Short answer: Upload the photo, say exactly what to change, and say what must not change: "Every other pixel in the image must be left untouched. Do not re-render, re-light or re-colour the image; this is a local repair." Then describe what fills the gap (shadows and reflections included), make one change per message, and check the result at full size before you use it.
Image models are good at editing now. Gemini's documentation lists it plainly: "Provide an image and use text prompts to add, remove, or modify elements, change the style, or adjust the color grading." The trouble is that a short request like "remove the car" often comes back as a whole new picture: slightly different faces, different light, a street that is no longer quite yours. The prompts below are written to stop that, and each one shows what it made.
How do you remove an object from a photo?
Name the object and where it is, ask for the gap to be filled with what was behind it, and remove its shadow and reflection too. This is Prompt Gallery's Remove Object prompt; change the first sentence to your object and the Light line to your photo's light (the gallery's prompts also end with a line asking for an original result, left out here to keep them short):
Remove the parked car on the right of the frame from the reference photo. The finished image must show no car at all.
Fill: whatever the surrounding scene implies was behind it, continued naturally. Shadows and reflections: also remove the shadow it cast and any reflection of it in nearby surfaces.
Scope: every other pixel in the image must be left untouched. Do not re-render, re-light or re-colour the image; this is a local repair.
Seam quality: match the grain, noise and sharpness of the surrounding photograph exactly. Perspective lines, textures, patterns and edges running through the repaired area must continue correctly across it, with no smearing, repetition or blur where the object used to be.
Light: soft diffused daylight from a large window; the repaired area must match the existing light direction and colour temperature.
Output: same framing and resolution as the input, no visible trace of the removal.How do you change the background of a photo?
Ask for the new background, then spend most of the prompt on the edges and the light. A pasted look comes from hair with a halo, light from the wrong side and a missing shadow at the feet:
Replace the background behind the subject from the reference photo.
New background: open landscape under sky, under warm low golden-hour sun with long shadows.
Lighting: relight the subject so the key direction, colour temperature and shadow hardness match the new background. Edges matter more than the backdrop: hair, shoulders and any fine detail must keep clean, believable separation with no halo, no cut-out fringe and no flat pasted look. Add a correct contact shadow where the subject meets the ground.
Depth: a shallow depth of field, background clearly defocused.
Identity: Preserve the exact facial identity, bone structure, skin tone and hair of the reference with no stylisation of the face. Pose, wardrobe and expression are unchanged.
Output: vertical 4:5 framing, photorealistic, sharp.How do you translate the text in an image?
Ask for the language, and for the text to keep its typeface, colour and the way it sits on the surface. Everything that is not text stays:
Translate all the text inside the reference image into German.
Scope: every piece of text in the image. Typography: reproduce the original typeface, weight, colour, tracking and alignment exactly. Surface: the new text must curve, warp, catch light and sit under any reflection exactly as the original did.
The rest of the image: every non-text pixel is left exactly as it is. Layout, product, packaging shape, colours, photography and soft diffused daylight from a large window all stay exactly as they are.
Accuracy: the translation must be correct, idiomatic German, correctly spelled and correctly accented. Do not invent words, do not produce approximate letterforms, and do not leave any original-language text behind.
Output: same framing and resolution as the input, text crisp and legible.Read every line of the result. Here the model translated the label and kept its type, but left one line in English, and misspelled it, despite the prompt asking for exactly the opposite. Send a short follow-up ("The line 'For glewing skin' is still in English; translate it to German and change nothing else"), or fix that one line yourself.
How do you make someone look older or younger?
Ask for a change in structure, not wrinkles drawn on the same face, and keep the identity:
Age the subject from the reference photo to a different point in their life.
Target: roughly two decades older, rendered as a single portrait at the target age.
Method: change the underlying structure, not just the surface. Adjust facial fat distribution, skin elasticity, hairline and hair colour, brow and eyelid position, and how the jaw and neck carry weight. Do not simply draw wrinkles over the same face.
Identity: Preserve the exact facial identity, bone structure, skin tone and hair of the reference with no stylisation of the face; the person must stay unmistakably the same person, only older or younger. Keep the eye colour, the bone structure and any distinctive marks.
Look: soft diffused daylight from a large window, photorealistic, neutral background, same camera angle and crop as the reference.
Output: square 1:1 framing, sharp focus on the eyes.Why does the AI change the whole picture when I ask for one edit?
Because image models redraw the image rather than paint over a part of it, so anything you do not pin down may drift. Three habits keep an edit local:
- Say what stays. "Every other pixel must be left untouched" and "same framing and resolution as the input" are the most useful lines in every prompt above.
- One change per message. "Remove the car and make it sunset" invites a new picture; two messages keep each change small.
- Go back to the original. After several edits in a row, faces and textures slowly drift. Start a new chat from the original photo with all the changes in one careful prompt.
Can you edit photos of other people?
Only with their permission. A swapped background or an aged face is still that person, and sharing it is sharing their likeness. Never use editing to make it look as if someone was somewhere or did something they did not.
Where can you check this?
Where can you find more photo editing prompts?
Prompt Gallery has the object, background and translation prompts and five more editing prompts (upscaling, more natural skin on AI portraits, anonymising a person, colourizing an old photo and removing text), each with its result and the models it was written for. Age Shift is under People & Characters, in Makeovers & Try-Ons. Open one and use Customize to add your details before you copy it.
