SDXL Negative Prompts: The Ultimate Guide with Examples

SDXL negative prompts is a tool or stable diffusion parameter that has the ability to fine-tune your generated images for a better optimal result.

But knowing when, and what to use in the negative prompt section really depends on a lot of practice and experience.

SDXL Negative Prompts

And if you’ve attempted numerous negative prompts but remain unsatisfied.

This guide will assist you in obtaining a proper Stable Diffusion negative prompt list with a comprehensive understanding, whether you’re using SDXL or other stable diffusion models.

Before delving into the main part, let’s first grasp a brief understanding of negative prompt.

What is a Negative Prompt? 

A negative prompt for SDXL is like giving it a description of what you don’t want to see in the picture. 

For example, if you’re asking for a picture of a happy dog, you should use a negative prompt, like “No sad dogs”.

Actually, It helps the generator understand what to avoid while creating the image. 

So, it’s like giving a little warning about what you don’t want in the picture.

How to Use it in SDXL?

negative prompt section in SDXL

I hope you all know how to use a negative prompt in SDXL, but for someone who does not know, I am telling you that it is pretty easy. 

After opening your Stable Diffusion page, just fill the highlighted area shown in the above image with a negative prompt.

Now, let’s begin the journey of using negative prompts: when to use them and what to use.

When to Use SDXL Negative Prompt?

Sometimes, even when we use good prompts, we might not get the desired images. 

That’s why in this section, I will guide you on how to remove unwanted elements and make image modifications all with practical examples.

Remove Unwanted Elements:

Like me, you also agree that the most necessary application of negative prompts is to eliminate anything you don’t want to see in the image. 

So, let’s begin with this.

Prompt: A friendly golden retriever playing in a lush, vibrant, spacious, serene, and well-maintained park on a sunny day.

golden retriever without negative prompt

Can you see it?

There is an additional element just beside the front leg of the golden retriever, which I have highlighted in the image with a red circle.

Now, let’s attempt to remove it using a negative prompt with the same seed and prompt.

Negative Prompt: extra legs, unwanted elements

golden retriever with negative prompt

Simply by adding a basic negative prompt, you can see that the unwanted elements are removed, leaving the image just like the previous one.

I hope you’re becoming interested. Now, let’s proceed to modify images, allowing you to add, remove, and refine them.

Image Modifications:

So, let’s start this process by selecting a random prompt.

Prompt: Actress Jennifer Lawrence with greyish blue eyes, ginger hair, shy smile,  high heel shoes, relaxed pose, highly detailed skin, cinematic lens, best quality, ultra high quality, 8k, HDR, soft lighting, smooth, sharp focus. Seed 36174

Jennifer Lawrence without negative prompt

Looks like its color is fad, and the eyes are not properly drawn. Let’s use the negative prompt “worst color, proper eyes” to modify the eyes.

Jennifer Lawrence with negative prompt

Now, you can observe that the face doesn’t appear realistic, and there is a significant issue with the fingers.

So, let me add some extra words in the negative prompt: wrong fingers, extra fingers, poor fingers, proper face.

Jennifer Lawrence with extra negative prompt

The image is now nearly satisfactory and ready for use. If you require further modifications, approach it in this manner.

However, please bear in mind, that it’s not a simple or quick process.

One more thing, sometimes, Jennifer, the original image seemed a bit underdeveloped. Then utilizing the negative prompt “underage” gives her a more mature appearance.

In this manner, you can experiment with various negative prompts to enhance the image. 

Now let’s find the negative prompts for various styles.

SDXL Negative Prompts for Various Styles

Negative prompts not only allow for image modification but also enable style adjustments. 

This is particularly valuable as overloading a positive prompt can sometimes lead to model confusion.

That’s why now I am going to apply negative prompts to various artistic styles. 

And this will showcase how you too can effectively employ negative prompts to generate all types of style.

Anime Style:

You know there are many popular anime styles and it’s all about personal taste!

So, let’s try out a prompt for any charming anime characters,

Prompt: A beautiful Japanese woman in a green kimono, charming anime characters, the Western Zhou dynasty, anime aesthetic, in the style of hyper-realistic water, highly detailed, 8k resolution, smooth, in focus, finely detailed

A beautiful Japanese anime with prompt

Now, I’m making some adjustments to the image. As you can see, there are some issues with the hand, particularly the fingers, and not properly holding the object.

So, at this point, I am just focusing on these two points by applying a negative prompt.

Negative prompt: bad anatomy, extra fingers, bad fingers, missing fingers, worst hands, improperly holding objects. 

A beautiful Japanese anime with negative prompt

Note the background of the image is changed as it is not mentioned in the prompt, but the intention of the negative prompt is fulfilled.

So, it is just for the above image, but if you require a specific negative prompt for anime, you can use the below one after making your desired edits.

SDXL Negative Prompt for Anime: Cartoon, realistic photo, bad anatomy, extra hands, extra legs, extra fingers, poorly drawn face, fused face, cloned face, worst feet, extra feet, fused feet, missing fingers, extra fingers, bad fingers, long fingers, short fingers, horn, extra eyes, huge eyes

Photographic and Cinematic Style

We often use Photographic and Cinematic Styles to generate photorealistic images. 

However, even with these techniques, we may not always achieve our desired result. 

That’s when applying a negative prompt becomes the most straightforward way to attain a realistic image.

So, let’s make it…

Prompt: A 19 years old beautiful woman, wearing a pink lace dress, in the style of hyperrealism and photorealism, smiling, pastel color, DSLR, HDR, raw photography, soft lighting, realistic skin texture

beautiful woman wearing a pink dress

Note that the image is so blurry and it doesn’t meet my requirements. 

I’m looking for a full-body image that isn’t of low quality or blurry, but unfortunately, this one isn’t.

So, want to see the magic of negative prompt,

Negative Prompt: bad fingers, missing fingers, cropped, blurry, low quality, bad hands, missing legs, missing arms, extra fingers, cg, 3d, unreal

beautiful woman wearing a pink lace dress by negative prompt

To get this image I have added ‘full body’ in the main prompt and used the negative prompt with the same seed(1630388102), aspect ratio(3:4), and style.

Now as I don’t know your requirement you can use the below negative prompt for realistic images:

SDXL Negative Prompt for Realistic Images: bad anatomy, bad hands, missing arms,  extra hands, extra fingers, bad fingers, extra legs, missing legs, poorly drawn face, fused face, worst feet, extra feet, fused feet, fused thigh, extra thigh, worst thigh, missing fingers, long fingers, extra eyes, huge eyes, amputation, cartoon, cg, 3d, unreal, animate, cropped, blurry

Digital Art Style:

Digital art allows us endless creativity and special effects that traditional art might struggle with. 

So, let’s see…

Prompt:  Portrait of Taylor Swift with a bandana on her head and a gray shirt, in style of digital illustration, vector art style drawing, in style of digital painting, digital illustration portrait, in the art style of Bowater

Taylor Swift's digital art

The image is okay but the lip color does not suit my demand and there is an extra element on the neck.

So, let’s fix it.

Negative Prompt: bad anatomy, extra thigh on the neck, worst thigh, worst quality colors

Taylor Swift's digital art with negative prompt

3D Style:

Now it’s time to develop a 3D-style image just by using a negative prompt.

Prompt: Iron Man with glazed 3D renders extremely detailed CG, 3D style, 8k, smart look, high resolution, disney style, highly detailed

3D Iron Man without negative prompt

The image is indeed a close shot and lacks detail.

Negative prompt: cropped, extra fingers, extra hands, extra legs, poorly down fingers, poor face, huge eye, remove helmet, 2d

3D Iron Man with negative prompt

Now it is okay for me. But if you want a full-body shot, adjust the aspect ratio and give it a try. I hope that will work.

Universal Negative Prompt for SDXL

I hope you understand all the possibilities of using a negative prompt in Stable Diffusion. 

Now, if you’re in a hurry and need a universal negative prompt for SDXL, here it is. 

Universal Negative Prompt:

poorly Rendered face, poorly drawn face, poor facial details, poorly drawn hands, poorly rendered hands, low resolution, blurry image, oversaturated, bad anatomy, signature, watermark, username, error, missing limbs, error, out of frame, extra fingers, mutated hands, poorly drawn hands, malformed limbs, missing arms, missing legs, extra arms, extra legs, fused fingers, too many fingers, long neck, username

Don’t worry, it’s been crafted after extensive practice and testing, so feel free to use it with any type of image.

And finally, I want to emphasize that the SDXL model does not always require a negative prompt. 

So, closely observe your generated images and apply the appropriate negative prompt if you need it, as I do in my cases.

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