Lecture
Learn how to direct an image model by treating a prompt like a design brief. We build one prompt a step at a time, compare how different models read the same words, and look at what happens when you name an artist versus describe their style. Then we look at what models make when you tell them almost nothing, and what that says about the images they learned from.
In Class Assignment
- Choose a theme. Pick one image model and write a simple base prompt to make your first image.
- Make 5 more images by adding to that prompt one step at a time: subject, style, medium, light, color, mood, format, and things to exclude.
- Run your final prompt in 3 other image models and compare the results.
- Pick one model to try style. First name an artist and ask for their style. Then describe that look without using their name. Which do you like better?
- Use this Notion page template to help document your image generation research.
Homework
- Choose one short, general prompt about a kind of person, like a job title (“a nurse,” “a CEO”). Format should be 1:1 square.
- Use that exact prompt to make 25 images in each of two image models. Don’t change the wording.
- Put each model’s 25 images in a 5 × 5 grid. Who keeps showing up? Look at gender, age, skin tone, setting, and anything you didn’t ask for.
- Compare the two grids. Where do the models agree, and where do they differ?
- Upload one photo to theyseeyourphotos.com. It can be you, your room, an image generated by you or one of the site’s sample photos. What did it guess, and what did it get wrong?
- Use this Notion page template to share your findings and a 150–300 word reflection to Notion.
Text-to-Image Models to Try:
- ChatGPT Image
- Gemini (Nano Banana)
- Adobe Firefly
- Microsoft Copilot
- Meta AI
- Grok AI
- Midjourney (25 Free Generations)
- Flux, Stable Diffusion, Qwen and other open weight models can be found on Hugging Face
How to make the grid.
- In Figma, drag all 25 images onto the canvas, select them, and press Shift + A. In the auto layout panel on the right, switch the layout to Grid and set 5 columns and 5 rows. Then select the frame and export it as a PNG.
- In Photoshop, File > Automate > Contact Sheet II does the same from a folder: 5 columns, 5 rows, captions off.