1. Elves
Elves are difficult to get right. Not because DE2 doesn't know what they are, but because they're fighting against SO MUCH data. The quality is highly dependent on the context. Sometimes your elves will be....purple:
prompt: an elf, portrait shot, by Michael Whelan, fantasy, digital art, highly detailed, trending on artstation
prompt: a sea elf, portrait shot, by Michael Whelan, fantasy, digital art, highly detailed, trending on artstation
prompt: a wood elf, portrait shot, by Michael Whelan, fantasy, digital art, highly detailed, trending on artstation
Notice how we got purple elves not matter what we specified? I personally blame World of Warcraft.... The problem is actually digital art. Even correcting it with a realism painter will not help much:
prompt: An elf, portrait shot, by William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Michael Whelan, fantasy, digital art, highly detailed
My suggestion is to move to another medium. Use oil paintings! From the Tiefling guide we get the following:
2. Using Painters for Elves
prompt: An elf, portrait shot, oil painting by William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Michael Whelan, 1873, fantasy, highly detailed
prompt: An elf warrior, portrait shot, oil painting by William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Michael Whelan, 1873, fantasy, highly detailed
This will undoubtedly net you high quality elves! Know that the ears are actually a very strong concept this time! They won't go away too often when we put hats on the elves!
prompt: An elf, wearing a top hat, portrait shot, oil painting by William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Michael Whelan, 1873, fantasy, highly detailed
prompt: An elf, wearing wizard robes, wearing a hat, portrait shot, oil painting by William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Michael Whelan, 1873, fantasy, highly detailed
Though Dall-e gets a little confused about the proportions of those ears when you do this so be careful.
3. Female Elves
If you're going to make female elves be sure to refer to them as "female" instead of "elf woman" as "woman" will remove our desired elfish context.
prompt: A female elf paladin, wearing armor, portrait shot, oil painting by William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Michael Whelan, 1873, fantasy, highly detailed
prompt: An elvish woman paladin, wearing armor, portrait shot, oil painting by William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Michael Whelan, 1873, fantasy, highly detailed
Summary:
This is basically all you need with elves. Be careful about the context of your prompts with this starting point. Digital art is likely to paint your elves purple so be only choose it if you're looking for colorful elves/drows - more on dark elves/drows later. Classical styles are probably your friend for getting a more handsome human looking creature. Finally be sure to specify that this is an elf and not an elvish something or other. DE2 wants so desperately to make humans so it's going to pounce on that chance to return human looking things to you.