Working with AI: Experiments in image generation

AI will transform how we work. You don't need to believe me, just read this paper published by a group of world-leading researchers including the famous Ethan Mollick (sidebar: I got to present to him this week - I was like a teen girl at a rock concert — Mr. Mollick is one of the foremost authorities on AI in Education! It was fantastic to have him validate and review my team’s work.). Everyday I use AI to replace mundane tasks in my work, and to aid more complex tasks. As a product manager, I am delighted that I can express product concepts with better words, charts, and to also convey the essence, the feeling of using something through inspiring images.

This weekend, I tasked myself to spend no more than 1-hour to generate an inspiring image, not for work but for my Stanford course. Our cohort is called Trailblazers. My task - generate an image inspired by "Trailblazers". The word allows enough room for creativity, while the values of our course provide useful guardrails. While I could have read blogs and followed AI image generation experts on social media, given just 1-hour, I wanted to see what I could figure out on my own. I did however read MidJourney documentation. I started out using MidJourney, and quickly learned how limiting that would be until it was combined with ChatGPT.

Prompt: "a small team of adventurers climbing a mountain, looking out at the horizon, rolling hills at sunrise, inspiring simple rendering"

The image looks AI generated, like out of a comic book.

Next, adjust for lighting.

Prompt: "a small team of adventurers climbing a mountain, looking out at the horizon, rolling hills at high noon, inspiring simple rendering".

The image gets brighter, evoking a sense of optimism. Still fake though.

Plot twist -- Use ChatGPT to generate the prompt for MidJourney. This is not a new trick, not by any measure but how effectively could I use it, allowing myself just 1 hour to generate the desired image?

Prompt: "a futuristic, inspiring, photo-realistic image featuring a group of people climbing a steep mountain trail. The group should be looking out at multiple mountain peaks in the distance, all under the glow of a sunrise, add backpacks to the people's backs, extend the trail far into the distance"

These people all look like they are on a military expedition, but the image is more "real." Still not inspiring enough. Collaboration is a key LEAD program value. Where is the collaboration in this image?

Resource: Use Web searches to generate ideas, and also chat with ChatGPT. What if the people were helping each other?

Prompt: a futuristic, inspiring, photo-realistic image featuring a group of people climbing a steep mountain trail. Each person should be helping the one behind them, forming a chain of assistance. The group should be looking out at multiple mountain peaks in the distance, all under the glow of a sunrise. Ensure the lighting is photo-realistic, capturing the nuances of the sunrise, the shadows on the mountain trail, and the reflections on the people's faces and backpacks. Please add backpacks to the people's backs. simple rendering --s 250 -

That did nothing. And no matter how hard I tried, MidJourney did not make these people help each other. Also, now I have ended up with a SciFi look, note the distant "help" in the sky.

Twist: Use "Vary Region" in MidJourney to vary a specific part of the image. Hat tip: Emma Gray for showing me the feature.

Prompt: a futuristic, inspiring, photo-realistic image featuring a group of people climbing a steep mountain trail. The group should be looking out at multiple mountain peaks in the distance, all under the glow of a sunrise, add backpacks to the people's backs, show one person helping another, extend the trail far into the distance simple rendering

The trail is not so readily visible, what if it was?

Prompt: "a futuristic, inspiring, photo-realistic image featuring a group of people climbing a steep mountain trail. The group should be looking out at clearly visible multiple mountain peaks in the distance, all under the natural soft light of high noon, add backpacks to the people's backs, extend the trail far into the distance simple rendering " with Vary Region

And could the sky have some pink in it? Yes. See wispy pinkness created with “Vary Region”

Still looks fake, what if the foliage could be varied to make the image more real?

Prompt: an inspiring photo-realistic image of a group of people running up the steep trail of a mountain ascending towards the peak at high noon. They can see many more peaks on the horizon. The trail is clearly visible for a long distance into the horizon. The mountain is covered in greenery with pockets of red and yellow flowers. The sky has wisps of lightly colored clouds --s 250

And that’s where I ended up in 1 hour!