7 min read
How to Make AI Photos Look Like Real Photography
The difference between an obviously-AI image and a photo people believe is rarely the subject — it's the photography. Real photos have a lens, a light source, a color grade and a point of view. The canvas puts all of that behind one chip: shot settings. Add it to the board, pick a preset or dial in your own look, and every generation inherits the same photographic identity — which is exactly how a real feed stays coherent.
step by step
Add a shot settings chip
Tap Shot in the left rail to place the icon chip on your canvas. Like every chip it applies to all following generations while active, so your whole set shares one look.
Start from a preset
Six presets cover the most-wanted looks: iPhone Candid, Studio Editorial, Film Nostalgia, Golden Hour, Night Out and Street Style. Each bundles camera style, lighting, grade and framing into a coherent aesthetic.
Dial in the details
Open the chip's edit gear to adjust individual settings: photo type, framing, camera height and side, dutch tilt, camera style, lens, texture, lighting, mood, color grade and depth of field.
Shoot the series
Generate as usual from chat. Because the look lives on the chip rather than in your words, "walking the dog" and "reading in bed" come back as photos from the same photographer.
The realism cheat code: shoot like a phone
If your goal is a believable everyday feed, the single highest-impact setting is camera style. Smartphone and iPhone-style capture — slightly imperfect framing, natural HDR-ish light, modest depth of field — reads as "someone's actual photo" in a way that polished renders never do. The iPhone Candid preset is built around exactly this. Save the DSLR and editorial styles for shots that are supposed to look produced.
What each control actually does
The settings map one-to-one onto real photography decisions, so photographic intuition transfers directly.
Framing, height and side
Close-up versus full body, eye-level versus low angle, straight-on versus three-quarter. Add dutch tilt for deliberate off-kilter energy.
Lens choice
24mm feels wide and candid, 50mm neutral, 85–135mm compressed and flattering; fisheye and macro are available for stylized shots. Longer lenses plus shallow depth of field produce the classic portrait look.
Camera style and texture
Smartphone, DSLR, film, disposable, polaroid or editorial — each carries its own grain, contrast and color behavior. Disposable and polaroid are shortcuts to instant nostalgia.
Light, mood and grade
Lighting sets the physical light (golden hour, overcast, neon); mood sets atmosphere; color grade sets the finish. Together they're your feed's visual signature.
One look per canvas
Consistency compounds. A feed shot entirely in Film Nostalgia feels curated; the same shots with a different grade each feels random. Pick one look per canvas or per series and let it run. When you want variety, vary the scene and the pose — not the photography. And when you genuinely want a new look, edit the chip once and the whole board moves forward together.
quick tips
- Pair Golden Hour shot settings with an outdoor location chip — the preset's warm rim light only makes sense where the sun can reach.
- Low camera height plus a 24mm lens is the streetwear look; eye level plus 85mm is the portrait look.
- For a believable phone-photo feed, keep depth of field moderate — real phone cameras rarely melt backgrounds.
- You can describe photography in chat too ("shot on a disposable camera") — but the chip persists across shots, which is what keeps a series coherent.
questions, answered
Do shot settings work with every image model?+
Yes — the settings are woven into the structured prompt sent to whichever model you've selected. Some models follow photographic direction more literally than others; the studio default handles it well.
Preset or manual settings — which should I use?+
Start from the preset closest to your goal, then open the gear and adjust one or two settings. Presets are professionally balanced; small edits keep that balance while making the look yours.
Can I change the look of photos I've already generated?+
Yes — use the edit tool on any image with an instruction like "golden hour lighting" or "make it black and white". For new shots, changing the chip is cleaner.
Is there an equivalent for video?+
Yes — the camera chip controls motion (dolly, orbit, handheld, drone and more) the same way the shot chip controls stills. See the photo-to-video tutorial.
keep learning
photo to video →
Animate any canvas image into video, direct the camera with motion presets, extend clips, stitch them together, and screenshot the perfect frame back into a photo.
building scenes →
Chips are draggable tiles — characters, outfits, locations, props and poses — that compose your next shot. Learn how to mix, link and toggle them to build any scene.
editing photos →
Relight a scene, swap the background, recolor an outfit or add a smile — selfielab's edit tools change one thing and keep the same face. Plus background removal and regenerate.