Been generating a lot of portraits in Gemini and kept getting that "90% real but something's off" result — good skin, symmetrical face, still obviously AI. Turns out it wasn't the model, it was my prompts. What actually moved the needle:

1. **Name a camera, not a mood.** Instead of "cinematic, photorealistic," name an actual device — phone camera, 35mm lens, on-camera flash. Each one carries its own natural flaws (over-sharpening, grain, flash fall-off), and the model reproduces them without you asking separately.
2. **Describe skin by feature, not adjective.** "Realistic skin" does nothing. "Small pores near the nose, faint redness, slightly uneven tone" gives the model something concrete.
3. **Give the subject a moment, not a pose.** "Looking at camera, smiling" is the fastest way to a stock-photo face. Mid-task, glancing slightly off-camera, works better.
4. **Stop stacking quality words.** "8K, ultra-detailed, hyper-realistic, masterpiece" doesn't describe a photograph — it just pushes every output toward the same generic "perfect" look.
5. **Repair in the same conversation instead of regenerating.** If the eyes look glassy or skin's too smooth, ask Gemini to fix only that part ("keep everything else identical, adjust only the skin texture...") rather than starting over.



Figured out why my Gemini AI/Nano Banana portraits always looked slightly "off" — sharing what actually fixed it