Making art using DALL·E 3 involves considering your words alongside your thoughts. A great prompt does not only recount a moment; it helps the AI understand your requirements in a lucid, stylistic, and artistic manner.
If you are a beginner or are looking to refine your images and give them a more professional touch, mastering prompt structure and examples will give you desirable results. In this article, we will break down dall e prompt examples at every level. Beginners will start with simple prompts and progress to more advanced methods like using prompt weighting and modifiers.
In this article
Basic Prompt Examples for Beginners
When you're just starting your DALL·E journey, keeping things simple is the best way to get strong, visually pleasing results. Beginner prompts should follow a clean and straightforward formula:
Subject + Style.
Avoid adding too many complex descriptors or extra effects early on. Instead, focus on one main object and pair it with a clear artistic style. This helps you understand how DALL·E interprets instructions without overwhelming the model—or yourself.
Here are five beginner-friendly prompts designed for clarity and style recognition:
- "A cute cat wearing sunglasses, digital painting"

Think of a playful, cartoon-style cat with exaggerated features and colorful vibes. This prompt delivers soft brush textures, bold outlines, and a fun, approachable tone.
- "A cozy cabin in a snowy forest, watercolor style"

This creates a peaceful scene with gentle shading and natural colors. You'll get a textured, paper-like backdrop and soft edges that evoke a wintry postcard.
- "An astronaut holding a balloon, Pixar-style 3D render"

Perfect for beginners exploring 3D-style renders. Expect round, friendly character design, bright tones, and a slightly cinematic vibe that feels cheerful and polished.
- "A bouquet of wildflowers, oil painting"

This generates a bold, colorful composition with heavy brush strokes. The result mimics a real oil painting and delivers a traditional fine-art feel.
- "A vintage bicycle near a coffee shop, sketch art"

This leans into fine ink-style lines and monochrome or sepia tones. It creates a detailed yet minimalistic image that captures the mood of urban relaxation.
Each of these beginner prompts teaches you how DALL·E responds to simple subject-style combinations, laying a strong foundation for more advanced creative work later on.
Intermediate-Level Prompt Examples
Once you're confident with basic inputs, it's time to start layering in more detail. At the intermediate level, prompts become more nuanced by including mood, color themes, lighting style, and camera angles. This is where your prompts begin to look more like storyboards.
Here are five prompts that blend artistic control with visual storytelling:
- "A golden retriever playing in autumn leaves, warm color palette, DSLR photo style"

You get a natural, realistic photo with motion blur, crisp textures, and warm tones like amber and orange. The nostalgic vibe adds emotional depth to the image.
- "A futuristic city at night, neon glow, isometric 3D view"

This prompt delivers clean lines and a cyberpunk feel. The geometric layout and neon palette enhance the sense of modernity and energy.
- "A medieval knight standing in a foggy forest, cinematic lighting, dark green palette"

Here, the mood is dramatic and moody. DALL·E uses shadow and fog to build tension, making the knight look noble and mysterious.
- "A child with balloons over mountains, illustrated storybook style"

Expect dreamy tones, soft textures, and wide framing. The image resembles a scene from a children's book, with imaginative and gentle energy.
- "A close-up of a steaming coffee cup on a wooden table, moody lighting, photorealism"

Great for exploring realistic detail. You'll see reflections on the cup, wood grain on the table, and steam rising softly. It's textured and atmospheric.
These examples show how detail layering improves visual tone, lighting precision, and storytelling depth. Each added element—like camera type or lighting mood—makes the prompt feel more directed and intentional.
Advanced Prompt Examples for DALL·E 3
At the advanced stage, you unlock the full potential of prompt crafting by using tools like prompt weighting, negative cues, and style emphasis. These let you guide DALL·E 3 with laser focus—helping avoid unwanted results and highlight the features you truly want.
Explore these complex yet controlled prompts:
- "A samurai standing under cherry blossoms (samurai:1.3), soft wind, cinematic depth of field, avoid cartoon style, ultra-detailed"

This prioritizes the samurai as the central focus while softly blurring the background. The cinematic tone and high detail produce a deeply immersive image, far from cartoonish interpretations.
- "A surreal dreamscape with melting clocks, inspired by Salvador Dali, oil on canvas, dark surreal palette, avoid low-quality textures"

Here, you guide DALL·E to mimic an artistic master. Expect a warped reality with deep shadows, rich colors, and carefully styled abstraction.
- "An underwater with glowing coral reefs, wide-angle lens, photorealistic, avoid blurry, low-resolution details"

By mentioning lens type and clarity expectations, this prompt forces the AI to focus on sharpness and scope. You'll get a high-resolution underwater fantasy scene that feels tangible.
- "A steampunk inventor's lab interior, ultra-realistic 3D render, golden tones, volumetric lighting, (details:1.5)"

You'll see fine-tuned shadows, glowing brass, and atmospheric fog—like a movie set frozen in time. The prompt weighting gives emphasis to the background elements.
- "A fantasy elf archer in battle, dynamic motion blur, overcast lighting, 4K CGI, avoid anime style"

This prompt rejects cartoon styling and goes full realism. DALL·E responds with cinematic framing, sharp highlights, and believable action.
Advanced prompts like these teach you to control the creative output. With precision tools, your images start looking like stills from a film or pages from an illustrated novel.
Prompt Comparison Showcase
Sometimes, the most helpful insight comes from side-by-side comparisons. Let's see how small differences in prompts—or model versions—affect the final image.
Concept: "A serene lake at sunset"
- Prompt 1 (Photograph style):
"A serene lake at sunset, DSLR photograph, golden hour lighting"

→ The result captures soft sunlight reflecting off the water, realistic trees in the background, and a warm, peaceful feeling.
- Prompt 2 (Watercolor style):
"A serene lake at sunset, watercolor painting"

→ Instead of realism, you'll see pastel tones, light blending, and soft edges. The scene feels dreamier, like a hand-painted postcard.
Concept: "A robot playing the violin" – DALL·E 2 vs. DALL·E 3
- DALL·E 2:

The result is creative but lacks detail—especially in the robot's fingers and violin strings. The composition feels a bit flat and less expressive.
- DALL·E 3:

The same prompt generates a striking image: better posture, defined hand movement, and glowing highlights on the violin. Facial expression and background lighting give the robot more character.
These comparisons highlight just how much prompt structure and model advancements matter. A few tweaks can elevate an image from generic to gallery-worthy.
Bonus Tip: Turn DALL·E Prompts into Videos Using Filmora

Once you've crafted a prompt that sparks an amazing image with DALL·E 3, why stop there? Take your AI-generated art to the next level by transforming it into full video content using Wondershare Filmora - AI Script to Video feature.
This tool allows you to input a written prompt or description just like what you'd give DALL·E—and it will automatically create scenes, select stock or AI visuals, add transitions, sync music, and even generate voiceovers. It's an effortless way to bring your creative concepts to life, especially if you're not a professional video editor.
Why it's useful:
- Turn AI-generated art prompts into animated explainers, concept videos, or product demos
- Create TikTok, Instagram Reels, or YouTube Shorts straight from your prompt ideas
- Streamline content creation with a beginner-friendly AI workflow
Pair your DALL·E art with Filmora's video generation to build full multimedia projects in just minutes. Whether you're showcasing a fantasy landscape, a surreal visual story, or a futuristic product ad, this combo can save you hours of editing time.
Try Filmora's Script-to-Video and download here in the official website of Wondershare Filmora
Conclusion
Strong prompts lead to strong results. Whether you're just starting with subject + style combos or experimenting with cinematic realism and prompt weighting, every level of DALL·E use benefits from examples and structure.
Keep testing, tweaking, and learning. Great AI art comes from great ideas—shaped by even better prompts.