5 tips for getting the best results with DALL-E 2
DALL-E 2 finally dropped its waitlist in September 2022, so now anyone can try out the AI image generator that started the craze. If you are trying DALL-E, you should know some tips.
First, you can sign up for the DALL-E beta on the OpenAI website. Signing up with an email address, Google account, or Microsoft account is free. Everyone gets 50 free credits the first month and 15 free credits every month after that. One credit is good for one prompt, which spits out four images.
In this section:
Describe the subject in detail
Text prompts are what pilote AI image generators. DALL-E can't do much; you have to tell him what to do. Newcomers are often light on details, but that won't get you the best results.
Let's say you want to see "a robot eating a taco." That alone isn't very descriptive and you'll get pretty simplistic results from it. On the first pass, we get some illustrations of a robot eating a taco on a white background.
However, if we further describe the robot by adding "steam punk retro", we start to get more interesting results. Without even mentioning it, the robot donned a Sobrero in some footage. We also get background artwork.
Don't assume that your vision of a "robot" will match what DALL-E creates. Be descriptive.
Don't forget the background
The background also plays an important role in creating a beautiful image. If you focus only on the subject, the background will be completely blank or very generic. DALL-E will often leave the background blank if you don't outline it.
I got a pretty good result for my grasshopper superhero figure, but now I need a background. By adding "being held by a child", I created a much more interesting image.
An easy way to fill the background is to use a location. You can just add "at Times Square" at the end, for example. The key is to give the background some love.
Specify an art style
One of the best ways to get great results is to use artistic styles in your prompts. These can be general art styles or even specific artists and paintings.
"A forest full of trees made of pizza" is a pretty good prompt, but it's very open-ended. There are many terms you can use to achieve a specific look. Synthwave, Cubist, Starry Night, Tim Burton, etc. Let's try “oil painting”.
We now have four images that distinctly resemble an oil painting of a forest filled with pizza trees. If you're trying to create art to hang in your home, using an art style in your invite will yield much better results.
Set the mood of the scene
You probably notice a theme – be descriptive. This applies to more than the subject and the background. It is also important to describe the general atmosphere you are looking for.
A single word like "bright" or "dark" can make a big difference. Rather than just saying "blue sky", try adding the word "beautiful". Even words like "epic" can really change the mood. Let's start with "a 6-legged zebra running through a field of sweet corn", for example.
He totally ignored the "6 legs" part, but that's pretty good. Let's refine the atmosphere a bit. The zebra is 'sad' now and runs across the field in 'darkness'. Two simple words and now we have very different results.
Develop on existing photos
“Outpainting” is a feature that allows you to develop existing photos in several ways. First, you can literally enlarge a photo by adding more to the frame.
I love this photo, but I've always wished I could see more of the beautiful sky. With Outpainting I was able to erase the sky, add more empty space at the top and let DALL-E fill it. The prompt I used was: “A POV shot of someone looking at a lake with trees and a blue sky. »
You can also use this feature to "edit" parts of images. Say I didn't like the Sombrero in one of the robot pictures above. I can erase the Sombrero and outline a different hat or let DALL-E remove it from the image entirely.
Outpainting is one of the coolest features of DALL-E. You can do a lot to edit your own existing images or images created by DALL-E. It's easy to get lost creating new prompts, but don't overlook Outpainting.
As good as DALL-E is, he can't read your mind. This is the main thing to keep in mind. Be as descriptive as possible: Describe each element of the result you want to see. Creating the perfect prompt is an art form in itself no matter which AI image generator you use.
