Got roasted by a digital artist friend for using "fancy" prompts

I was making AI art with prompts full of words like "ethereal masterpiece" and "golden hour" and she straight up said "dude you sound like a cheap perfume ad." So I changed to just describing mundane stuff like "cat sitting on a pizza box" with simple lighting terms. The results were way more interesting honestly. Has anyone else gotten feedback that made them totally switch up their prompt style?

3 comments

3 Comments

alicemurphy4h ago

Wait hold on, the part about "those prompts push the model to do something you cant just snap with your phone" is kind of wild to me. Ngl, I used to think like that too - that fancy words were the whole secret sauce - but honestly the AI already knows what "golden hour" and "ethereal" mean from its training data. What you're really doing is just layering on a bunch of filters that make everything look the same. Like every other person with those phrases ends up with that same instagrammy, soft focus look that has no soul. Once I stripped it down to just telling the AI what's actually in the frame, I started getting images that actually felt alive and surprising instead of just pretty. Tbh your friend might have been harsh but they were right, sometimes less is more when you actually want the machine to show you something new.

ross.lily6d ago

Wait but isn't the whole point of AI art to use those big fancy words to get the machine to give you something magical? If you just type "cat on pizza box" you're basically telling the AI to be as boring as possible. I'd rather sound like a perfume ad than get a picture that looks like someone's iphone snapshot from 2015. You pay for the gpu time so why not make it work harder for you? Those prompts with "golden hour" and "ethereal" actually push the model to do something you cant just snap with your phone. That friend sounds like they're salty they cant afford the good words.

kai_webb916d ago

That first comment is missing the point entirely. I think your friend did you a real favor, because stripping it down to just what's actually there lets the AI's own eye shine through instead of trying to force it into a halloween costume.