ChatGPT is brilliant. But most photographers open it up, type a half-baked prompt, and wonder why it spits out crap.

You’ve seen it:

• Long sentences that sound like it’s writing a term paper.

• Fancy words and similes you’d never use with your clients.

• Cheesy phrases like “game-changer” or “tapestry of memories” that make you want to throw your phone across the room.

AI LOVES Certain Words — But They’re Not Your Words

AI detectors, copy editors, and anyone who’s read enough AI-generated text can spot the patterns.

Here are some of AI’s favorite overused words and phrases:

• Delve (“Let’s delve into…”)

• Moreover / Furthermore / Notably / Undoubtedly

• Comprehensive / Intricate / Pivotal / Robust

• Embark / Harness / Leverage / Optimize

• Catalyst / Dynamic / Landscape

• Paradigm shift (eye roll)

• Seamlessly / Vital / Vibrant / Excels

• Engage with stakeholders (gross)

• Navigating the complexities…

• On the other hand… / In conclusion… / As we have seen…

I mean… do you talk like this? No. Do your clients? Absolutely not. And yet, this is exactly what ChatGPT defaults to when you don’t feed it enough of your real voice, your offer, your audience, and your style.

Complex Sentences Are the Dead Giveaway

Another dead giveaway? Long, winding sentences with multiple clauses. AI loves stacking phrases together like it’s writing the next great novel.

• Example: “Given the complexities of the ever-evolving business landscape, it is imperative that we leverage robust frameworks to optimize our dynamic workflows.”

Nobody talks like that at a coffee shop. And yet — this is what shows up in your AI-generated captions if you’re not careful.

Why This Happens

ChatGPT is built to sound “smart.” If you give it nothing specific, it pulls from its giant training set and fills the gaps with formal, generic language. It’s like hiring a freelance writer and telling them: “Just write me something good.” Without clear direction, they’ll play it safe, overcomplicate things, and overcompensate with fancy language.

So when you give it a vague prompt like just write an email about X and you don’t give it any specific style guide, it plays it safe and defaults back to that formal, slightly complex style it sees so often in its training data. It’s trying to sound competent and it doesn’t know you want casual and friendly unless you tell it. It’s not being deliberately robotic, it’s just making its best guess based on the data it has, which leans formal when there’s no other direction. 

The Fix: Feed ChatGPT Your Voice

So, how do we give it that direction and actually get it to sound like us? Here’s the shift that changes everything: ➡️ ChatGPT doesn’t know your voice until you give it your voice.

It can absolutely write like you — but only if you actually tell it:

• Who you are

• Who you serve

• How you speak

• What you’re selling

• Why now matters

The more context you give it upfront, the more it mirrors your real tone — not the generic “AI voice” that makes everything sound like a corporate memo.

This Is Exactly Why I Built My Prompt Playbook

Most photographers get stuck because they don’t know how to talk to ChatGPT. That’s why I created my Family Photographer Prompt Playbook — to take all the guesswork out. Your captions, emails, sales pages — done. No weird phrasing. No cringe. No “game-changer.” Just your voice, amplified.

• The prompts are already pre-loaded with the right structure.

• They pull your offer, your audience, your timing, and your voice right into the prompt.

• You copy, paste, fill in a few details — and suddenly ChatGPT sounds like you actually wrote it.

The Bottom Line

ChatGPT isn’t broken. You just have to feed it better inputs. When you do? It becomes one of the best time-saving tools in your business — while still sounding like you wrote every word.