TL;DR: Type in any city, real or imaginary, and this prompt turns it into a photorealistic “view from 30,000 feet,” airplane window frame, clouds, skyline, city name lettered across the glass like a postcard.
Summer on Substack means everyone’s either already gone or counting down.
It’s my busy season though, so I’ve mostly been here while the rest of you are somewhere nicer, and I’ve been low-key nosy about it, wondering where everyone’s actually headed.
I made it to Cape Town back in February, still one of my favorite trips, but this year summer is work first, vacation later. So instead of sitting here jealous, I built a prompt to daydream with, and I’d love it if this comment section turned into a little map of everyone’s destinations.
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This Prompt Took More Tweaking Than I Expected
My first few tries came out looking like a stock photo with a window frame dropped on top. It was too clean and too flat, and very much screaming “AI made this”.
It took a few rounds of pushing the lighting language harder (that “harsh, direct sunlight” and “HDRI lighting” bit in the prompt below is doing real work) before the glass started catching reflections the way real airplane windows do, and the skyline stopped looking like a render and started looking like a photo.
That gap between technically correct and believable, is most of what separates a good AI image prompt from a great one, and it’s exactly why Prompt Tuesday exists: not just to hand you a fun output, but to show you what actually had to change to get there.
The city name sitting on top of the window is my favorite part. It’s the one detail that flips the whole image from AI render into something you’d screenshot from your own Instagram Story or slide into a postcard. Small typography choice, big effect on how real it reads.
The Airplane Window ChatGPT Prompt
Fill in one thing, your city, real, invented, or aspirational.
Create a photorealistic CGI poster featuring an airplane window as the main subject, set against a soft grey cabin-interior background with realistic plastic texture and subtle shadowing, matching the look of a real airplane fuselage wall (not a flat white studio backdrop). Through the window, show a breathtaking top-down view of [CITY]'s iconic skyline on a sunny day, its major landmarks visible through a thin layer of fluffy clouds. Shot from eye level, as if looking out from inside the cabin. Harsh, direct sunlight creating sharp highlights and reflections on the window glass. Overlaid on the window, in clean minimal white sans-serif font, the city name "[CITY]" positioned in the upper third of the window. Realistic color palette for the city and sky, hyper-detailed photorealistic style with HDRI lighting for maximum dynamic range and clarity.
Notes on using it:
You don’t need a reference photo to add, just the city name.
Tested in ChatGPT Images 2.0, which handles the reflection and text-on-photo layering better than most tools right now.
Turn on “Thinking” mode in ChatGPT Images to get the best result.
Ths prompt builds on the same instinct that’s behind the Zero-Budget Brand Photoshoot: one solid prompt, endless remixes depending on how far you want to take it.
My Four Windows & Four Trips
First one up, New York City. My first ever trip overseas in my early twenties with no family or friends around, just me figuring out how to be a tourist on my own for the first time.
I visited Cape Town and everything around it this February, and it might be my most favorite destination of the last few years. Swapping our gloomiest month back home for actual summer felt like a real mental reset. There’s plenty to do at home once summer hits, which is exactly why I’ve started saving my travel for the months when it isn’t.
Budapest, home. Also just genuinely one of my favorite cities to live in, not only visit.
And Disneyland my fondest travel memory from my childhood. It’s still the first answer when someone asks for a favorite childhood memory, though I suspect that’s true for a lot of us.
In the comments…
Tell me, where are you headed, or dreaming of? Drop the city, I want this thread to look like a departures board.
Show Me What You Make
Tag me in your Notes if you make one, or just drop it in your Notes since Substack won’t show me images in comments. I’ll restack as many as I can.
Talk later, Girlbosses.
Pinkie 🩷🦩
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the city name lettered on the glass is such a nice touch.. gonna try this with Goa, saving it
Today I felt like going for lunch in Paris, so AI took me on this flight!