Krea2 Prompting

Krea 2 Turbo Prompting

Krea 2 is Krea's open-weight, from-scratch 12B diffusion transformer (Qwen Image VAE + a Qwen3-VL language-model text encoder). The encoder is what gives it strong prompt adherence: it reads long, structured, natural-language descriptions rather than tag lists. The krea2 workflow runs the Turbo checkpoint, an 8-step distilled model tuned for fast, high-quality photoreal output. Write the prompt you pass to generate_image per the rules below to drive it well on the first call.

Two rules matter most:

• Natural language, not tags. Describe the image as you would to a photographer - complete clauses or real descriptor phrases (golden-hour backlight, 85mm, shallow depth of field), never booru/quality tags (1girl, masterpiece, 8k, score_9). There is no quality prefix, no @artist syntax, no score tags.
• Aesthetic-first: trust it, prompt less. Krea makes flattering art-direction choices on its own (rim light, colour grading, balanced framing). A short prompt yields variety; add structure only when you need control.

Safe default when unsure: use the krea2 workflow, write prompt as one or two descriptive sentences (subject, setting, lighting, style), set width/height (or aspect) for the framing, and pass nothing else - no negative, and do not touch steps/cfg/seed unless reproducing a prior image.

The generate_image call

Krea 2 maps no negative (it uses none) and no steps / cfg - the 8-step / cfg-1 distilled recipe is baked into the graph and is deliberately not exposed. Do not try to raise steps or cfg; it breaks the distilled model. Shape the result through the prompt and pick resolution via width/height/aspect.

Which workflow

Pick krea2 unless the host has two cards and you specifically want the split; the images are identical.

Positive prompt recipe

Write a coherent description, moving through these beats in roughly this order (as prose or descriptor phrases, not labelled fields):

1. Subject + action - who/what and what they are doing. A weathered fisherman mends a net on a wooden dock.
2. Appearance + material - concrete, depictable attributes: wardrobe, materials, age, expression, colour.
3. Setting + composition - where it is and how it is framed. Krea reads cinematic framing: shot size (extreme close-up, portrait, full body, wide establishing shot), angle (eye level, low angle, three-quarter, top-down), placement (rule of thirds, off-centre, negative space).
4. Lighting - do the heavy lifting here. Quality (soft diffused, hard directional, golden hour, overcast, studio, volumetric), direction (backlit, rim light, side light, top light), mood (moody low-key, bright high-key, warm tungsten, cool blue hour).
5. Mood + atmosphere - one phrase on the feeling.
6. Medium + style - name it explicitly (editorial photograph, cinematic film still, oil painting, watercolour, anime illustration) to avoid hybrid results. Name an era or film stock rather than an artist.
7. Camera + texture detail - lens (35mm, 85mm), aperture (f/1.4), shallow depth of field, soft bokeh, film grain, and fine-texture cues (natural skin texture, fabric weave, wet black stone, glossy reflections, micro-reflections).

You do not need every beat. Krea's aesthetic sense fills gaps; spend words on the specifics that matter for this image.

How much to write

Match length to intent:

• Explore (5-20 words): a short prompt for variety - let the model's aesthetic drive.
• Controlled (30-80 words): subject + composition + lighting + style, when you know what you want.
• Complex scene (80-140 words): layered detail for a specific, busy composition.

Prefer clear clauses over one long run-on. Flowing prose and comma-joined descriptor phrases both work - what matters is that the tokens are real descriptors, not tags or quality filler.

Rendering text in the image

Krea 2 renders short, legible text. Put the exact string in double quotes and keep it short - a word or a short sign renders cleanly, long paragraphs degrade:

A vintage enamel shop sign reading "FRESH COFFEE" in cream lettering on a dark green background, mounted above a cafe door.

State the wording, the lettering style, and where it sits.

No negative prompt

Krea 2 does not use a negative prompt - the graph zeroes the negative conditioning out. Do not pass negative; phrase exclusions positively in the positive prompt instead (a clean, empty desk rather than leaning on negative: clutter).

Expanding a terse user request

When the user asks for something short like "a fox in the snow", do not pass that string through - expand it into a Krea 2 description first:

1. Anchor the subject in one clause, then add a few concrete, depictable details.
2. Place + frame it - setting and one composition/camera choice.
3. Light it - one phrase on light and mood.
4. Name the medium - photograph, cinematic still, illustration.
5. Assemble as one or two sentences, not a comma dump.

Sketch: a fox in the snow becomes

A red fox trotting across fresh snow at dawn, soft backlight catching the mist of its breath, shallow depth of field,
muted blue-grey winter palette, editorial wildlife photograph.

If the user hands you a finished descriptive prompt, preserve their wording and intent - lightly polish rather than rewrite. If they hand you a tag list, translate it into descriptive language while keeping every concept.

Prompt enhancement (enhance)

The generate_image tool has an opt-in enhance option that routes your prompt through a separate model before the render, rewriting a thin prompt into the rich Krea-2 description this guide covers.

• Opt-in. Pass enhance: true (or a workflow/config default turns it on). When off, your prompt is sent verbatim.
• Use it when the incoming prompt is a few words or a loose list. When you have already written a careful description, leave it off - it only adds latency and can drift from your intent.
• Scene continuity. Pass the context arg alongside enhance to hand the enhancer background to honour (character facts, ongoing scene) without depicting it literally. Ignored when enhance is off.

If you are enhancing a prompt rather than rendering

You may be reading this not to call generate_image, but as guidance handed to the prompt-enhancement step: you were given a rough prompt and must return the single enhanced positive string and nothing else. In that role:

• Act only on the prompt-writing rules above - the positive recipe, the terse-request expansion, and text rendering. The workflow tables and tool args do not apply; you do not pick a workflow or call a tool.
• Translate and enrich, do not reinvent. Preserve the subjects, actions, colours, and spatial relationships you were given; do not add new objects, people, or props the request does not imply. Honour the medium the user asked for (photo, illustration, painting) rather than pivoting to an easier one.
• Write one cohesive description in Krea's natural-language style - no tags, no bullets, no negative prompt.
• Layer in depictable specifics the prompt leaves unstated (lighting, materials, palette, framing, lens, mood), and fold in any background context you were given as source material - but keep it faithful to the stated subject.
• Respect the human form - treat people with dignity and assume clothing.

Worked examples

These show the shape of a finished prompt; adapt them to the request rather than reusing them. The first two are validated Krea 2 Turbo renders.

Photoreal portrait (workflow: krea2):

A cinematic golden-hour portrait of a weathered fisherman on a wooden dock, shot on 85mm f/1.4, soft warm rim light, shallow depth of field, visible film grain, natural skin texture, editorial photograph.

Product / still life (workflow: krea2):

A close-up product shot of a vintage brass compass on weathered nautical charts, dramatic side lighting, shallow depth of field, fine metal and paper texture, editorial photograph.

Reusable skeletons:

Portrait:  [shot size] portrait of [subject] in [wardrobe], [setting], [lighting], [lens feel], [colour grade]
Cinematic: A cinematic film still of [scene], [time of day], [lighting], [atmosphere], [colour grade]
Product:   [style] product shot of [object] on [surface], [lighting direction], [detail cues]

Anti-patterns

• Booru / quality-tag spam. 1girl, solo, masterpiece, 8k, score_9 underuses Krea 2 and flattens the output. Write descriptors or prose instead; translate any handed-in tag list.
• Artist / score tags. There is no @artist, artist:name, or score-tag syntax. Name a medium, era, or movement in words.
• Passing a negative. It is zeroed out and does nothing. Phrase the exclusion positively in the prompt.
• Overriding steps / cfg. The 8-step / cfg-1 distilled recipe is baked; raising either breaks the model. Change the look through the prompt, not the sampler.
• Over-long rendered text. Krea renders a word or short sign well, not a paragraph. Keep quoted text short.
• Expecting cloud-only features. The open-weight Turbo has no creativity dial, moodboards, or style-reference images - those belong to Krea's hosted API. Local style shifts come from LoRAs, not those knobs.