Prompting 101
Prompting is a technique used in AI art to guide the creative process of a machine learning model.
It involves providing a brief statement or idea to the model as input, which the model then uses to generate a piece of art or text. The prompt can be a word, phrase, or even an image, and it serves as a starting point for the model to generate content that is related to the prompt in some way.
Now let’s dive a bit into the basics of Prompting.
It’s important when writing a prompt to talk to the machine in a way it understands, which may be unnatural for us.
When asking for an image, you want to try and give the machine everything on a silver platter, and discard anything which is not useful for the task.
For example:
Instead of writing “can you give me an image of a pink dog wearing a crown”
We will write “a pink dog as a king”
Think of it more like giving commands rather than asking for something.
Every small detail matters.
I want you to look at the examples below and notice how big of a difference the way you form your prompt makes.
a team of astronauts dancing on the moon by vincent van gogh
a team of astronauts dancing on the moon by van gogh
a van gogh painting of a team of astronauts dancing on the moon
a team of astronauts dancing on the moon in the style of van gogh
How do I know if I’m in the right direction?
Database
Experiment
Always Double Check
One good way to have a clear starting point, is check the website called:
https://haveibeentrained.com/
This website allows you to search the database, and understand how the algorithm sees the text you write into it.
Simply type anything into it, and see which images from the database correspond to your search.
The AI Visuals game is new.
Everything changes constantly and the best way to know what fits for you, is experiment.
Try different things, follow any idea that comes to your mind and don’t think in ways of right or wrong.
It’s important to test everything that comes into your mind and slowly collect data that makes your style unique.
One way to know you’re wrong for sure, is making silly mistakes.
Always double check for misspelling, spacing, bad grammatical structuring, and any mistakes that can be easily avoided.
Try to make it easy for the algorithm to understand what you want.
Play with Colors
Even though the default Midjourney color pallet is amazing, it is - Default.
If you want to make your creations stand out, it will be wise to specify the colors you want in your creation.
Which image looks better in your eyes is up for debate.
But one thing is for sure, with one of them you have more control over your creation.
It is important to make this a part of your workflow, because this way you guarantee your creations have a more personalised style from the get-go.
Also, get creative with your color pallets!
purple, yellow, pink etc.
vivid colors
orange and teal
cinematic color grading
psychedelic colors
duotone
analogous colors
contrasting colors
golden color pallet
I hope you start seeing a pattern here, the only limit is your imagination.
And keep in mind that it’s not always mandatory to do this.
black white red blue, two elegant brothers
two elegant brothers