Double exposure portrait blended with ocean waves
A tool-agnostic prompt pattern for a double exposure effect merging a human portrait silhouette with crashing ocean waves.
Prompt
A double exposure photograph merging a profile silhouette of a person looking
left with dramatic ocean waves crashing against dark rocks. The person's head
and shoulders form the outer boundary of the composition. Inside the silhouette,
turbulent sea water with white foam fills the shape, blending at the edges where
skin meets wave. The background is clean white, pushing all detail into the
silhouette. High contrast black and white with deep blacks in the hair area
transitioning to bright whites where the wave foam overlaps the face. Fine art
print quality. Shot on large format film with rich tonal range and subtle grain.
Negative prompt
color, cartoon, illustration, text, watermark, low quality, busy backgroundAspect ratio: 2:3
Tool-agnostic: adapt to your generator.
Why this works
Double exposure prompts succeed when they give the generator three clear signals: the outer shape, the inner fill, and the blending behavior.
Outer shape definition — “Profile silhouette of a person looking left” establishes a strong, recognizable boundary. Profile views work better than three-quarter or frontal angles because the outline is unambiguous. Specifying direction (“looking left”) prevents flipped compositions.
Inner fill with energy — “Turbulent sea water with white foam” provides high-contrast, textured content to fill the silhouette. Calm, low-contrast fills (like a still lake) tend to get lost. The foam creates natural bright spots that simulate the double exposure light-leak effect.
Explicit blending language — “Blending at the edges where skin meets wave” directly tells the generator how the two images interact. Without this, many generators will simply overlay the images rather than creating organic transitions.
Clean background — “Background is clean white” is critical. Double exposures fail most often when the background is busy, because the generator cannot determine which layer is foreground and which is fill. White backgrounds force all visual interest into the silhouette.
Monochrome constraint — Black and white removes color-matching complexity. When two subjects have incompatible color palettes, forcing monochrome lets the generator focus on tonal blending instead.
What to change if it fails
- No clear silhouette? Strengthen the boundary by adding “sharply defined silhouette outline” and ensure the background is described as pure white or pure black.
- Waves not visible inside the figure? Make the fill more explicit: “the ocean scene is contained entirely within the person’s silhouette like a window.”
- Too literal / looks like a collage? Add “seamless blend” and “organic transitions between portrait and seascape” to encourage natural merging.
- Want color instead? Remove the monochrome instruction and add “teal ocean tones blending with warm skin tones” to guide the color palette.
- Figure too small? Specify “head and shoulders filling 80% of the frame” to force a tighter crop.
Browse related
ai-generated demonstration · created by imageprompt.com · takedown requests
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