What I’ve learned after 1,500+ hours of working with AI. AI understands cameras better than it understands “realism.” Lens, distance and lighting will get you much further than writing “ultra realistic” ten times. A new AI tool rarely replaces an old one. Usually, it just becomes better at two or three very specific things. One of the hardest things to ask AI is “keep everything exactly the same.” Changing the whole image is often easier than changing one tiny detail. The more control you try to have, the fewer unexpectedly great results you get. Sometimes the best thing you can do to a prompt is delete half of it. “Almost perfect” is the most expensive result. A bad generation gets deleted immediately. An almost perfect one can easily cost you another 20 attempts. One image can go through four different AI tools, not because none of them worked, but because each one does one part of the job better. After 1,500+ hours, my prompts have actually become shorter, while my briefs have become much more precise. Those are not the same thing. 1,500 hours ago, my main question was “How do I make this?” Now it’s much more often “Is this even worth making?”