Nano Banana Prompts: How to Edit Photos with Gemini AI

Nano Banana is the name that stuck for Google's Gemini photo-editing model, and right now it's the thing most people mean when they say they "edited a photo with AI." It lives inside the free Gemini app: upload a photo, type what you want changed in plain English, and it does the edit while keeping the person's face recognisable. That last part is why it's spreading so fast. Most AI image tools struggle to keep a face consistent once you start changing the background, the outfit or the style; Nano Banana is noticeably better at it, which is why the same face keeps showing up in different scenes across Instagram and WhatsApp right now.

In India specifically, the searches jumping this week aren't just "nano banana." They include "gemini omni," "gemini tahir editz" and "banana prompts xyz," which are mostly people chasing the same trend from different angles: prompt pages sharing what works, and a fair bit of confusion about which Gemini feature does what. This piece covers how Nano Banana actually works, the prompt structure that gets good results, more than 20 copy-paste prompts by category, and what it costs to use in India.

How to use Nano Banana

It works the same way whether you're doing a quick fix or a full restyle:

1. Open the Gemini app (or Google AI Studio on desktop).
2. Tap the + icon and upload the photo you want to edit.
3. Type a plain-English prompt describing exactly what you want changed.
4. Send it. The edited image usually comes back in under 30 seconds.
5. Refine it with a follow-up instruction, like "keep the same layout but make the lighting warmer," instead of starting over from scratch.

On multi-turn edits, one or two changes per follow-up works better than stacking five instructions into a single message. Ask for too much at once and the model's grip on consistency starts to slip.

Why it's different

The standout strength is likeness consistency: the same person, recognisable, across completely different settings, outfits and styles. That's harder than it sounds, and it's the specific thing most of the viral prompts below are built around. It also supports multi-turn editing, so you can keep refining one image with follow-up instructions rather than regenerating from scratch each time. And it's fast. A comparison reported by Telegraph India found Nano Banana returning an edit in around 30 seconds versus roughly three times longer for a comparable ChatGPT image edit in their test; that's a reported comparison from one outlet's test, not an independent benchmark we ran ourselves.

The prompt formula that works

Google's own prompting guidance for Nano Banana is to write full sentences, not a list of comma-separated keywords. The structure that consistently produces better results:

[Subject] + [Style/Medium] + [Lighting details] + [Camera/Composition] + [Quality modifiers]

A worked example: instead of "person, saree, sunset, cinematic," write something like "Transform the subject into a vintage Bollywood heroine wearing a flowing yellow chiffon saree, lit by golden sunset light, shot as a cinematic medium close-up with shallow depth of field." Specific beats vague every time. Small imperfections, like "visible skin pores" or "slight motion blur," also tend to make results look more real rather than obviously AI-generated.

20+ Nano Banana prompts that actually work

Copy, paste, and swap in your own details where it makes sense.

Portraits and headshots

• "Create a professional LinkedIn headshot of the subject, wearing formal business attire, studio lighting, neutral grey background, sharp focus, shot on a portrait lens."
• "Turn this photo into a cinematic portrait with dramatic low-angle lighting, shallow depth of field, and a warm golden-hour color grade."
• "Generate a black-and-white editorial portrait of the subject, high contrast, soft studio lighting, magazine-cover composition."
• "Create a friendly, approachable headshot of the subject smiling naturally, soft window light, blurred office background."

Bollywood and retro restyle

• "Transform the subject into a vintage Bollywood heroine in a flowing yellow chiffon saree, set against a golden sunset, cinematic medium shot."
• "Convert this individual into a 90s movie style photo: grainy but vibrant vintage colour grade, golden hour glow, candid framing."
• "Take a photo taken with a Polaroid camera: slight blur, consistent flash-lit lighting like it was shot in a dark room, visible white border."
• "Restyle the subject as a 1980s Bollywood poster star, bold saturated colours, dramatic backlighting, retro film grain."

Fun and viral

• "Create a 1/7 scale commercialised figure of the character in the photo, realistic texture, placed on a round transparent acrylic base, with a toy packaging box beside it printed with the original photo."
• "Turn the subject's pet into a superhero, wearing a small cape, standing heroically, dramatic comic-book lighting."
• "Reimagine the subject as a claymation character, stop-motion texture, soft studio lighting, playful pose."
• "Transform the subject into a pixel-art video game character, 16-bit style, vibrant colour palette."

Festive edits

• "Place the subject in a Diwali greeting-card scene, surrounded by diyas and rangoli, warm string lights in the background, festive bokeh."
• "Add a subtle festive glow to this photo, warm amber tones, soft light flares, without changing the subject's face or outfit."
• "Create a Diwali card-style portrait of the subject in traditional festive attire, fairy lights softly blurred in the background."

Everyday fixes

• "Change the background of this photo to a clean, softly blurred outdoor park setting, keep the subject and lighting on the subject unchanged."
• "Convert this daytime photo into a night scene, add warm street lighting, keep the subject's pose and expression exactly the same."
• "Remove the object in the background on the left without altering anything else in the photo."
• "Restore this old, faded photo: reduce noise, sharpen detail, correct the colour balance, keep the original expressions and composition."

Small-seller product shots

• "Place this product on a clean white studio background with soft even lighting and a subtle shadow, e-commerce style."
• "Create a lifestyle shot of this product on a wooden table with warm natural light coming from a window, shallow depth of field."
• "Generate a flat-lay style version of this product photo, top-down angle, minimal pastel background, soft shadows."

What it costs in India

Nano Banana works on the free tier inside the Gemini app, no payment needed to try it. Google AI Pro is the paid layer above that: it unlocks higher-quality output and higher usage limits, and it's also what's required for Gemini Omni on the Galaxy S26 FE. Two India-specific bundles are worth knowing about: Jio's ₹3,599 anniversary plan includes 18 months of Google AI Pro, and Galaxy S26 FE buyers get a 6-month AI Pro trial. Neither is required for Nano Banana itself; they matter if you specifically want Pro-quality output or the newer Gemini Omni feature. For developers, API pricing has been reported around $0.039 to $0.045 per image with roughly 500 free requests a day via AI Studio as of March 2026; API pricing changes, so check Google AI Studio directly before building anything on it.

Honest limitations

Nano Banana still struggles with rendering text accurately inside an image, and hands or faces can distort on extreme, multi-layered edits. Every AI-generated image carries Google's invisible SynthID watermark, so it's identifiable as AI-generated even without a visible label. And one that's easy to skip past: don't run someone else's photo through this without their consent, especially for restyles that change how recognisable or public a person's image becomes.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Financial Express: step-by-step Nano Banana guide
• Telegraph India: Nano Banana trend, 200M images, speed comparison
• Tech-Insider: 2026 AI image prompting guide
• SuperPrompt: 60 Nano Banana prompts
• Samsung: Galaxy S26 FE AI features, including Gemini Omni

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