What happens when you stop asking AI to make sensible pictures?
I’ve been having a slightly ridiculous amount of fun with AI image generation lately. The more I play with it, the more I’ve realised that the best results don’t necessarily come from asking it to create something useful or realistic. Sometimes the most interesting thing you can do is take a completely ordinary idea and make it completely, spectacularly unreasonable.
That was how Larger Than Life came about. I started experimenting with the idea of keeping myself completely normal-sized while making the objects around me enormous. Not subtly oversized. Not slightly bigger than usual. I mean ridiculously oversized objects that make absolutely no sense in the real world.
And somehow, that makes them much more interesting.
The first idea was a handbag. Which, if you think about it, is already a fairly ridiculous object. We carry around these tiny pieces of real estate containing everything from our keys and phones to receipts we don’t remember collecting. So I thought, why not remove the limitations altogether and make the handbag approximately the size of a building?
The giant handbag
The idea was to create a luxury fashion campaign in which I’m casually leaning against an enormous bright pink designer tote, as though this is a perfectly normal thing to do on a Tuesday afternoon. The important part was that I remained completely normal-sized. The handbag was the thing that needed the inflated sense of self-importance.
I love the contrast between the seriousness of the photography and the absurdity of the concept. Everything looks like a high-end fashion advertisement – the lighting, styling, composition and pose – except that there is an enormous handbag sitting next to me. It is exactly the sort of image that makes you look twice.
Larger than life handbag prompt*
Create a photorealistic editorial fashion image based on the supplied reference images.
Use the attached photograph of the person as the identity reference. The person must remain exactly recognizable as the individual in the supplied photograph. Preserve their identity with maximum fidelity, including their facial structure, face shape, eyes, eyebrows, nose, lips, jawline, cheekbones, natural skin tone, complexion, hair colour, hair texture, hairline, hairstyle and distinctive facial characteristics. Do not substitute, redesign, idealize or genericize the face. Do not make the person look like a different model. Identity preservation is the highest priority.
Recreate the composition of the supplied oversized pink handbag reference image.
The scene is a high-end commercial fashion campaign photograph on a clean, seamless off-white/very pale warm-grey studio background. Place an enormous, luxurious hot-pink/fuchsia leather tote handbag in the centre of the image. The handbag should be dramatically oversized, approximately several times larger than a normal handbag, with a wide rectangular silhouette, structured but softly rounded edges, subtle natural leather grain, realistic stitching and two very long rounded leather shoulder handles. The bag should have realistic dimensional depth and construction, with a visible side gusset and slightly open top.
The supplied person is full-body and standing/leaning casually against the right side of the enormous handbag, creating the visual illusion that the handbag is gigantic. They should be substantially smaller than the bag, approximately life-size compared with a normal person but dwarfed by the oversized accessory.
Reproduce the pose and overall visual relationship of the reference: the person is positioned on the right side of the handbag, leaning comfortably against it with a relaxed, confident fashion-editorial posture. Their arms are loosely crossed. Their expression is warm, natural and confident, with a genuine subtle smile.
Dress the person in an elegant, understated contemporary outfit: a soft blush/light beige long-sleeved blouse with a relaxed feminine fit, paired with slim white or ivory trousers and elegant nude pointed-toe heels. Keep the styling sophisticated, minimal and polished so that the enormous pink handbag remains the visual focus.
The handbag should dominate the frame and occupy most of the composition. Its pink colour should be vibrant, saturated and luxurious, with realistic highlights and shadows rather than a flat artificial colour. The leather should look tactile and premium.
Use professional studio photography, soft diffused lighting, subtle floor shadow, realistic contact shadows where the person touches the handbag, natural skin texture, realistic fabric and leather textures, accurate anatomy and believable proportions. The image should look like a premium luxury fashion advertising campaign photographed with a high-end full-frame camera, not an illustration or CGI render.
Composition: vertical portrait orientation, full handbag visible from base to handles, person fully visible from head to shoes, generous clean negative space around the composition, camera positioned approximately at waist/chest height with a slightly wide fashion-editorial perspective. Keep the handbag centred and the person on the right, matching the visual balance of the reference.
Important: The handbag may be exaggerated in scale, but the person’s body proportions and anatomy must remain completely natural. Do not enlarge or distort the person’s face or body. Keep the person’s exact identity and recognizability from their supplied photograph while changing their clothing, pose and environment to match this campaign concept.
Photorealistic. Luxury fashion advertising. High detail. Natural skin. Realistic materials. Realistic lighting. Clean studio background. No text, no logos, no watermark.
Then I put myself inside a bubble
Once I had discovered that AI was quite happy to completely ignore the normal laws of scale, I decided to see what would happen if I took the idea in a completely different direction. Instead of making an object enormous beside me, I wanted to put myself inside one.
Enter the giant glass bubble.
This one was much more about creating something beautiful and surreal. I wanted the bubble to look almost impossibly luxurious: perfectly spherical, crystal clear, with luminous edges, subtle iridescence, reflections and refractions that would make it feel like an expensive piece of glass rather than a giant soap bubble.
The challenge was making sure I was genuinely inside it. Not standing in front of it. Not partially outside it. Completely enclosed within it, floating slightly above the ground. Once you start giving AI instructions like that, you realise just how specific you have to be if you have an image in your head that you want it to reproduce.
Larger than life bubble prompt*
Use the uploaded selfie as the sole identity reference for the person in this image. Preserve the person’s identity with maximum possible fidelity. Their face must remain unmistakably the same person as in the reference photo. Maintain their exact facial structure, face shape, eyes, eye shape and spacing, eyebrows, nose, lips, mouth shape, jawline, cheekbones, chin, forehead, natural skin tone, complexion, hair colour, hair texture, hairline, hairstyle and all distinctive facial characteristics. Do not substitute, redesign, idealise, beautify, age, de-age or genericise their face. Do not make them look like a different model. Identity preservation is the highest priority.
Create a polished, whimsical, surreal fashion-editorial portrait of the person sitting inside a huge transparent iridescent soap bubble floating slightly above the ground.
The person is seated in a compact, playful crouched pose inside the bubble, with one knee raised and the other leg folded underneath. Their body is angled slightly toward the camera. One arm is lifted upward with the hand raised in a relaxed, playful wave. The other arm extends outward and downward, with the hand relaxed near the edge of the bubble.
Dress the person in a fitted long-sleeved taupe/soft grey scoop-neck top, fitted blue denim jeans and elegant nude/beige pointed-toe high heels. Keep the clothing sophisticated, contemporary and realistic, with natural fabric texture and believable folds.
The bubble should be enormous and perfectly transparent, surrounding the person like a magical spherical capsule. Give it beautiful iridescent rainbow reflections, delicate highlights, realistic glassy translucency and subtle soap-film colour shifts. The person should clearly appear to be physically inside the bubble.
Surround the main bubble with numerous smaller floating transparent bubbles at different distances and sizes. Include a few large bubbles partially entering the frame around the edges to create depth and a dreamy, immersive composition.
Set the entire scene against a soft pastel blush-pink background, with a clean studio aesthetic. Use soft, flattering diffused lighting, subtle reflections and realistic shadows. The large bubble should cast a soft floating shadow beneath it, making it appear suspended just above the floor.
Composition should feel like a high-end surreal fashion campaign / luxury beauty editorial, playful and sophisticated rather than childish. Photorealistic person, realistic anatomy, realistic hands and feet, natural skin texture, detailed hair, physically plausible lighting and reflections.
Vertical portrait composition, full body visible, subject centred within the large bubble, generous negative space around the bubble, premium commercial photography, ultra-detailed, photorealistic, cinematic studio lighting, crisp focus on the person, shallow atmospheric depth around the surrounding bubbles.
Do not change the person’s identity. Do not create a generic attractive woman/man. Do not use a different face. Do not alter distinctive facial features. Do not excessively smooth the skin. Do not change their ethnicity, apparent age, hair colour or facial proportions. The uploaded selfie determines the person’s appearance.
And why not chill in a Martini glass?
This one is completely random. And yet, somehow, it feels appropriate for so many situations in life.
I mean, who wouldn’t occasionally like to climb into a giant Martini glass, put their feet up and simply opt out of reality for a while?
In my head, this is exactly what Friday night is going to look like. Me, lounging in a giant Martini, looking effortlessly glamorous, drink in hand, not a single responsibility in sight.
In reality, I have two little ones. So let’s just say this is less of a realistic Friday-night plan and more of a visual representation of the fantasy.
But that’s the fun of these prompts. You can take an ordinary photo of yourself and turn it into something completely ridiculous, glamorous and wonderfully impossible. And honestly, if AI is going to let us do that, why wouldn’t we?
Larger than life Martini glass prompt*
Use my uploaded photograph as the sole identity reference for the person in this image. Create a high-end, photorealistic luxury editorial photograph with a playful surreal concept: I am reclining inside an enormous classic martini glass, dramatically oversized so that I can realistically fit inside it.
Keep me unmistakably recognizable as the person in my uploaded photograph. Preserve my natural facial structure, face shape, eyes, eyebrows, nose, lips, jawline, cheekbones, chin, skin tone, complexion, hair colour, hair texture, hairline and hairstyle. Do not beautify, idealize, age, de-age, or redesign my face. I should look like a real photograph of me, not an AI-generated person.
I am reclining comfortably inside the bowl of the oversized martini glass. My back is physically supported against the inside of the glass. My body follows the natural slope of the glass. My bottom is positioned directly in the centre of the lowest point of the martini glass bowl, visibly making contact with the bottom of the bowl. My body must not appear to be floating. My legs extend upward and outward from my body and pass over the top rim of the glass, with my legs clearly remaining outside the glass once they cross the rim. My legs must NOT pass through, intersect, or appear to emerge through the glass wall. The glass should be large enough and correctly proportioned to make this physically convincing. Keep the anatomy completely natural: two legs, two feet, two arms and anatomically correct hands. One arm can rest casually over the rim of the glass while the other hand holds a small martini glass in a playful toast. The overall pose should feel relaxed, confident, glamorous and fun rather than stiff.
The vessel must unmistakably look like a traditional martini glass: A large, wide straight-sided conical bowl The sides of the bowl should be straight diagonal lines, not curved or rounded A crisp, wide circular rim A narrow elegant stem A substantial circular foot/base Crystal-clear, highly realistic glass Accurate transparent glass refraction and reflections Do not turn the vessel into a cocktail bowl, coupe, fishbowl, wine glass or curved goblet. It must retain the classic triangular martini-glass silhouette.
Dress me in a chic expensive looking outfit with lots of cream and blush. Think bright pink skinny pants with a blush blouse and cream slingback pointed flat shoes. DRINK Fill the oversized martini glass with a very pale, slightly warm yellow/clear liquid, resembling a classic dry martini. The liquid should be subtle rather than strongly yellow or amber. Add realistic liquid reflections, refractions and a few suspended droplets around the glass to create a sophisticated splash effect.
Create a premium studio advertising photograph with: Soft neutral grey gradient background Clean reflective studio floor Dramatic but elegant studio lighting Realistic shadows Highly detailed transparent glass Natural skin texture Realistic hair strands Accurate fabric and denim texture Cinematic depth and professional fashion-editorial photography Photorealistic proportions and perspective The final image should look like an expensive luxury advertising campaign photograph, not an illustration or CGI render.
The woman, liquid and glass must occupy the same physical space convincingly. Her bottom must visibly rest against the lowest central interior of the bowl, her back must contact the inner glass surface, and her legs must clearly cross over the rim rather than passing through the glass. Adjust the size and proportions of the martini glass as necessary to make this pose physically believable. Final aesthetic: sophisticated, playful, glamorous, surreal and photorealistic, with the person’s real identity preserved above everything else.
And why not make coffee the size of a small car?
Coffee is already doing a lot of heavy lifting in my life, so honestly, I think it deserves a little more recognition.
This prompt takes the humble coffee machine and turns it into an absolutely enormous piece of kitchen machinery, with me sitting underneath it waiting for my coffee to arrive. Because apparently, when your coffee machine is this big, so is your caffeine commitment.
In this case, what happens is apparently me becoming the world’s most committed coffee drinker.
Larger than life coffee machine prompt*
Use the supplied selfie as the sole identity reference for the person in this image. Create a high-end, photorealistic luxury editorial photograph with a surreal, playful concept: the person from the uploaded selfie is sitting on the drip tray of an enormous, dramatically oversized premium espresso machine, as though the coffee machine is several times larger than them.
IDENTITY PRESERVATION IS THE HIGHEST PRIORITY.
The person must remain exactly recognizable as the individual in the supplied photograph. Preserve their identity with maximum possible fidelity, including their facial structure, face shape, eyes, eye shape and spacing, eyebrows, nose, lips, mouth shape, jawline, cheekbones, chin, forehead, natural skin tone, complexion, hair colour, hair texture, hairline, hairstyle and all distinctive facial characteristics. Do not substitute, redesign, idealize, beautify, age, de-age, genericize or reinterpret the face. Do not make the person look like a different model. Their face should look like the actual person from the reference selfie, naturally integrated into the scene. Composition Show the person full-body, seated casually on the large espresso machine’s drip tray. Their body should be realistically proportioned relative to the machine, emphasizing the enormous scale of the appliance. Keep the clothing understated so the surreal scale of the espresso machine remains the visual focus. They are sitting with their legs naturally extended toward the right side of the coffee machine with a slight bend and feet dangling over edge, with one hand resting casually on the drip tray for support. Above them is an enormous luxury stainless-steel espresso machine with a warm champagne/rose-gold metallic finish. The machine should feel like a beautifully designed, expensive professional espresso machine, with: an oversized portafilter huge black portafilter handle extending dramatically toward the left foreground large circular pressure gauge polished chrome details multiple metallic buttons and controls oversized steam wand transparent water reservoir realistic drip tray and grating highly reflective brushed and polished metal surfaces intricate mechanical details The espresso machine should occupy most of the frame, towering over the person and creating a humorous forced-perspective illusion. The person is positioned directly beneath the group head and is looking upward toward the espresso spout with their mouth open, playfully attempting to catch a tiny stream of freshly brewed espresso directly from the machine. A small, realistic stream of dark coffee is visibly falling from the spout in their mouth. Their head is back so the coffee steam goes easily in. Keep their mouth open but do not exaggerate the size.
Photography & aesthetic Make the image look like a premium luxury advertising campaign mixed with surreal editorial photography. Photorealistic human anatomy, realistic skin texture, natural facial detail, realistic hands and fingers, physically accurate reflections, realistic metallic surfaces and believable lighting. Use a warm blush-beige / soft dusty pink studio background, with a sophisticated monochromatic palette of champagne, rose gold, cream, blush and warm metallic tones. Use soft cinematic studio lighting, subtle shadows and beautiful highlights across the chrome and metallic surfaces. Shallow depth of field where appropriate, but keep both the person and the important espresso-machine details sufficiently sharp. Camera perspective should emphasize the extreme size difference between the person and the espresso machine. Use a slightly low, close editorial perspective so the machine feels enormous and imposing while the person remains clearly visible.
The final image should feel expensive, whimsical, absurd and visually striking, like a luxury coffee advertisement that has been taken to a surreal extreme. Photorealism is essential. Give plenty of space around the coffee machine. No illustration, cartoon, CGI-looking person, plastic skin, distorted anatomy, duplicated limbs, extra fingers, malformed hands, warped facial features or generic replacement face. The person must look unmistakably like the individual in the uploaded selfie. Make sure the coffee drip is falling in the mouth.
The joy of making something completely unnecessary
We spend so much time asking technology to make things easier, faster and more practical that it’s surprisingly enjoyable to use it for the opposite.
I don’t need a giant handbag. I don’t need to live inside a glass bubble. But I really enjoy seeing what happens when you take something ordinary and push the idea to an absurd extreme.
That’s what makes AI image generation so fascinating to me. The technology is impressive, but the real fun is in the creativity you give it.
You can find more AI Prompts here.
*For the best results, copy and paste the entire prompt shown in green italics, without leaving anything out. Then upload a photo of yourself along with the prompt. For the most accurate results, use a clear full-length photo so the AI can better capture your proportions, pose and overall appearance.