About

Imported from ur-grue/autopunk-media-skills (skills/image-prompting/flux/editorial-photo-prompt/SKILL.md). Install upstream with npx skills add ur-grue/autopunk-media-skills --skill editorial-photo-prompt. Copyright stays with the author.

Editorial Photo Prompt

Name: editorial-photo-prompt
Author: ur-grue

What This Skill Does

Writes a Flux prompt for editorial-style photography suitable for journalism, documentary, and factual media contexts — images that look authentic, specific, and grounded in the real world rather than idealized or commercial.

When To Use This Skill

You need an image to accompany a journalism or documentary project and want something that reads as a real photograph, not an illustration or stock photo
You are creating visuals for a magazine, newsletter, or editorial website and need images that match the register of documentary photography
You want to generate images that look like they were taken by a photojournalist or documentary photographer — specific, unposed, and authentic in feeling
You are testing visual concepts for a documentary pitch deck and need representative imagery quickly

What You Need To Provide

Required:

The subject or scene you need depicted (what is in the frame, who, where)
The editorial context (what story or article will this image accompany)

Optional:

Specific lighting conditions or time of day
Geographic or environmental context
The emotional register of the image (tension, hope, exhaustion, intimacy)
Aspect ratio or intended format
Any specific photographic style or documentary photographer whose aesthetic you want to reference
Whether the image should feel recent/contemporary or historically situated

How the Assistant Approaches This

Identifies the key visual elements that will make the image feel editorial rather than commercial: specificity of detail, natural light, authentic environment, non-idealized subject presentation
Structures the prompt around a specific, believable scene — not a generic representation of a concept but a particular moment that could plausibly have been photographed
Applies Flux-specific prompt optimizations: Flux responds well to detailed scene descriptions, specific lighting language, and photographic medium references
Adds negative-space considerations: what the image should not contain (stock photo genericness, artificial posing, commercial brightness, digital artifact sheen)
Suggests aspect ratio and any metadata tags that improve Flux output quality for editorial photography
Closes with a "Next Step" note: how many variations to generate before selecting for editorial use, whether to run the variation prompt for a different framing option, and any publication disclosure considerations to address before using AI-generated imagery

Output Format

Primary Flux prompt: complete, detailed, formatted for direct use in Flux (Flux.1 Dev or Pro)
Prompt breakdown: brief annotation of the key choices that produce the editorial quality
Negative prompt: a short list of elements to exclude
Optional: a second variation with slightly different framing, lighting, or emotional register
Note on any content considerations (Flux will not generate images of real, identifiable people)
Output ends with a "Next Step" note: how many variations to generate, whether to run the alternative prompt, and whether to check your publication's AI image policy before use

Quality Criteria

The scene described is specific enough that Midjourney or Flux would generate a particular image, not a generic one
The prompt includes a natural light source — editorial photography is defined by how light falls, not by studio setups
The image described would be believable as a real photograph — no fantastical elements, no idealized presentation
The subject is described without identifying as any real, living person
The prompt avoids stock-photo clichés: no business handshakes, no generic "teamwork," no forced emotional expressions
Output includes at least one concrete next action the user can take immediately (generate 4–6 variations and select, run the alternative prompt, or check the publication's AI image policy)

Example

Input

Subject: An agricultural worker in a greenhouse, tending to hydroponic vegetable rows
Editorial context: Long-form magazine article about the economics of indoor farming and its effects on rural agricultural employment
Desired register: Quiet, dignified, slightly melancholic — the worker is skilled and serious, not performing for the camera
Lighting: Interior greenhouse light, late afternoon
Format: 16:9 for web article header
Style reference: Documentary photography, slightly cool and desaturated

Output

PRIMARY FLUX PROMPT

Documentary photograph of a farmworker in their late 40s tending to hydroponic vegetable rows in a large commercial greenhouse, late afternoon, diffuse cool light filtering through the polycarbonate panels above, long rows of leafy green plants in aluminum channels extending into depth, the worker's hands visible and in focus adjusting a plant root bundle, face partially in shadow and looking downward, worn but well-maintained work clothing, practical rubber gloves, slightly cool desaturated color palette, slight grain, 35mm documentary photography aesthetic, no flash, authentic candid moment not posed, quiet dignity --ar 16:9

PROMPT BREAKDOWN

Element	Purpose
`late afternoon, diffuse cool light filtering through polycarbonate panels`	Creates specific, believable greenhouse light — not generic indoor lighting
`hands visible and in focus adjusting a plant root bundle`	Grounds the scene in actual labor — specific action, not static pose
`face partially in shadow and looking downward`	Creates intimacy and avoids the direct-gaze stock photo look
`slightly cool desaturated color palette, slight grain`	Editorial register — away from commercial brightness and sharpness
`authentic candid moment not posed`	Direct instruction to Flux to avoid artificial posing

NEGATIVE PROMPT

smiling, looking at camera, bright white light, commercial photography, stock photo, oversaturated, oversharpened, HDR, perfect skin, professional headshot

VARIATION — Wider environmental shot

Documentary photograph, wide shot of a commercial greenhouse interior at late afternoon, long rows of hydroponic growing channels with leafy vegetables, a solitary farmworker at the far end of one row visible as a small figure against the green, cool diffuse light through overhead panels, condensation on the structure, slight haze in the distance of the greenhouse, cool muted tones, 35mm documentary aesthetic, quiet industrial scale of the operation visible, authentic workplace environment --ar 16:9

Content note: Flux will not generate images of identifiable real people. All characters should be described generically (age range, work context, posture) without referencing any real individual.

Known Limitations

Flux does not generate images of identifiable real people — for editorial contexts requiring a portrait of a real person, AI image generation is not appropriate; this skill is for scene-setting and illustrative imagery only
Flux's interpretation of "documentary" aesthetics may produce results that vary significantly between runs — generating 4–6 variations and selecting is essential for editorial use; do not expect a single generation to be publication-ready
The editorial use of AI-generated images in journalism raises legitimate editorial ethics questions; many publications require disclosure when AI-generated images are used and some prohibit them entirely — the user is responsible for their publication's policy
Very specific environments (particular cities, buildings, geographic features) may not be accurately generated — Flux works better with generic environmental descriptions than with highly specific location references

Related Skills

Use it

Copy one of these into your project. Installing also returns the manifest and these snippets.

yaml

targets:
  - https://api.opensmartroute.ai/api/v1/registry/ur-grue-autopunk-media-skills-editorial-photo-prompt/manifest   # or paste the manifest below

Manifest

An Open Capability Manifest: the router reads it to know what this does, what it costs and when to pick it.

ur-grue-autopunk-media-skills-editorial-photo-prompt.ocm.jsonjson

{
  "ocm": "1",
  "id": "ur-grue-autopunk-media-skills-editorial-photo-prompt",
  "kind": "skill",
  "name": "editorial-photo-prompt",
  "description": "Writes a Flux prompt for editorial-style photography suitable for journalism, documentary, and factual media contexts — images that look authentic, specific, and grounded in the real world rather than idealized or commercial.",
  "publisher": "ur-grue",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "capabilities": {
    "domains": [
      "general"
    ],
    "tags": [
      "skill-md",
      "image-prompting",
      "flux",
      "editorial",
      "photography",
      "journalism",
      "documentary",
      "github"
    ],
    "languages": [
      "en"
    ]
  },
  "quality_prior": 0.6,
  "examples": [
    "Writes a Flux prompt for editorial-style photography suitable for journalism, documentary, and factual media contexts — images that look authentic, specific, and grounded in the real world rather than idealized or commercial."
  ],
  "primary": false,
  "metadata": {
    "source": {
      "provider": "github",
      "repository": "https://github.com/ur-grue/autopunk-media-skills",
      "path": "skills/image-prompting/flux/editorial-photo-prompt/SKILL.md",
      "ref": "39e119bfef25957223d6c44fccab0329e936d2f6",
      "url": "https://github.com/ur-grue/autopunk-media-skills/blob/39e119bfef25957223d6c44fccab0329e936d2f6/skills/image-prompting/flux/editorial-photo-prompt/SKILL.md",
      "key": "ur-grue/autopunk-media-skills/skills/image-prompting/flux/editorial-photo-prompt/SKILL.md"
    }
  },
  "instructions": "# Editorial Photo Prompt\n\n## What This Skill Does\nWrites a Flux prompt for editorial-style photography suitable for journalism, documentary, and factual media contexts — images that look authentic, specific, and grounded in the real world rather than idealized or commercial.\n\n## When To Use This Skill\n- You need an image to accompany a journalism or documentary project and want something that reads as a real photograph, not an illustration or stock photo\n- You are creating visuals for a magazine, newsletter, or editorial website and need images that match the register of documentary photograph",
  "cost": {
    "context_tokens": 2012
  }
}

Fetch it by URL: GET /api/v1/registry/ur-grue-autopunk-media-skills-editorial-photo-prompt/manifest?version=1.0.0

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