Negative Prompts in Stable Diffusion: A Beginner’s Guide

Stable Diffusion is a deep learning, text-to-image model released in 2022.

It is primarily used to generate detailed images conditioned on text descriptions, though it can also be applied to other tasks such as inpainting, outpainting, and generating image-to-image translations guided by a text prompt.

To use Stable Diffusion and generate art or images as per your desire, you must know some parameters, one of which is a Negative Prompt.

In this guide, you will learn what a negative prompt is in Stable Diffusion and how to use it to generate high-quality images per your defined prompt parameters.

Also, do not forget to check our post on the best stable diffusion anime prompts and try some artwork with it.

Let’s get started!

What is a Negative Prompt In Stable Diffusion

A negative prompt is a way to use Stable Diffusion in a way that allows the user to specify what he doesn’t want to see, without any extra input. It is a parameter that tells the Stable Diffusion model what not to include in the generated image.

Negative prompting influences the generation process by acting as a high-dimension anchor, which the process strays away from. It can also improve the image output by specifying abstract concepts such as “blurry” and “pixelated”.

Negative prompting affects the generation process by acting as a high-dimensional anchor from which the process moves away. This lets the output image be more precisely controlled. Users can use negative prompts to make unique images with more detail and accuracy.

For example, you might have generated a portrait, but sometimes Stable Diffusion provides duplicates, even though you offer it with parameters like ‘Don’t add duplicates’. That’s because it understands negative prompts better than human language.

In that case, what you can do instead of regenerating the same prompt is provide a negative prompt like ‘duplicate’ or ‘poorly Rendered face.’

Here’s what you will get without a negative prompt:

Here’s what you will get by adding a negative prompt such as “Duplicate”:

How to Use Negative Prompts In Stable Diffusion or Dream Studio

Though you might have an idea about using negative prompts in Stable Diffusion, let’s understand this with more examples, and by the end, you will be provided an entire list of negative prompts for stable diffusion that you can use to remove particular objects or enhance your images.

As per the documentation of stability.ai, trying out negative prompts is as simple as putting “| negative prompt>: -1.0” to the prompt in DreamStudio or Stable Diffusion.

An example would be to add “| deformed, ugly: The error “-1.0, too many fingers:-1.0” is sometimes a workaround for the problem of producing an excessive number of fingers.

Now, let’s understand Negative Prompts with another example.

Example #1: Let’s say we generate a hybrid between a German Shephard and a Tiger with this given prompt – a hybrid between a German Shephard:0.7 and a tiger, photography, award-winning, documentary, wildlife, 8k

We provided stable diffusion as a negative prompt.

In response to the following prompt, Stable Diffusion prioritizes German Shephard. You should thus anticipate a visual that demonstrates the priority of a German Shepherd over a Tiger.

In this scenario, Stable Diffusion prioritizes the German Shepherd and then applies the difference (0.3) to the Tiger without user input.

Example #2: Here’s another example, which you can see below.

The first image has bushes and trees surrounding the german architecture generated through a basic prompt.

But the other image shows what will be generated if you add a negative prompt to lower the dominance of Trees near the area.

Complete Negative Prompt List For Stable Diffusion

Here’s the complete list of negative prompts that you can use in Stable Diffusion to remove certain parts of the image that you don’t want to keep:

Universal Negative Prompts for Stable Diffusion

• bad anatomy
• bad proportions
• blurry
• cloned face
• cropped
• deformed
• dehydrated
• disfigured
• duplicate
• error
• extra arms
• extra fingers
• extra legs
• extra limbs
• fused fingers
• gross proportions
• jpeg artifacts
• long neck
• low quality
• lowres
• malformed limbs
• missing arms
• missing legs
• morbid
• mutated hands
• mutation
• mutilated
• out of frame
• poorly drawn face
• poorly drawn hands
• signature
• text
• too many fingers
• ugly
• username
• watermark
• worst quality

General Negative Prompts for Better Images

When working to create images of high quality, these general prompts can be highly beneficial for all image types, regardless of whether you’re using Stable Diffusion or any other image generator:

• Amputee
• Autograph
• Bad anatomy
• Bad illustration
• Bad proportions
• Beyond the borders
• Blank background
• Blurry
• Body out of frame
• Boring background
• Branding
• Cropped
• Cut off
• Deformed
• Disfigured
• Dismembered
• Disproportioned
• Distorted
• Draft
• Duplicate
• Duplicated features
• Extra arms
• Extra fingers
• Extra hands
• Extra legs
• Extra limbs
• Fault
• Flaw
• Fused fingers
• Grains
• Grainy
• Gross proportions
• Hazy
• Identifying mark
• Improper scale
• Incorrect physiology
• Incorrect ratio
• Indistinct
• Kitsch
• Logo
• Long neck
• Low quality
• Low resolution
• Macabre
• Malformed
• Mark
• Misshapen
• Missing arms
• Missing fingers
• Missing hands
• Missing legs
• Mistake
• Morbid
• Mutated hands
• Mutation
• Mutilated
• Off-screen
• Out of frame
• Outside the picture
• Pixelated
• Poorly drawn face
• Poorly drawn feet
• Poorly drawn hands
• Printed words
• Render
• Repellent
• Replicate
• Reproduce
• Revolting dimensions
• Script
• Shortened
• Sign
• Signature
• Split image
• Squint
• Storyboard
• Text
• Tiling
• Trimmed
• Ugly
• Unfocused
• Unattractive
• Unnatural pose
• Unreal engine
• Unsightly
• Watermark
• Written language

Negative Prompts for Different Instances

When creating images with a particular style or environment, you may want to add negative prompts more relevant to the type of art you’re about to generate.

These keywords can also be used for generating images on other AI image tools, provided that you know how to add them to your chosen generator.

Negative Prompts For Landscapes

When you’re creating images of a landscape, natural beauty, or scenic view on Stable Diffusion, these keywords can be used as negative prompts:

• Blurry
• Boring
• Close-up
• Dark (optional)
• Details are low
• Distorted details
• Eerie
• Foggy (optional)
• Gloomy (optional)
• Grains
• Grainy
• Grayscale (optional)
• Homogenous
• Low contrast
• Low quality
• Lowres
• Macro
• Monochrome (optional)
• Multiple angles
• Multiple views
• Opaque
• Overexposed
• Oversaturated
• Plain
• Plain background
• Portrait
• Simple background
• Standard
• Surreal
• Unattractive
• Uncreative
• Underexposed

Negative Prompts For Cityscapes and Street Views

When generating images of cities, streets, buildings, and monuments, you can use the following keywords as negative prompts:

• Animals (optional)
• Asymmetrical buildings
• Blurry
• Cars (optional)
• Close-up
• Creepy
• Deformed structures
• Grainy
• Jpeg artifacts
• Low contrast
• Low quality
• Lowres
• Macro
• Multiple angles
• Multiple views
• Overexposed
• Oversaturated
• People (optional)
• Pets (optional)
• Plain background
• Scary
• Solid background
• Surreal
• Underexposed
• Unreal architecture
• Unreal sky
• Weird colors

Negative Prompts For Images with Portrait Shots of People and Pets

You can create realistic-looking images of people and pets on Stable Diffusion, provided that you add these keywords as negative prompts:

• 3D
• Absent limbs
• Additional appendages
• Additional digits
• Additional limbs
• Altered appendages
• Amputee
• Asymmetric
• Asymmetric ears
• Bad anatomy
• Bad ears
• Bad eyes
• Bad face
• Bad proportions
• Beard (optional)
• Broken finger
• Broken hand
• Broken leg
• Broken wrist
• Cartoon
• Childish (optional)
• Cloned face
• Cloned head
• Collapsed eyeshadow
• Combined appendages
• Conjoined
• Copied visage
• Corpse
• Cripple
• Cropped head
• Cross-eyed
• Depressed
• Desiccated
• Disconnected limb
• Disfigured
• Dismembered
• Disproportionate
• Double face
• Duplicated features
• Eerie
• Elongated throat

Negative Prompts for Inanimate Objects

When you want to generate images of inanimate objects like furniture, appliances, utensils, etc., using Stable Diffusion, consider adding these negative prompts to your list.

• absent
• parts
• added
• components
• asymmetrical
• design
• broken
• cartoonish
• cloned
• collapsed
• complex
• background
• distorted
• distorted
• perspective
• extra
• pieces
• faded
• color
• flawed
• shape
• flipped
• folded
• improper
• proportion
• incomplete
• incorrect
• geometry
• inverted
• kitsch
• low
• quality
• low
• resolution
• macabre
• misaligned
• parts
• misshapen
• missing
• parts
• mutated
• off-center
• out
• of
• focus
• over-saturated
• color
• overexposed
• oversized
• poorly
• rendered
• replica
• surreal
• tilted
• underexposed
• unrealistic
• upside
• down

Negative Prompts for Nature and Wildlife Photography

To create images of animals, birds, insects, plants, or wildlife, consider using these negative prompts to ensure realistic and natural-looking output.

• abstract
• amputated
• animal
• face
• anime
• artificial
• asymmetrical
• bad
• anatomy
• cartoon
• cgi
• cloned
• collapsed
• deformed
• distorted
• extra
• limbs
• fantasy
• foggy
• grainy
• human
• face
• incomplete
• low
• quality
• low
• resolution
• lowres
• malformed
• missing
• parts
• monochrome
• mutated
• over-saturated
• color
• overexposed
• photoshopped
• scary
• silhouette
• sketch
• surreal
• twisted
• underexposed
• unfocused
• unreal
• engine

Negative Prompts for Creating Abstract Art

Abstract art can also be generated using Stable Diffusion. You can use these negative prompts to ensure that the AI doesn’t interpret your prompts in an undesired way.

• 3d
• render
• anatomically
• correct
• animals
• body
• parts
• buildings
• cartoon
• characters
• cityscape
• concrete
• detailed
• faces
• figurative
• human
• figure
• landscape
• literal
• low
• resolution
• lowres
• monochrome
• people
• photorealistic
• portrait
• realistic
• scenery
• sharp
• edges
• sketch
• symmetrical
• text

Negative Prompts for Creating Pictures of Food

If you want to generate awesome pictures of food and drinks, the following negative prompts can be useful.

• asymmetrical
• badly
• cooked
• black
• and
• white
• blurry
• burnt
• cartoon
• cgi
• cold
• dark
• distorted
• expired
• grainy
• human
• parts
• incomplete
• low
• resolution
• lowres
• moldy
• mutated
• overcooked
• oversaturated
• rotten
• sculpture
• sketch
• soggy
• sour
• stale
• undercooked
• unfocused
• unrealistic
• upside
• down

The negative prompts listed above should give you a good starting point for generating images of high quality.

We hope that our guide was able to help you grasp the negative prompts parameter in Stable Diffusion and that you will use what you’ve learned to produce even more impressive works of art.

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FAQs: Stable Diffusion Negative Prompts