# Storefront photos for shops Three systems for independent shops: show the owner their own frontage in good light, show them what it looks like lit after dark, and turn one product into an advert. Everything here works anywhere in the world and every prompt is written out in full. https://www.everestchris.com/guides/shops-and-storefronts ## prompt 01 · step 5 · The storefront glow up gemini-3-pro-image or gpt-image-2, with their real photo or a Street View frame Relight and reshoot this real photograph of {{SHOP_NAME}}, an independent shop at {{ADDRESS}}, so it looks like it was taken by a professional, while keeping it unmistakably the same shop. Keep every part of the building and the shop exactly as it is: the fascia and its existing lettering in the existing typeface and colours, the signage, the windows and every single item displayed in them, the door, the stall risers, the paintwork including where it is worn, the materials, the neighbouring shopfronts on both sides, and the pavement. Do not modernise anything. Do not redesign or clean up the sign. Do not repaint. Do not tidy or restyle the window displays. Do not remove products. Do not remove the neighbouring businesses. Do not add plants, seating, awnings, people or lighting that are not already there. If the shop looks old, it must still look exactly that old afterwards. What you may change is only this: - The light. Move it to warm late afternoon sun coming along the street, so the frontage is lit and the materials have modelling, instead of flat overcast grey. - The frame. Straighten the verticals, level the horizon, and crop tighter so the shopfront fills the frame with the empty road reduced. - The shadows inside the windows, lifted just enough that the displayed products read. - Genuine dirt and disorder that is not part of the shop: litter on the pavement, tangled dead wiring across the fascia, grime streaks on the render above the sign. These may go. The owner of this shop must look at the result and see their own shop on a nice day. If they would say "you have changed my sign" or "that is not my shop", you have gone too far. No text changes, no added logos, no watermarks, no borders. ## prompt 02 · step 5 · The night sign render Same models, the same daytime photo Show this same real shopfront at night, after a simple and restrained lighting scheme has been installed, as a sign company would preview it for the owner before quoting. Keep the building, the fascia and its exact existing lettering, the materials, the windows and their contents, the door and the neighbouring buildings all exactly as they are. Do not change the sign design, do not add new signage, do not add a logo, and do not alter the shopfront in any way. The scene is blue hour, shortly after sunset, with the street in deep soft blue shadow and no direct sun anywhere. The lighting to show, and nothing beyond it: - Discreet warm white downlights on slim arms above the fascia, so the existing lettering is lit from above and reads clearly, while the background of the sign stays dark. - The window displays lit warmly from inside, so they read as bright boxes from across the street. - One soft warm pool of light on the ground in front of the door. Everything else on the street stays dim and unlit. The shop must be the brightest thing in the frame, but only a little, the way a well lit shop actually looks. No neon, no colour wash, no uplighting, no glow around the building, no light sources visible as flares, and no light falling where a real fitting could not put it. It must look like a photograph taken after the work was done, restrained enough that the quote it accompanies looks honest. No text, no logos, no watermarks. ## prompt 03 · step 5 · One product, photographed properly Same models, a phone snap of the object Reshoot this photograph of a single product so it looks like a proper product photograph, while keeping the object itself completely unchanged. Keep the object exactly as it is: the same shape, the same size and proportions, the same material, the same colour, the same finish, the same wear, the same patina, the same manufacturing marks and the same imperfections. Do not clean it, do not polish it, do not repair it, do not straighten it and do not replace it with a newer or different version of the same thing. If it is old and worn, the photograph must show something old and worn. What you may change is everything around it: - Place it alone on a plain, seamless surface in {{BACKGROUND_COLOUR}}, with the background the same colour so there is no visible horizon line. - Light it with one soft directional light from the upper left, giving a gentle highlight along its top edge and a soft shadow falling to the lower right. - Frame it centred with generous space around it, shot at eye level to the object. - Keep the colours true. Do not increase saturation or contrast beyond what makes the material read correctly. Nothing else may be in the frame. No props, no hands, no packaging, no reflections of a studio, no other products. The result should look calm and expensive and completely honest: the sort of photograph a good shop takes of its own stock, not an advert. No text, no logos, no watermarks, no borders. ## prompt 04 · step 8 · What to say, and this one is mostly spoken Any text model, for the printed note or the DM Write the few lines that go with a rebuilt photograph of somebody's shop, which is being handed to them printed, in person, or sent as an instagram message. Facts you may use, and nothing else: - shop name: {{SHOP_NAME}} - what kind of shop: {{SHOP_TYPE}} - what you rebuilt: {{WHAT}} - how long they have been there, only if it is stated publicly: {{YEARS}} - the channel: {{CHANNEL}}, either "printed" or "instagram" Rules: - Under 45 words. If it is printed, under 30. - All lowercase is fine. Warm, plain, unhurried. This is a person who has stood in that shop for years and is being handed a picture of it. - No em dashes. - Open by saying it is their shop and that the picture is theirs to keep, free. - Say plainly that you changed only the light, and that you did not touch the sign. This is the sentence that matters most in this whole guide. Shopkeepers are protective of their frontage and the fear is that you have modernised it. - Do not mention their rating, their review count, or their lack of a website. It reads as criticism of something they are already sensitive about. - Do not offer a service, a package, a call or a website build. - End with one simple question, ideally about whether they want the other angles. - Never use: transform, elevate, refresh, revitalise, modernise, hidden gem, deserve, boost, I hope this finds you well. Return only the text.