Realistic by default: images that look like phone photos
Since November 9, 2026, a new image in Candor is a realistic photo by default. It looks like an unedited snapshot from someone's phone, in plain natural light, instead of a glossy render. Name another style, such as anime, oil painting or 3D render, and you get that instead. Images also pick a shape that suits the subject, and an edit keeps your photo's shape. The price hasn't changed: 38.7 credits an image.
Ask most image generators for “a woman drinking coffee in her kitchen” and you get an advert: perfect skin, golden light, a kitchen nobody lives in. People kept asking Candor for the opposite. So the default changed.
What changed
A new image now comes out as a realistic photo unless you ask for another style. Realistic here means something precise: it should look like a picture a person took with their phone and never edited.
Three things make that look:
- Someone is holding the camera. The picture is described as taken by a person, from a place: a friend across the table, someone standing in the doorway.
- The light is ordinary. Daylight through a curtain, or the room’s own light. No studio glow, no golden hour.
- The room is real. One or two boring everyday things are in the frame: a charger, a mug, a jacket on a chair.
You don’t write any of this. You describe what you want in plain words, and Candor writes the detailed prompt.
A shape that fits the subject
Images are no longer always square. When you don’t name a format, Candor picks one that suits the subject: 3:4 or 2:3 for a person or a portrait, 16:9 or 3:2 for a landscape or a wide scene, 9:16 for a phone wallpaper, square for the rest. There are eight formats in all, and you can always name the one you want.
Edits keep your photo’s shape
Editing a photo used to return a square, which cropped or squeezed anything taken upright on a phone. Now an edit keeps the shape of the photo you attached, unless you ask for another.
The edit request itself is also more careful. It names what changes and says that everything else stays the same: the face, the pose, the framing, the background.
How to steer it
- Want realism? Say nothing about style. “My grandmother’s kitchen on a Sunday morning, her hands rolling pasta” is enough.
- Want another style? Name it: “as an oil painting”, “1980s anime”, “3D render”, “35mm film still”. Named styles are followed and the phone-photo look is dropped.
- Want a particular shape? Say “9:16” or “widescreen”.
- Not quite right? Stay in the same chat and say what to change: “darker”, “from further away”, “same scene at night”. Each change is a new image.
What it costs
The same as before: 38.7 credits an image, and Candor asks before it spends them. The free plan includes one image, with no card. Monthly is $19.99 for 8,500 credits a month, about 219 images.
Describe an image and see what comes back. For formats, limits and prices on one page, see the AI image generator; for changing your own pictures, the AI photo editor.
FAQ
How do I get a different style?
Name it in your request: “as an oil painting”, “anime style”, “3D render”, “film still”. The realistic look only applies when you don't ask for a style.
Do I need to write a long prompt?
No. Describe the picture in plain words. Candor writes the detailed prompt itself, in full sentences: the subject first, then the setting, the framing, the light and the style.
Will my edited photo come out square?
No. An edit keeps the shape of your photo unless you ask for another one.
Did the price change?
No. An image costs 38.7 credits, and the free plan still includes one.
Does realistic mean anything goes?
No. Nothing sexual involving anyone under 18 is allowed, nor are sexual or intimate images of a real person without their consent. Every request and every finished image is checked before you see it.
Ask the question you actually have.
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