives you something you can actually post, sell, or use for a client.

This is why prompt libraries have become so valuable. Creators who have spent hundreds of hours testing different wording, structures, and constraints have figured out what actually works. Two of those creators are @thesanskaarsingh and @coderss_world on Instagram. Between them, they have tested AI image prompts on over 10,000 images and shared the results in carousel posts that went viral.

InstantDM has covered AI tools for content creators before, and this prompt library is the natural next step. If you are creating content for social media, running an agency, or just want your personal brand to look better online, these prompts will save you hours of trial and error.

Viral social media AI image prompts by @thesanskaarsingh

@thesanskaarsingh shared 10 AI image prompts in a carousel post, each one tested extensively across thousands of images. These are designed to create scroll-stopping content for Instagram, Twitter, and other social platforms. They lean into visual spectacle: 3D effects, pop culture references, and dramatic transformations that make people stop scrolling.

The key insight behind these prompts is specificity. Each one describes not just what the image should look like, but the medium, the perspective, the lighting, and the mood. That level of detail is what separates a prompt that gives you a generic AI-looking image from one that gives you something genuinely impressive.

Here are all 10 prompts with exact wording.

Social Breakthrough: 3D photo breaking through a screen. This effect makes it look like the subject is literally breaking through the glass screen of a smartphone. It creates a dramatic 3D illusion where the person bursts out of a flat surface with shattered glass flying in all directions.

Create a hyper-realistic 3D photo manipulation of a person breaking through the glass screen of a smartphone. The person should appear to be bursting out of the phone with their upper body and arms extending forward toward the viewer. Shattered glass fragments should fly in all directions with sharp, reflective edges. The phone screen should show visible cracks radiating from the center. Use dramatic lighting from behind the phone to create a silhouette effect on the person. The background should be dark and clean to make the 3D effect pop. Photorealistic rendering with high detail on skin texture, glass reflections, and motion blur on the fragments.

Broadcast Cam: live TV sports screenshot. This makes any photo look like a still frame captured from a live sports broadcast on a major network. It adds broadcast-style overlays, camera angle specifics, and the visual quality that comes from stadium broadcast cameras.

Transform this photo into a realistic screenshot from a live sports broadcast camera. The image should look like it was captured from a high-definition TV broadcast of a major sporting event. Add subtle broadcast camera characteristics including slight motion blur on fast-moving elements, stadium lighting with bright floodlights casting sharp shadows, and a slight green tint from the field reflection. Include a realistic TV broadcast overlay at the bottom showing a sports network logo, team names, score, and match time. The camera angle should be from an elevated press box position looking down at the field. Photorealistic quality matching modern 4K sports broadcasting.

3D Bobblehead. This turns a regular photo into a 3D-rendered bobblehead figure with an oversized head and a small body on a glossy stand. It is playful, shareable, and works great for personal branding.

Create a hyper-realistic 3D render of a bobblehead figure based on the person in this photo. The bobblehead should have an exaggeratedly large head (about 40% of total body height) with a detailed, accurate likeness of the person’s face including their hairstyle, skin tone, and expression. The body should be small and stylized, wearing a miniature version of casual clothing. Place the bobblehead on a glossy black circular stand with a thin metal spring visible between the head and body. Use studio lighting with soft shadows. The background should be a clean gradient from light gray to white. Render in Pixar-quality 3D with smooth surfaces and subtle reflections on the stand.

Timeless Soul Effect: age progression. One of the more emotionally impactful prompts. It takes a current photo and shows what the subject might look like as an older person with realistic aging effects including wrinkles, gray hair, and changes in skin texture.

Transform the person in this photo to show what they would look like at 80 years old. Maintain their exact facial structure, bone structure, and identity. Add realistic aging effects including deep wrinkles around the eyes, forehead, and mouth, age spots on the skin, thinning hair that has turned completely gray or white, slightly sagging skin around the jawline and neck, and thinner lips. The skin texture should show the natural wear of decades including fine lines and slightly rougher texture. Keep their eye color and general expression the same. The lighting and background should match the original photo. Photorealistic rendering with no cartoonish or stylized elements.

Soccer Poster. A dramatic sports poster in the style of Champions League match promotions. The subject gets placed into a cinematic composition with dramatic lighting and that specific poster energy that sports marketing is known for.

Design a cinematic soccer poster featuring the person in this photo as the star player. The person should be in a dynamic kicking pose with the soccer ball frozen mid-flight. Use dramatic side lighting with deep shadows and a slight blue and orange color grade. The background should show a blurred packed stadium with stadium lights creating visible light rays. Include a large number on the jersey, dramatic wind effect on the hair and clothing, and a slight motion blur on the edges to create speed. The overall style should match official UEFA Champions League promotional posters. High contrast, cinematic depth of field, and photorealistic rendering.

Anime Poster. Anime-style images have been consistently popular across social media. This prompt creates a full anime poster composition with proper Japanese animation styling, dramatic poses, and cinematic composition.

Transform this photo into a Japanese anime-style movie poster. The person should be redrawn in high-quality anime style with large expressive eyes, sharp facial features, and stylized hair with dynamic flowing strands. Use a dramatic pose with the person looking slightly upward toward the sky. The background should feature a dramatic sunset sky with orange and purple clouds, cherry blossom petals floating in the wind, and a silhouette of a Japanese city skyline in the distance. Add a subtle lens flare from the sun. Use clean line art with cel-shading technique. Include dramatic Japanese-style text at the top as a movie title. Studio Ghibli meets Makoto Shinkai art style.

Human Portrait: side profile made of tiny figures. One of the most visually complex prompts. It creates a portrait where the subject’s face, when viewed from the side, is actually composed of hundreds or thousands of tiny human figures.

Create an artistic portrait of a human face in side profile view, where the entire face and head are composed of hundreds of tiny human figures. The figures should be in various walking, standing, and sitting poses, arranged to form the contours of the face, nose, lips, jawline, and hair. Use a monochromatic color scheme with dark figures on a light cream background. The figures should vary in size: larger ones for the main features like the nose and chin, smaller ones for fine details like the eyelashes and lips. The overall composition should be clearly recognizable as a human face from a distance but reveal the individual figures up close. High resolution, artistic, conceptual photography style.

GTA VI Poster. With GTA VI generating massive hype, this prompt turns any photo into a GTA-style poster with that iconic Rockstar art direction and Miami-inspired color palette.

Transform this photo into a GTA VI style game poster. The person should be in a confident standing pose looking directly at the camera with a slight smirk. Use the iconic GTA art style with a warm Miami-inspired color palette of pink, teal, and orange. The background should show a stylized Miami Beach scene with palm trees, art deco buildings, and a sunset sky. Apply the characteristic GTA poster treatment including high contrast, slightly oversaturated colors, a subtle halftone dot pattern overlay, and the distinctive painted illustration style that blends photorealism with hand-painted textures. Include a stylized game title text at the bottom in the GTA font style. The overall look should match official Rockstar Games promotional artwork.

K-Pop Concert Screen. The last viral prompt makes any photo look like it is being displayed on a massive LED screen at a K-Pop concert, tapping into the enormous global K-Pop fan community.

Transform this photo to look like it is being displayed on a massive LED screen at a K-Pop concert venue. The image should appear on a large curved LED display with visible pixel grid texture when zoomed in. The surrounding environment should show a packed concert arena with thousands of fans in the foreground holding lightsticks that create a sea of colorful glowing dots. Add concert lighting effects including laser beams cutting through artificial fog, stage pyrotechnics with sparks, and dramatic spotlights. The LED screen should have slight brightness bloom and the characteristic slight color shift at the edges of curved displays. The atmosphere should feel energetic and immersive. Photorealistic concert photography style.

Bonus: Anime Poster variant. @thesanskaarsingh shared an 11th slide with a variation on the anime style that focuses more on action and intensity rather than the romantic sunset aesthetic of the main anime prompt. If you are creating content for a gaming or action-oriented audience, try adjusting the mood and background description in the anime prompt to match the tone you need.

Professional photo editing prompts by @coderss_world

While @thesanskaarsingh focused on viral spectacle, @coderss_world took a different approach. His 10 AI image editing prompts are practical. They solve real problems that content creators, photographers, and marketers face every day. Skin retouching, background removal, photo restoration, product photography. These are the kinds of tasks that used to require Photoshop skills and hours of work.

If you are building a content business or offering creative services, these prompts are especially valuable. Tools like InstantDM can help you manage the client relationships and DM workflows, and these prompts handle the actual creative production side.

Skin Retouch: preserve identity and refine texture. This prompt separates AI photo editing from garbage beauty filters. Most AI retouching tools destroy the subject’s identity by smoothing everything into a plastic mask. This one is specifically designed to refine skin while keeping the person looking like themselves.

You are a professional retoucher. Edit this photo to refine the skin while preserving the person’s complete identity and natural appearance. Remove temporary blemishes such as pimples, redness, and minor irritation. Reduce visible pores slightly without eliminating skin texture entirely. Even out skin tone across the face without making it look flat or airbrushed. Preserve natural features including freckles, moles, beauty marks, and natural skin contours. Do not change the person’s face shape, nose shape, eye shape, lip shape, or any structural features. Do not smooth the skin to a plastic or artificial appearance. The result should look like the person on their best natural day, not like a different person. Maintain the original photo’s lighting and color temperature.

Ad Shot: product studio transformation. Product photography is expensive. A professional studio shoot can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars per product. This prompt takes a regular product photo and transforms it into something that looks like it was shot in a professional studio with three-point lighting.

Transform this product photo into a professional studio advertisement shot. Place the product on a clean, reflective surface with a subtle mirror reflection visible below. Use professional three-point studio lighting: a key light from the upper left creating defined highlights, a fill light from the right softening shadows, and a rim light from behind creating a subtle edge glow on the product. The background should be a seamless solid color gradient that complements the product’s color scheme. Enhance the product details to show texture, material quality, and craftsmanship. Remove any distracting elements, fingerprints, dust, or imperfections on the product surface. The final image should look like it belongs in a luxury brand catalog or a high-end e-commerce listing. Photorealistic, high resolution, clean composition.

Background Erase: remove people and reconstruct background. Removing a background is one thing. Removing a person and having it look like they were never there is much harder. This prompt handles the hard part: reconstructing the background that was behind the removed subject.

Remove the person from this photo and completely reconstruct the background that would naturally exist behind them. Analyze the surrounding environment including walls, textures, patterns, lighting direction, shadows, and perspective lines to accurately fill in the area where the person was standing. Match the color temperature, grain, and resolution of the rest of the image. If the background includes architectural elements, continue the patterns and lines naturally. If it includes natural elements like foliage or sky, blend them seamlessly. Ensure there are no visible artifacts, clone marks, or mismatched edges. The final image should look like the person was never there and the photo was originally taken of just the background.

Photo Restore: period-accurate restoration. Old photos have a specific look based on the era and the film technology used. This prompt does not just sharpen and colorize an old photo. It restores it while respecting the period-accurate aesthetic.

Restore this old photograph while maintaining period-accurate aesthetics. Repair any physical damage including tears, scratches, creases, and water damage by intelligently reconstructing the damaged areas based on surrounding intact regions. Remove dust spots and chemical staining. If the photo is black and white, add realistic colorization using period-appropriate colors that match the era of the photograph, based on clothing styles, architecture, and other contextual clues. Sharpen soft or blurry areas slightly without creating artificial-looking edges or halos. Restore faded contrast and density to match what the original photograph would have looked like when first printed. Preserve the natural film grain and character of the original photography. Do not over-process or make the result look like a modern digital photograph.

Anime Style: hand-drawn anime conversion. This focuses specifically on converting a real photo into hand-drawn anime style, preserving the composition and pose but completely restyling the visual treatment with proper cel-shading technique.

Convert this photograph into hand-drawn Japanese anime style. Redraw the person with anime proportions and features including larger eyes, a smaller nose and mouth, and simplified but expressive facial features. Use clean, confident line art with varying line weights: thicker lines for the outline and major features, thinner lines for interior details. Apply flat cel-shading with two to three tones per color area: a base color, a shadow color, and a highlight. Keep the original pose and composition. Restyle the clothing and hair with anime-appropriate textures and flow. The background should be redrawn in a complementary anime style with slightly less detail than the character to keep focus on the subject. Studio quality anime illustration, not a filter or a quick style transfer.

Fake Selfie: iPhone aesthetic. A surprisingly useful prompt for social media content. It takes any photo and makes it look like it was taken with an iPhone front camera as a casual selfie, which is valuable for creating content that feels authentic and spontaneous.

Transform this photo to look like a casual selfie taken with an iPhone front-facing camera. Apply the characteristic iPhone selfie look including a slight wide-angle distortion typical of front cameras, natural skin texture without heavy processing, slightly compressed dynamic range, and the specific color science of Apple’s image processing pipeline. Add a subtle depth-of-field blur on the background that mimics Portrait Mode. Include a very slight lens flare if there is a light source in the frame. The image should have a casual, spontaneous feel as if someone quickly took a selfie. Slightly lower the overall sharpness compared to a professional camera. Add a subtle noise pattern consistent with a phone sensor in indoor or mixed lighting conditions. The result should look convincingly like a real iPhone selfie.

Closed Eyes Fix: open eyes naturally. We have all taken a group photo where someone blinked. This prompt fixes closed eyes by generating natural-looking open eyes that match the person’s face, expression, and the lighting of the photo.

The person in this photo has their eyes closed or partially closed. Open their eyes naturally to match the rest of their facial expression and the context of the photo. Generate eyes that match the person’s apparent eye shape, size, and color based on their facial structure. Ensure the eyelids, eyelashes, and skin folds around the eyes look natural and consistent with how they would appear with open eyes. Match the lighting and shadow patterns on the eyelids and under-eye area with the rest of the face. The gaze direction should look natural and appropriate for the photo context, such as looking at the camera for a selfie or looking in the direction others are looking for a group photo. Do not change any other part of the face or the photo. The result should be indistinguishable from a photo where the person naturally had their eyes open.

Lego Background: LEGO replica of any location. A pure fun prompt that creates incredible results. It takes the background of any photo and transforms it into a LEGO replica with visible studs, plastic texture, and that distinctive LEGO aesthetic.

Transform the background of this photo into a detailed LEGO brick replica. Recreate every architectural element, object, and surface in the background using LEGO bricks, plates, and specialty pieces. Each element should have the characteristic LEGO stud pattern on top surfaces. Use accurate LEGO colors that match the original scene as closely as possible within the available LEGO color palette. Add realistic plastic material properties including slight glossy reflections on brick surfaces, subtle seam lines between connected bricks, and the characteristic sharp edges of ABS plastic. Include small LEGO-specific details like minifigure-scale accessories, printed tiles for signs or screens, and transparent pieces for windows and lights. The lighting should match the original photo but with the way light interacts with plastic surfaces. The final result should look like an actual photograph of a real LEGO diorama.

X Location: replace background with any city. This prompt replaces the background of a photo with any location you specify. The example uses Shinjuku, Tokyo, but you can swap in any city or landmark. The key is matching lighting, perspective, and color temperature so the subject looks like they were actually there.

Replace the background of this photo with a realistic view of Shinjuku, Tokyo at dusk. The subject should appear to be standing on a street in the middle of the Shinjuku entertainment district. The background should include the iconic neon signs and LED displays in Japanese, the dense multi-layered building facades, crowds of people walking in the background with motion blur, and the characteristic warm-orange and cool-blue mixed lighting of Shinjuku at night. Match the perspective and camera angle so the subject looks naturally placed in the scene. Adjust the lighting on the subject to match the ambient neon and street lighting of the location. Add subtle atmospheric effects like light haze from humidity and the glow of neon reflecting on wet pavement. The integration should be seamless with no visible cutout edges or mismatched color temperature. Photorealistic, cinematic quality.

To use this with any other location, simply replace “Shinjuku, Tokyo at dusk” and the descriptive details with your target location. For example, “Times Square, New York at night” or “Santorini, Greece at sunset” and adjust the surrounding description to match.

@coderss_world shared an 11th slide covering additional variations and tips for combining these editing prompts together, such as running Skin Retouch before Ad Shot to get a polished result on portrait-based product work.

How to use these AI image prompts for the best results

Having the prompts is only half the equation. How you use them matters just as much. Here are the practical tips that both @thesanskaarsingh and @coderss_world emphasize based on their experience testing these across thousands of images.

Choose the right AI tool for each type of prompt

Not every AI tool handles every type of prompt equally well. For the viral social media prompts, ChatGPT with GPT-4o image generation tends to produce the most consistent results, especially for the 3D effects and pop culture poster styles. Google Gemini is strong for the editing-style prompts because it handles photo uploads and incremental edits well. Midjourney excels at the artistic and stylized prompts like the anime poster and human portrait.

If you are just starting out, pick one tool and learn how it responds to different prompt structures. The same prompt can give slightly different results across platforms, so understanding your tool’s tendencies helps you adjust.

Start with a good source image

This is the single biggest factor in getting great results. A blurry, poorly lit photo will give you a blurry, poorly edited result no matter how good the prompt is. For the editing prompts from @coderss_world, this is especially critical. The Skin Retouch prompt needs to see actual skin texture to work. The Background Erase prompt needs a clear distinction between the subject and the background.

Use photos that are well-lit (natural light is best), high resolution, and clearly composed. If you are working with a specific effect like the Social Breakthrough or Broadcast Cam, make sure the subject is in a pose that makes sense for the final composition.

Iterate and regenerate

Your first result is rarely your best result. Both creators emphasize that they regenerate each prompt multiple times and pick the best output. AI image generation has a randomness component, so running the same prompt three to five times gives you different variations. Pick the one that works best.

If something is close but not quite right, do not start over. Instead, add a follow-up instruction. For example, if the Broadcast Cam result has the wrong score overlay, you can say “keep everything the same but change the score to 3-2” or “make the lighting more dramatic.” Iterative refinement is faster than starting from scratch.

Managing client expectations around this iterative process is something you will deal with if you are offering these as a service. A tool like InstantDM helps you keep those client conversations organized while you work through revisions.

Use these prompts as starting points, not final destinations

The prompts in this guide are battle-tested and work well as-is. But the real power comes from understanding the structure and modifying them for your specific needs. The X Location prompt uses Shinjuku as the example, but the same structure works for any location. The Anime Poster prompt uses a specific art style reference, but you can swap in any anime style you want.

Learn the pattern: describe the medium, the spatial relationships, the lighting, the materials, and the mood. Once you internalize that structure, you can write custom prompts for any visual concept you can imagine.

If you are building a content workflow around AI image generation, pair it with tools that handle the rest of your creative business. Check out our guide on landing brand collaborations with pitch templates to turn your AI-enhanced content into revenue.

Building a prompt library that grows with you

The 20 prompts in this guide are a starting point. Both @thesanskaarsingh and @coderss_world continue to share new prompts regularly, and the AI tools themselves are evolving fast. What works today might need adjustment in six months as models improve and new capabilities emerge.

Organize your prompts by use case

The smartest approach is to build your own prompt library over time. Save the prompts that work well in a document or note-taking app. Categorize them by type: viral social content, product photography, portrait editing, background manipulation, artistic styles. Note which tool you used, what kind of source image you started with, and how many attempts it took to get a great result. Over time, you will develop an intuition for what works and what does not with different AI image generation tools.

Track what works and what does not

Keep a log of your results. When a prompt produces something great, note the conditions: what tool, what source image quality, what follow-up instructions you added. When a prompt fails, note that too. Patterns will emerge. You will learn that certain prompts work better with certain types of photos, and that knowledge compounds over time.

If you are using these prompts for client work or your own brand, pair them with a solid content distribution strategy. Our AI cold DM personalization guide shows you how to reach the right people, and our content funnel case study breaks down how to turn attention into revenue.

For creators looking to scale, InstantDM handles the relationship management side while you focus on creating. Between these AI image prompts and the right distribution tools, you have everything you need to produce professional-quality visual content at scale.

Want to learn more about how AI is reshaping content creation? Read our breakdown of how one creator built a $37,000 faceless YouTube channel with Claude AI for a real-world example of AI-powered content businesses in action.

Wrapping up

AI image prompts are not magic. They are tools. And like any tool, their value comes from how you use them. The 20 prompts in this guide, shared generously by @thesanskaarsingh and @coderss_world, represent hundreds of hours of testing and refinement. They work. Copy them, paste them, and see for yourself.

The viral prompts from @thesanskaarsingh will make your social media content stand out in a feed full of generic AI images. The editing prompts from @coderss_world will save you time and money on photo editing tasks that used to require professional software and skills. Together, they cover the full spectrum of AI image generation in 2026, from creative spectacle to practical utility.

Start with the prompts that solve your most immediate need. If you are a content creator, the Social Breakthrough and Broadcast Cam prompts are great for engagement. If you are a photographer or marketer, the Skin Retouch and Ad Shot prompts will immediately improve your workflow. If you just want to have fun, the Bobblehead and LEGO Background prompts are endlessly entertaining.

The AI image generation space moves fast. Bookmark this page, follow both creators on Instagram, and keep building your prompt library. The gap between people who use AI well and people who do not is only going to widen. Make sure you are on the right side of it.