Journey of a Single Image

Most images are quick. I have an idea, I prompt it, I like it well enough, it's done. A few images are more than that. Sometimes I can feel an image has more potential that I just haven't reached. These are the images I revisit time and time again. The image in the header is one of these images and the subject of this blog. Like many of these images I revisit, it began with YoWorld. Beyond dressing up avatars, we decorated rooms. This room was the inspiration for the original image I created in AI. Like all my early images, this one began on PicLumen when accuracy was non-existent, but the overall aesthetic was nice. At BudgetPixel, I decided to revisit the image with new models available. This was GPT 1.5 low. It still struggled but did adhere to the prompt better. The pieces definitely needed improvement, but at the time I was okay with the image. After this @DavidP played with a similar image using a properly set up chess board for reference and got some nice results. You can view his posts here: https://budgetpixel.com/p/5058 and here: https://budgetpixel.com/p/5067 A few days ago, I played around with adding a style to the prompt that @justrob shared. It really gave the image a nice feel, but there were still issues with the pieces. I then tried the new ability on BudgetPixel to use reference images with GPT 1.5. I used a reference photo of a properly set up chess board. It did help with the overall shape of the pieces but the set up was still a failure. GPT 1.5 low with reference. I then tried GPT 1.5 medium with reference. Medium leaned too much into the storybook part of the prompt. I also decided I did not like the Art Nouveau border. Today I stumbled across the image again and decided to revisit, this time adding ghostly figures and trying to get the pieces right with a prompt change specifying what pieces were on the board. This was GPT 1.5 low. I figured I might as well give medium a shot. Result below. Pieces are looking much better! But the higher level you go, the more it leans into style. That lead me to remove the style info from @justrob . Below is the resulting GPT 1.5 medium image. A nice image but those white pieces are blinding! At this point, I decided to try high and this is the first time I've really been happy with the result from high. Therefore, this is my final answer for this image, and I can let it be (for now). GPT 1.5 High: This image has a beautiful board, pleasing tone emphasizing the light vs dark, lovely ghostly figures, and adherence to the prompt. Thank you for reading and please take the time to share your thoughts!