The best Nano Banana prompts

What makes a good Nano Banana prompt, plus copy-and-paste examples for product photos and edits.

Nano Banana is Google's image model, the one inside Gemini. It is unusually good at editing existing images and following detailed instructions, which makes it genuinely useful for product shots rather than just pretty art. The prompts that work are specific about subject, setting, lighting, and framing. Vague prompts get vague results, so the trick is to describe the photo you want as if you were directing a photographer.

How to write a Nano Banana prompt

Name four things: the subject, the setting, the lighting, and the shot. 'A product on a table' is weak. 'A matte black water bottle on a pale oak table, soft morning light from the left, shallow depth of field, shot from slightly above' gives the model something to work with. For edits, describe the change and, just as important, what to keep: 'keep the product exactly the same, replace only the background.' The more you constrain it, the less it drifts.

It also helps to describe the camera, not just the scene. Lens, angle, and light do most of the work in a real photo, and Nano Banana responds to that vocabulary: close-up, eye-level, 50mm, soft diffused light, hard shadow, golden hour.

Product photo prompts

Hero shot: 'A [product] centered on a clean light-gray studio background, soft even lighting, a subtle reflection underneath, sharp focus, photographed like a premium ecommerce listing.'

Lifestyle: 'A [product] resting on a linen surface next to a coffee cup and a small plant, warm natural window light, cozy morning mood, shallow depth of field.'

In-hand: 'A hand holding a [product] against a softly blurred outdoor background, golden-hour light, casual and authentic, like a photo a customer would take on their phone.'

Flat lay: 'A top-down flat lay of a [product] with its packaging and a few related props arranged neatly on a stone surface, even daylight, plenty of negative space for text.'

On-model: 'A person using a [product] in a bright kitchen, mid-action, natural candid expression, soft daylight, shot at eye level.'

Editing prompts

Background swap: 'Keep the product identical, replace the background with a marble bathroom counter, and match the lighting to the new scene.'

Cleanup: 'Remove the clutter behind the product and leave everything else unchanged.'

Color variant: 'Change the product color from blue to forest green, keeping the shape, label, and lighting exactly the same.'

Relight: 'Keep the composition, relight the scene as warm golden-hour light coming from the right.'

Prompts built for ecommerce

If the goal is a store, a few prompts earn their keep on repeat. A clean white-background version for marketplace listings: 'the same product on a pure white seamless background, even shadowless lighting, centered, ecommerce catalog style.' Seasonal variants from one base image: 'the same product styled for autumn, warm tones, a few dried leaves, soft window light.' And scale references: 'the same product held in a hand to show its real size, neutral background.' One good base image plus edit prompts gets you a whole catalog without reshooting.

Mistakes that waste generations

Being vague. 'Make it look nice' gives the model no direction, and you get a different random photo every time. Changing too much at once: if you swap the background, recolor the product, and add props in one edit, the model tends to lose the product, so do one change per prompt. And not locking the product. When editing, always say what must stay identical, or Nano Banana will quietly redesign your packaging.

Tips that actually help

Generate a few variations and pick one rather than chasing a single perfect prompt. Keep a base image you trust and edit from it, instead of regenerating from scratch each time. And save the prompts that work, because a small personal library beats rewriting the same description every week.

Running Nano Banana without the setup

If you would rather not jump between tools, Storista runs Nano Banana and other models in one place alongside its video generation, so you can make the product image and the product video in the same workflow, with your catalog already connected.