If you’ve ever used ChatGPT to create visuals with DALL·E 3, you may have been a little disappointed with the results. While the images may be interesting and faithful to the text you provided, you may have noticed that they lack the visual impact or level of detail you expected. This isn’t because DALL·E 3 is “bad,” but because it wasn’t specifically designed to create hyper-realistic or stylized visual art. How could we improve images with ChatGPT?
Before telling you how to do it, it’s important to note that if you’re looking for images that are superior in quality, style, or realism, tools like MidJourney or Stable Diffusion are better options. In this article, we’ll explain why this happens and also tell you how you can enhance images with ChatGPT using DALL·E 3 more effectively, even creating a “superprompt” that brings it closer to the level of these other platforms.
Design and approach: DALL·E 3 vs MidJourney and Stable Diffusion
DALL·E 3: A tool designed to understand text
DALL·E 3 uses an architecture based on Transformers neural networks, the same technology behind ChatGPT. This means its core strength isn’t generating perfect visual art, but rather accurately interpreting the text you give it and then turning it into a coherent image. Its ability to understand detailed descriptions and represent complex scenarios is impressive, but this comes with limitations:
- Focus on semantic coherence: DALL·E 3 prioritizes ensuring that the image accurately reflects what you describe in your prompt. If you ask for “a blue dog sitting on a red chair in front of a beach at sunset,” it will strive to include all those elements, even if the result may look a bit convoluted.
- Stylization limitation: Although it can generate pleasing images, it is not optimized to produce visually striking, hyper-realistic, or artistic results.
MidJourney and Stable Diffusion: Tools designed for visual art
In contrast to ChatGPT, tools like MidJourney and Stable Diffusion are built to generate high-quality visual art:
- MidJourney:
- This model uses advanced techniques to interpret prompts and generate stylized images. Although the specific details of its architecture are not public, it focuses on artistic and aesthetic results.
- It is optimized to create visually striking images, with great creative freedom in the interpretation of descriptions.
- Perfect for designers, illustrators, and creators looking for results that “look like art.”
- Stable Diffusion:
- It uses diffusion models, a technology that generates images by refining random noise step by step until a coherent and detailed representation is created.
- Its main attraction is that it is open source, which allows for extensive customization.
- Its strength lies in its ability to adapt to different styles and generate realistic results.
Both tools prioritize visual impact over exact fidelity to the text, making them ideal for projects where artistic polish is essential.
Can DALL·E 3 achieve this level of visuals?
The answer is no. The reason DALL·E 3 may not meet these expectations lies in its purpose: it’s a general-purpose tool, designed to accurately interpret text and generate images that reflect that interpretation. In contrast, MidJourney and Stable Diffusion are specialized tools that sacrifice some of that literalness in favor of more aesthetically pleasing images.
This means that if you want spectacular visual art, you might feel limited with DALL·E 3. However, this doesn’t mean you can’t achieve great results. With the right guidance, you can significantly improve the generated images.
How to get the most out of DALL·E 3
Although DALL·E 3 has its limitations, a good prompt can make a big difference. By carefully structuring your prompts, you can generate images that look more natural and less synthetic. Let’s look at an example.
If we type a traditional prompt, the result will be general and concise. Here’s an example:
Prompt: Create an image of a redheaded girl in her 30s walking smiling in Times Square at dusk.
How to improve images with ChatGPT and DALL·E 3? The answer is that you would have to improve the prompt and transform it into a superprompt.
Key elements for an image superprompt:
- Technical details: Include clear composition specifications, such as camera angle, lighting, and depth of field. For example:
- «A hyperrealistic photograph captured with a high-end DSLR camera, using a 50mm lens at f/2.8 to achieve a blurred background.»
- Lighting and Environment: Describe the atmosphere of the scene. Lighting can completely transform the look of an image. E.g.:
- «Warm sunset light with soft, defined shadows.»
- Textures and details: Ask for realistic textures on materials, skin, or surfaces.
- «It includes detailed textures such as pores in the skin, precise reflections in metals, and tonal variations in wood.»
- Natural imperfections: Imperfections help prevent the image from looking too generated or synthetic.
- «Add light highlights and tonal gradations for a cinematic effect.»
Structuring your prompts this way not only improves the quality of the images, but also helps them look more natural and appealing. If you feel you’re lacking in technical knowledge, you can even ask ChatGPT to give you the prompt to get closer to the result you want, and then simply return it to ChatGPT to generate the image with DALL·E 3.
Let’s go back to the example we had used but with this enriched structure.
Superprompt example:
«Create a hyper-realistic horizontal photograph in 4K quality, captured as if with a high-end DSLR camera using a 50mm lens at f/2.8. The scene shows a red-haired woman in her 30s walking in Times Square at dusk. The lighting is warm and cinematic, with soft yet defined shadows and accurate highlights. Be sure to include realistic textures in her skin and clothing, and use a softly blurred background featuring the lights of Times Square.»
Conclusion: Better prompts, better images
While DALL·E 3 may not be the ideal tool for creating striking visual art, it can accurately interpret text and generate coherent images.
If you need to take things to the next level with a well-designed superprompt, you can enhance images with ChatGPT and DALL·E 3, creating visuals that approach the level of specialized platforms.
And if you need outstanding results, specialized tools like MidJourney or Stable Diffusion are better options.
The key is to understand the strengths and limitations of each tool and choose the one that best suits your needs.
