Teach ChatGPT your eye

How it works

One project holds what stays the same

A project is a folder in ChatGPT for related chats. Its instructions and files are shared with every chat inside it.

Your note

The project’s instructions. Every chat in the project follows them, in place of your general custom instructions.

Memory

ChatGPT also picks up details from past chats, but not every detail, and it decides what’s relevant. Review it or switch it off in SettingsPersonalizationMemory, or ask “What do you remember about my work?”

Custom instructions

A note for every chat you have, in SettingsPersonalization. Leave your art out of it, so it doesn’t colour your other chats.

Memory is ChatGPT’s choice. The note is yours, so put what matters there.

What to save

Words first, then five photos

Old work, photos on your drive, inspiration, or just words? Start in this order.

1. Words

   A short note: what you shoot, the light, colour and mood you love, your gear, what you avoid, what you’re trying to say. It does most of the work. The starter note has the blanks.

2. Five of your own photos

   The five that look most like you today. Old work counts if it still does.

3. Inspiration, one shoot at a time

   Put mood references in that shoot’s chat, and say they aren’t yours. Name the artists who shaped you in your note.

Why five, and not the whole archive

• A mixed archive teaches a mixed style. Old phases, experiments and near misses blur the picture. Five chosen frames say what you mean.
• Words carry the why. ChatGPT doesn’t read file names or the camera settings saved in a photo, so your note has to say why each one is there.

Set it up · once

Set it up once

Works on chatgpt.com and in the desktop app. In the app, pick ChatGPT at the top left, then Chat at the top.

1. Make the project

   Select New project in the sidebar. Name it, say “My photography”, and pick an icon and colour.

2. Keep its memory to itself

   Open the project, select •••, then Project settings. Under Memory, choose Project-only memory, then Save. Chats in the project can draw on each other, and your other chats stay out.

   Memory has to be on, in SettingsPersonalizationMemory. The switch can take a few hours.

3. Paste in your note

   In Project settings, paste your note into the instructions. Every chat in the project follows them.

4. Add your five photos

   Export them as JPEGs at web size, then upload them to the project as files. They show up in the project’s sources, where you can open or delete them.

   • ChatGPT reads JPEG, PNG and GIF, up to 20 MB each. RAW isn’t on its list, and it resizes images before it looks.
   • A project holds 5 files on the free plan, 25 on Go and Plus, 40 on Pro. The free plan also limits uploads per day.
   • Skip the portfolio PDF. Outside Enterprise plans, ChatGPT keeps a PDF’s text and drops its pictures.

5. Move your art chats in

   Drag a chat onto the project, or open its menu and choose Move to project. It picks up the note and photos.

6. Test it

   Paste this into a new chat in the project. If the answer doesn’t sound like your work, fix the note.

   In the projectCopy

   Describe my work back to me in three sentences, using my note and the photos in this project. Then tell me what my note leaves out.

Every shoot

One chat per shoot

Start a new chat in the project for each shoot or idea. It already has your note and photos, so one message gets it going. The project is on your phone too.

Your note

Your starter note

Copy it, fill in the blanks, and paste it into your project’s instructions. A few words per line is plenty. Date each update, and you can watch your work change.

ABOUT MY WORK (updated ____)

I’m a photographer. I make artistic shoots, mostly of ____.

What my work is about: ____
Subjects I keep coming back to: ____
Light I love: ____ (window light? hard sun? blue hour?)
Colour: ____ (muted? one strong colour? black and white?)
Mood, in three words: ____
Composition and framing: ____
Gear I actually use: ____
Where I shoot: ____
Photographers and artists I learn from, and what I take from each: ____
What I avoid: ____
What I’m working toward: ____

MY PHOTOS IN THIS PROJECT
These five are my own work and the closest to my style.
1. ____ (what it is, and why it’s here)
2. ____
3. ____
4. ____
5. ____

HOW TO WORK WITH ME
Ask me a few questions before you suggest ideas.
Give me three strong directions, not ten.
Be specific about light, place, time of day, styling and gear.
Tell me when an idea drifts from my style.
Be honest, and skip the flattery.
If you’re not sure about a technical setting, say so.

Before you upload

Your photos, your call

• Ask first. Upload client work only with the client’s okay, and people others could recognise only with their permission.
• Use inspiration as reference. Ask what makes a picture work, then make your own. Don’t ask ChatGPT to recreate someone else’s photo.
• Decide about training. To keep your chats and uploads out of OpenAI’s model training, turn off SettingsData controlsImprove the model for everyone. On a phone, Settings is under your profile icon in the sidebar. If you rate a reply with a thumbs up or down, that whole chat may be used for training, even with this off.
• Know what’s kept. Photos stay in the chat or project you added them to, and ChatGPT can also keep a copy in Library, in the sidebar. Deleting a chat doesn’t delete that copy, so delete it in Library too. Deleted files leave OpenAI’s systems within 30 days, with some exceptions.
• Trust, but check. It can sound sure and be wrong, especially about technical settings like flash, exposure or camera menus. It can’t see the settings saved in your files, so type them in. When it describes your photo, check it saw what you see.