Have you ever used AI picture turbines but? I’ve performed round with just a few and located them each unimaginable and extremely irritating. The primary model I get is like 95% right. Then I ask for just a little tweak, and it throws the entire thing out of whack.
I do know individuals have had success with these platforms, and I needed to know the way. So I requested a number of content material, design, and advertising execs how they use AI to assist create high quality pictures.
They shared a bunch of actually good newbie ideas that’ll assist AI-design newbies, and a few superior ways for individuals who’ve tinkered with these instruments loads already. Additionally they opened my eyes to a number of AI instruments I’d by no means heard of, and even one web site that’s a set of tons of of open-source fashions you need to use.
I’ve documented all their ideas, processes, and platform recommendations right here as a way to attempt them too.
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Create superb AI pictures with these 7 professional ideas
Whether or not you’ve by no means prompted AI for a picture earlier than or have been designing with it for some time, these execs shared ideas you need to use.
1. Use model codes for consistency
I’ve observed a bizarre dichotomy with AI picture technology instruments. Certainly one of their key promoting factors is that they may help your crew preserve a constant vibe in your pictures. But it surely feels just like the output is totally random, even after I use the identical immediate.
Anna Yang, a prolific freelance fintech author who retains up her personal weblog and Substack, together with a gradual stream of shopper work, has an answer.
“I exploit Midjourney to create pictures for my weblog and Substack,” Anna stated. “In Midjourney, I exploit model codes, that are numeric codes that can be utilized within the immediate to manage the output.”
The model codes Anna referenced are formally referred to as Type Reference (SREF) codes. They allow you to add a predefined visible model to your work (this can be a good SREF explainer). So, as a substitute of all the time importing a picture or linking to an exterior file to “prepare” the AI, you simply add an SREF code to your picture immediate.
“There are literally thousands of model codes out there, so I perused examples till I discovered one I preferred,” Anna added. “Through the use of a method code, my pictures have a constant aesthetic with out writing elaborate immediate directions every time.”
Anna Yang makes use of AI-generated pictures to embellish her “Work. Higher.” Substack.
Different AI picture turbines provide some kind of repeatable codes, however there isn’t a constant rule or nomenclature. So verify along with your device of option to see what’s out there. Or give Midjourney a attempt.
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2. Brainstorm picture concepts first
Geoff Meakin is a healthcare website positioning advisor who makes use of good ole’ ChatGPT to create enjoyable pictures that enliven his LinkedIn posts.
Geoff Meakin likes to maintain his AI pictures enjoyable.
I like his model as a result of it leans into the cartoonish high quality of AI pictures—there’s no pretense that this can be a {photograph} of a dwell individual. What perplexed me is how Geoff is ready to get ChatGPT to persistently create these thematically related pictures with out all of the bizarre hallucinations it offers me after I attempt.
“I begin by giving ChatGPT the submit as textual content,” he defined. “Then I ask it to brainstorm attainable pictures to accompany the record. This offers you the chance to pick the very best and most related as a substitute of counting on its ‘greatest guess.’ Then I inform it which picture sounds greatest and ask it to generate that picture.”
So, earlier than Geoff asks for an precise picture, he has the AI recommend some choices. It’s form of like riffing concepts with an artwork director earlier than they go off and draft the artistic.
He additionally says that how you immediate it issues loads, too. “I typically ask it to incorporate ‘me Geoff The Healthcare website positioning Meakin’ and describe myself (male, mid 40s, Caucasian, beard, fairly slim construct, blue shirt). Being particular actually helps loads.”
He’ll typically add extra element, like “do it within the model of a children’ animated 3D film.” He says that not solely does it make it enjoyable, but it surely additionally “reduces the significance of imperfections.”
Talking of imperfections, Geoff stated you’ll be able to’t assume the AI will get all the pieces proper. “I all the time verify any textual content within the pictures for spelling and grammar,” he famous. “ You may choose and edit it or ask to take away it, which is commonly simpler than regenerating from scratch.”
Geoff gave me another tip on setting a method in your pictures. “I’ve discovered that if you happen to ask for a particular model, it might refuse on copyright grounds,” he stated. “For instance, ‘create a picture within the model of Star Wars.’ Nonetheless, if you happen to ask it to explain the visible aesthetic of Star Wars and use this in your immediate as a substitute, you’ll be able to circumvent the plagiarism points.”
3. Deal with AI picture turbines as a sketchbook, not a shortcut
Now, I’m beginning to see how we mere mortals can use AI for some enjoyable, funky little pictures for newsletters and social media posts. However what about these extremely elaborate, avant-garde artistic endeavors?
Melissa Diago, AI artist and artistic director at Freepik, gave me a peek into her course of for creating gorgeous graphics and photo-realistic pictures. And her most vital level is to reframe how you consider AI instruments.
“As a photographer and artist, I attempt to not deal with AI simply as a shortcut but in addition as a visible sketchbook,” she stated. “Right here I can check poetic or surreal concepts that may in any other case be too costly or bodily unimaginable to provide.”
AI artist Melissa Diago advises utilizing AI like a sketchbook, enjoying round with concepts as a substitute of counting on it as a shortcut to create issues quicker.
Listed here are Melissa’s ideas and tips to get cleaner, extra artistic pictures:
- Begin from a transparent emotion or visible sensation: “Don’t simply give AI a topic. My greatest pictures don’t come from saying ‘portrait of a lady,’ they arrive from concepts like ‘surreal artistic picture/portrait.’”
- Describe materiality and environment: “I all the time embody textures (like silk, cracked glass, fog), mild high quality (smooth cinematic backlight, chiaroscuro), and creative model (impressed by analog movie, surreal vogue editorials, and so on).”
- Use construction and distinction contained in the immediate: For instance, “A surreal portrait of a younger mannequin surrounded by floating feathers and ceramic fragments, smooth pores and skin tone, calm expression, pale background, vogue editorial lighting, within the model of poetic surrealism.”
- Iterate by means of delicate modifications: “As soon as I get a picture near what I need, I regenerate with only one or two changes, like changing white feathers with burnt paper to see how far the composition can stretch emotionally with out shedding coherence.”
Melissa stated she makes use of Freepik’s AI Picture Generator for many of her present work. After which she dives into the completely different AI fashions out there within the Freepik AI Suite for particular initiatives.
“I can select sure fashions that work higher than others for every challenge,” she defined. “For instance, if I’m working with static pictures, I choose Seedream. If we’re speaking about video, I often go along with Veo 3. After I need one thing quick and uncooked, I run some assessments with different fashions, however these give me a greater steadiness between coherence and emotional environment.”
In case you’re able to take your masterpiece to the subsequent stage, Melissa supplied just a few superior steps she makes use of to cut back errors and enhance the output:
- Work in collection: As a substitute of refining one picture endlessly, she builds a “assortment” of 4–6 variations and analyzes them as if she had been curating a visible exhibition.
- Give attention to gesture and composition first: That’s earlier than tweaking model particulars. If the posture and framing don’t work, no texture will repair it.
- Use model, composition, mild, and colour modifiers: This lets her information the mannequin with out over-controlling it or having to vary the immediate a lot.
4. Use AI to immediate AI
The toughest half about teasing a usable picture out of an AI generator is writing the proper immediate. Farah Ahmed, content material advertising strategist for ZillionDesigns, has a helpful little trick to make it a lot simpler—she will get AI to write down them.
“I’ve been utilizing LeapAI [for image generation] and I really get prompts from ChatGPT and hold refining them,” she stated. “For instance, after I’m engaged on a social media picture, I get AI to immediate all the small print attainable, like the colours, background, core ingredient, and the supporting ones.”
Farah stated she prefers LeapAI over Microsoft Designer for this course of as a result of it may work with much less refined prompts. But when LeapAI isn’t reducing it, she retains different instruments on standby.
“Often, it [LeapAI] offers me one thing shut sufficient that I need,” she stated. “If not, I change to Ideagram, which supplies me 5 variations from the immediate. And I do tweak some pictures round in Canva too!”
I like Farah’s ChatGPT concept. Why go into immediate writing chilly when you’ll be able to simply have the bots let you know the way to discuss to the bots!
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5. Attempt a number of AI platforms
I’ll admit, I fell into the entice of considering AI picture turbines don’t work for me due to just a few early experiences with one device. Travis Irby, founding father of wepaint.ai, stated every mannequin works just a little in a different way, and it’s greatest to experiment with a number of to find out the place they work greatest.
“Transcend ChatGPT’s picture technology and discover completely different fashions on a platform like replicate.com,” Travis stated. “Every mannequin has strengths. For instance, flux-context-pro is nice at picture enhancing, recraft-v3-svg creates vector pictures, and clarity-upscaler can enhance the dimensions of your pictures. There are tons of of fashions to experiment with!”
Replicate.com has tons of of open-source AI fashions you’ll be able to attempt.
The sheer selection and specificity of the fashions are virtually overwhelming. Need to make pores and skin look extra sensible? How about including contextualized background sounds to a video? There are AI fashions for that.
If you click on on one of many fashions, it supplies an instance of one thing it has created, together with the prompts that made it occur. You must check in by means of GitHub and add a fee methodology to create or edit one thing your self. I’m unsure how huge the value vary is throughout all of the AI fashions, however the ones I checked out had been within the fractions of a penny for every run.
6. Use AI to discover concepts
I’ve used AI copy turbines greater than their visible counterparts. And within the copy world, I don’t need AI to write down for me. As a substitute, I exploit it to strain check concepts and spark creativity.
Jacqueline Ervin, a graphic designer at Gannett, says the identical philosophy applies to AI picture turbines. “A lot of making nice design work is spending a considerable amount of time concepting and troubleshooting a lot of concepts to whittle right down to the very best one. In AI’s present state, that’s the place I’m discovering it useful—exploring a bunch of concepts in a short time to set you on the proper path.”
Jacqueline gave a current instance the place she was tasked with laying out a graphic as an example omnichannel advertising pathways. “I gave Microsoft Copilot a go, and to be sincere, it did a poor job, however completely set me on an excellent trajectory to creating a chunk that was cohesive and one thing I’m proud to incorporate in our advertising collateral,” she stated. “Typically it’s useful to see what ‘not’ to do to get you heading in the right direction.”
AI’s not-great model on the left helped inspire Jacqueline’s last model on the proper.
“The most important tip for any designer trying to make use of AI is to set clear expectations for what you need out of the device,” Jacqueline added. “It’s nonetheless very a lot the accountability of the designer to execute and ship a last piece that lives as much as skilled expectations.
For graphic designers, particularly, AI is extra of a sparring associate than a substitute for his or her creativity. It can provide you quick mock-ups of concepts and assist hold you from going too far down the improper design path. The secret’s to enter an AI design session with that expectation already set.
7. Construct Customized Gems in Gemini Professional
Gemini is turning into the AI platform of selection for a lot of Google customers as a result of it’s already built-in with different instruments they use. That’s why Reggie Powell, a freelance tech and HR author, makes use of it to create AI pictures for his Substack.
Certainly one of Reggie’s favourite options of Gemini Professional 2.5 (the paid model) is Customized Gems. Gems are like AI brokers you could construct your self (no coding required), which might keep in mind directions and repeatedly full a process in the identical method again and again.
“I exploit Customized Gems to take care of a constant model over time by offering it with thorough directions, tips, and examples,” Reggie stated.
You may create your individual Customized Gem by tapping the “Discover Gems” possibility on the left menu in Gemini. You’ll see present Gems and a button to construct a brand new one.
Right here’s what Reggie suggests you need to embody in a brand new Gem for picture technology:
- A method information with colours, fonts, character preferences, and so on.
- A greatest practices report for the form of art work you need Gemini to create (Use the “Deep Analysis” operate to generate this report).
- A model equipment (if you happen to’re utilizing it for what you are promoting).
- At the least 5 instance pictures.
Right here’s an instance of the directions Reggie feeds Gemini:
“By establishing these Customized Gems, you’ll be able to create pictures rather more rapidly and get rid of a number of the handbook labor of typing repetitive prompts,” Reggie added.
He additionally stated it’s vital to seize the steps you’re taking to refine every picture, to allow them to be used to make your subsequent session simpler. “It’s important to view AI picture technology as an iterative course of. As you generate pictures you want, you should definitely add them to your challenge data sources so the AI assistant can start to grasp the model you’re going for.”
That is Reggie’s typical course of when working in an present Customized Gem:
- Write a challenge immediate into his Customized Gem, guaranteeing that he supplies as a lot context and related examples as attainable.
- If there are any points with the pictures, he’ll ask for revisions.
- If he thinks he’ll need the identical revision on future images, he provides these directions and any related updates to the customized gem.
- Obtain the picture.
Reggie gave me a hyperlink for a free four-month trial of Gemini Professional. I promptly used it to create the picture of this racecar. Take pleasure in.
Attempt these AI picture ideas
Identical to any new ability or tech device, you solely get higher at it with follow. There are numerous free AI instruments to attempt. Log into just a few of them, attempt some prompts, and see how they every react. After you get a really feel for every platform, revisit these tricks to elevate your work to the subsequent stage.
AI is evolving quick on all fronts. Listed here are a number of sources that’ll aid you sustain:
