How to Generate Images with AI A Practical Guide

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So, you're ready to create your first AI-generated image. It might sound technical, but the reality is surprisingly straightforward. At its core, you just need to do three things: pick an AI tool, write a text description (what we call a "prompt"), and hit the generate button. That's it. This isn't just for developers anymore; it's a creative tool that anyone can pick up and use.

Your First Step into AI Image Generation

Think of AI image generation less as a complex piece of software and more as your personal artist, on call 24/7. It's ready to bring whatever you can imagine to life, whether that's a photorealistic portrait or a wild, abstract design.

The real beauty of modern platforms like ImageNinja is that they've done the heavy lifting for you. They've built an intuitive interface so you can focus entirely on your creative vision, not on navigating a labyrinth of technical settings. You bring the idea; the AI handles the brushstrokes.

The Core Idea Behind the Magic

How does this actually work? In simple terms, these tools run on powerful deep learning models that have been trained on a massive library of images and their corresponding text descriptions.

When you type in a prompt like, "a majestic lion with a crown of stars, digital art," the AI isn't just searching for a picture of a lion. It taps into its training to understand each concept—"lion," "crown," "stars"—and then figures out how to apply the "digital art" style. It then synthesizes an entirely new image from scratch that matches your request. This is true creation, not just a glorified image search.

Why This Matters for Creators

This technology has blown the doors wide open for creators of all kinds. Marketers can now spin up custom ad visuals in minutes. Bloggers can create perfectly themed illustrations for their posts without hiring an artist. It levels the playing field, taking away barriers like high costs or the need for years of artistic training.

The numbers back this up. The AI image generator market is exploding, showing just how hungry people are for this kind of creative power.

The market was valued at around USD 418.5 million globally in 2024 and is on track to hit an estimated USD 2.63 billion by 2035. This massive growth shows a real shift in how visual content is being made across industries. You can discover more market insights on the growth of AI visuals to see the full scope.

This isn't just a fleeting trend. It represents a fundamental change in how we create and think about visual media. It gives individuals and small businesses the ability to produce high-quality, custom images that were once only possible for large agencies with big budgets.

To get you started, here’s a quick breakdown of the process. Think of this as your cheat sheet for that first generation.

Quick Guide to Your First AI Image

This table summarizes the fundamental steps you'll take. It's a simple loop: describe, generate, and refine.

Step	Action	Why It's Important
1. Choose Your Platform	Select an AI image generator like ImageNinja, Midjourney, or DALL-E 3.	Each tool has different strengths, styles, and user interfaces. Finding one you like is key.
2. Craft Your Prompt	Write a clear, descriptive text prompt of what you want to see.	The AI's output is a direct reflection of your input. Specificity is your best friend.
3. Generate & Review	Click the "generate" button and see what the AI creates.	This is the moment of truth! Assess if the image matches your vision.
4. Refine and Iterate	Adjust your prompt to improve the results and generate again.	Your first try is rarely perfect. Refining your prompt is part of the creative process.

Getting the hang of AI image generation is really about experimenting. It’s an exciting process of discovery where every new prompt can unlock a style or an idea you hadn't even considered. It all starts with that first simple description. From there, the only limit is your imagination.

Choosing the Right AI Tool for Your Vision

Before you write a single prompt, you’ve got a crucial decision to make: which AI image generator will you use? This isn't just about picking a name out of a hat. The platform you choose fundamentally influences your creative style, your day-to-day workflow, and even how you think about building images.

With heavy hitters like Midjourney, DALL-E 3, and Stable Diffusion all vying for your attention, it's easy to feel a bit of analysis paralysis. Don't worry. The trick is to match the tool to your specific goals.

Comparing the Top Contenders

Let's cut through the noise and look at what each of these tools actually does best. This isn't about finding the one "best" generator, because that doesn't exist. It’s about finding the one that’s best for you.

Midjourney: If you want something that looks like it belongs in a gallery, Midjourney is your go-to. It's famous for its incredibly artistic and opinionated style. The catch? It lives on Discord, which can be an unusual workflow for newcomers, but fosters a really cool community vibe. It’s a dream for concept art.

DALL-E 3: This is the AI that got incredibly good at listening. Because it’s baked into tools like ChatGPT Plus and our own ImageNinja platform, DALL-E 3 excels at understanding long, conversational prompts. It's a fantastic all-around performer for both creative and realistic outputs.

Stable Diffusion: For the tinkerers and control freaks (I say that with love!), this is your playground. As an open-source model, Stable Diffusion offers almost limitless control. You can fine-tune it, train it on your own datasets, and tweak settings to your heart's content. The learning curve is steeper, but the freedom is unparalleled.

Adobe Firefly: Built with professionals in mind, Adobe Firefly is all about commercial safety and workflow integration. Since it's trained on Adobe's own stock library, you can use its creations with more confidence. Its real magic is how it plugs directly into Photoshop and the rest of the Adobe Creative Cloud.

Some platforms, like ImageNinja, actually bring several of these models together under one roof. This is a great way to test-drive different engines and see which one clicks without having to sign up for multiple services.

Matching the Tool to Your Goal

So, how does this translate to real-world projects? Your choice should come down to what you're actually trying to create.

A marketing agency that needs on-brand visuals for an ad campaign will likely lean on Adobe Firefly for its commercial safety. On the other hand, an indie game developer trying to brainstorm new character designs will probably get more mileage out of Midjourney's imaginative, artistic results.

The most important question to ask yourself is: What does my final image need to do? Is it a photorealistic mockup of a product, or is it a piece of abstract art for a blog post? Answering that will instantly help you zero in on the right tool.

Here's a quick cheat sheet to get you started:

Use Case	Best Fit(s)	Why It Works
Photorealistic Portraits	Stable Diffusion, DALL-E 3	These models give you more granular control over lighting, camera angles, and facial details.
Graphic Design & Branding	Adobe Firefly, ImageNinja	Firefly connects to your design software; ImageNinja lets you test different models to find the perfect brand aesthetic.
Concept Art & Illustration	Midjourney	Its strong, built-in artistic bias is perfect for creating fantasy worlds and imaginative scenes.
Beginner-Friendly Fun	DALL-E 3 (via ChatGPT)	The natural language interface makes it dead simple to get started. Just talk to it like a person.

Honestly, the best way forward is to just get your hands dirty. Most of these platforms have free trials or give you a handful of credits to start. Spend an afternoon playing around. See which one produces images that get you excited and which interface doesn't make you want to pull your hair out. That firsthand experience is worth more than any guide.

Mastering the Art of the AI Prompt

Think of your AI image generator as a master artist, and your prompt is the creative brief you hand them. If you just ask for "a dog," you'll get a dog, but it probably won't be the one you're picturing. To get the AI to create what's in your head, you have to learn to speak its language.

This isn't about just listing a few keywords; it's about painting a picture with your words. The better your instructions, the better your final image will be. This skill—prompt engineering—is what turns a casual user into a true creator.

It's this very dynamic that's driving incredible growth in the AI imaging world. The text-to-image generator market was valued at around USD 401.6 million in 2024 and is on track to explode to USD 1.53 billion by 2034. That growth is built on the simple fact that a well-written prompt is the key to unlocking the AI's full potential. You can learn more about the AI text-to-image market's rapid expansion to see just how big this is getting.

Breaking Down a Powerful Prompt

A great prompt is really just a recipe. You start with a main ingredient and then layer on flavors that guide the AI toward a specific, tangible outcome. Forget vague requests; we're going for rich, descriptive commands.

Let's look at the core components I always include:

The Subject: Be specific. Don't say "a car"—say "a vintage 1967 Ford Mustang."

The Action: What's happening? "A vintage 1967 Ford Mustang speeding down a coastal highway."

The Environment: Set the scene. "A vintage 1967 Ford Mustang speeding down a coastal highway at sunset."

The Style: This is huge. Is it a photo? A painting? "A vintage 1967 Ford Mustang speeding down a coastal highway at sunset, cinematic film still."

When you combine these, you give the AI a clear, actionable scene to work with instead of a fuzzy idea.

The table below shows how each of these elements can steer your final image in a completely different direction.

Prompt Element Breakdown

See how different prompt components shape the final AI-generated image.

Prompt Element	Example	Impact on Image
Subject	`a majestic lion` vs. `a playful lion cub`	Changes the core focus, age, and mood of the main character.
Action	`a knight standing guard` vs. `a knight in a fierce battle`	Defines the energy and story. One is static and stoic, the other is dynamic and chaotic.
Environment	`a futuristic city` vs. `an enchanted forest`	Establishes the entire backdrop, influencing lighting, colors, and overall atmosphere.
Style	`oil painting` vs. `anime sketch` vs. `photorealistic`	This is the most transformative element, dictating the artistic medium and visual texture.

As you can see, each piece of the puzzle adds a critical layer of detail. Getting a handle on these is your first big step.

From Good to Great: Adding Advanced Details

Ready to really take control? The secret sauce is in the modifiers—the technical and artistic details that elevate an image. I'm talking about the stuff that separates a decent AI picture from a jaw-dropping one.

Here are a few things I often add to my prompts:

Lighting: "Golden hour," "dramatic studio lighting," "soft, diffused light," "eerie moonlight."

Color Palette: "Vibrant neon colors," "muted pastel tones," "monochromatic black and white."

Camera/Lens: "Shot on a Sony A7III with an 85mm lens," "telephoto shot," "macro detail."

Composition: "Wide-angle," "dynamic low-angle shot," "symmetrical framing," "close-up."

My biggest tip? Don't be shy. String these descriptors together. A longer, more detailed prompt almost always beats a short one. Give the AI as much context as you possibly can.

An Example: Taking a Prompt from Vague to Vivid

Let's put this all together. I'll start with a super basic idea and build it up, layer by layer, into a prompt that gets exactly what I want.

The Vague Idea: a dog at the beach

You'll get a picture, sure, but it will be generic. A random dog, some sand, probably a bit boring.

A Better, More Specific Prompt: photo of a golden retriever catching a frisbee at a sunny beach

Much better! Now we have a specific breed, a clear action, and a defined mood. But we can do so much more.

The Final, Pro-Level Prompt:

cinematic photo of a joyful golden retriever, mid-air, catching a red frisbee at a sunny beach during golden hour, ocean waves in the background, shot on a Sony A7III, detailed fur, motion blur, hyperrealistic, 8k

Now that is a prompt. It tells the AI the style (cinematic), emotion (joyful), lighting (golden hour), technical specs, and desired quality (hyperrealistic, 8k). The difference between the image from the first prompt and this one will be night and day. This is how you generate AI images that truly match the vision in your head.

A Guided Walkthrough Using Midjourney

Alright, enough with the theory—let's get our hands dirty. I'm going to walk you through how to generate your first AI images using Midjourney, a platform that's become famous for its jaw-dropping, artistic results. It operates entirely on the chat platform Discord, which can feel a bit strange at first. Trust me, though; once you get the hang of it, you'll find a buzzing creative community and an incredibly powerful tool at your fingertips.

First things first, you'll need a Discord account. After you're signed in, your next step is to join the official Midjourney server. Once you're in, you’ll see a bunch of channels. The ones you want to look for are the "newbie" channels. This is your playground for submitting your first prompts.

Your First Image Generation

In any newbie channel, find the message bar at the bottom. The magic starts with a single command: /imagine.

As soon as you type /imagine and hit space, a "prompt" box will pop up. This is where the fun begins. You're going to tell the AI exactly what you want it to create.

Let's start with something classic. In the prompt box, type this: glowing jellyfish floating through a bioluminescent underwater cave, detailed, vibrant colors

Hit enter, and the Midjourney bot will spring to life. It usually takes about 60 seconds, and then it will present you with a grid of four unique images based on your description. This 2x2 grid is your first creative checkpoint.

Crafting a great prompt is really a mix of art and science. You have to be descriptive but also know what kinds of words will guide the AI toward a specific style.

As this shows, it's an iterative process. You start with a core idea, add stylistic flair, and then refine, refine, refine.

Refining and Upscaling Your Creation

Look just below your new grid of images. You'll see two rows of buttons labeled U1-U4 and V1-V4. These are your most important tools for shaping the final product. The numbers correspond to the images in the grid: 1 is top-left, 2 is top-right, 3 is bottom-left, and 4 is bottom-right.

U is for Upscale: Let's say you love the top-left image (image 1). Clicking U1 tells Midjourney to generate a larger, higher-resolution version of just that image. This is what you do when you've nailed it and want the final piece.

V is for Vary: What if the top-left image is almost perfect but not quite there? Clicking V1 will generate four new variations that are all based on the composition and style of that first image. This is my go-to move when I’m close to the desired result.

My personal workflow almost always involves hitting a "V" button at least once. I see the first grid as a starting point. The real magic often emerges in the second or third round of variations, when the AI really starts to hone in on the specific vibe I'm chasing.

Controlling the Aspect Ratio

But what if you don't want a square image? This is where parameters come in. A parameter is a short command you add to the end of your prompt to give the AI extra instructions. The most common one by far is --ar for aspect ratio.

Want something that looks like a still from a movie? Add this to your prompt: --ar 16:9

Or maybe you need a vertical image for a phone background? Use this instead: --ar 9:16

So, if we wanted our jellyfish scene to have that cinematic, widescreen feel, the full prompt would look like this: glowing jellyfish floating through a bioluminescent underwater cave, detailed, vibrant colors --ar 16:9

Getting comfortable with these three things—the /imagine command, the U and V buttons, and the --ar parameter—is all you need to start producing incredible work. From here, it's all about experimenting. Scroll through the public channels to see what other people are making, get inspired, and never stop tweaking your prompts.

Pushing the Boundaries: Advanced Techniques for Pro-Level Results

Once you've got the hang of basic prompting, it's time to dive into the features that give you serious creative control. This is where you graduate from simply making cool pictures to crafting professional visuals with real intention and precision.

One of the most powerful tools in the box is image-to-image prompting, often called img2img. Instead of starting from a blank slate with just text, you give the AI a source image to work from. This could be a rough sketch, a photo you took, or even another AI generation. The model then uses your text prompt to transform that source image, keeping the core composition but applying a completely new style. For example, you could upload a simple line drawing of a character and ask the AI to render it as a photorealistic portrait.

The creative explosion around these methods is staggering. In 2025, it's estimated that we're creating 34 million AI-generated images every single day. Since 2022, that number has ballooned to over 15 billion images total. What's really interesting is that around 80% of these are made with open-source models like Stable Diffusion, which are popular precisely because they offer the flexibility needed for these advanced tricks. You can read more about these incredible AI statistics to get a sense of just how massive this movement is.

Getting Consistency and Precision in Your Work

A huge hurdle for many new users is creating a consistent character across different images. How do you get the same person to show up in different scenes or poses? The secret lies in using a seed number.

Think of a seed as a specific starting number for the AI's random-number generator. If you use the same prompt and the same seed, you'll get a nearly identical image every time. By finding a seed that gives you a character you love, you can lock it in and then start tweaking the rest of the prompt—changing the background, the action, or the lighting—to build a whole series of consistent visuals.

I lean on this technique all the time for storytelling projects. By locking in the seed for my main character, I can generate images of her exploring a forest, sitting in a café, or looking out at a cityscape, all while keeping her appearance consistent.

Another game-changer is inpainting, which lets you edit specific parts of an image you've already created. Say you generate a perfect portrait, but the eyes just look a little... off. With inpainting, you can simply mask over the eyes and give the AI a new, targeted prompt like "detailed, expressive green eyes" to fix just that area, leaving the rest of the image untouched.

On the flip side, outpainting (sometimes called "uncropping") expands your image beyond its original borders. If you have a great close-up but wish you could see more of the scene, outpainting lets you generate the surrounding environment. It can turn a tight portrait into a full-body shot or a wide-angle landscape. These editing tools give you a level of control after the initial generation that is absolutely essential for professional results.

Got Questions About AI Image Generation? We've Got Answers.

As you start exploring the world of AI art, you're bound to have some questions. It’s a new frontier, after all. Let's tackle some of the most common ones I hear from creators just starting out, so you can move forward with confidence.

Can I Actually Sell My AI-Generated Images?

This is probably the biggest question on everyone's mind: what are the rules for commercial use? The short answer is, it all comes down to the terms of service of the tool you're using.

Some platforms are very generous. For instance, a paid Midjourney subscription generally gives you full ownership rights to sell or use your creations commercially. Others might be more restrictive, especially on their free tiers.

How Do I Make My Images Look Like Real Photos?

Getting that photorealistic look is a common goal, but it takes more than just asking for a "photo." You have to think and write like a photographer. The key is to load your prompt with technical, photographic details.

Try adding specifics like these to your next prompt:

Camera & Lens: "Shot on a Canon EOS R5 with an 85mm f/1.4 lens." This tells the AI exactly the kind of depth of field and quality you're after.

Lighting: Use descriptive lighting terms. "Soft morning light," "dramatic rim lighting," or "golden hour glow" work wonders.

Keywords: Don't forget to sprinkle in terms like "hyperrealistic," "hyperdetailed," and "8K" to push the AI toward maximum detail.

Of course, your choice of model matters, too. Some Stable Diffusion models are specifically trained for photorealism and will give you a much better starting point.

What Are the Biggest Mistakes Newcomers Make?

By far, the most common mistake is being too vague. "A dog in a park" will give you a generic, often uninspired image. The magic happens when you get specific. Think about what kind of dog, what it's doing, the time of day, and the overall mood.

Another thing beginners often miss is the power of negative prompts. These are your secret weapon for telling the AI what to avoid. If you keep getting images with weird, six-fingered hands or a messy, out-of-focus background, adding --no distorted hands or --no blurry can work miracles.

This whole process is a conversation with the AI. Your first try is just the opening line. The real art is in tweaking, refining, and experimenting. Embrace the iteration—that's where you'll find the truly incredible results.

Ready to stop juggling different platforms and start creating? ImageNinja brings the best AI models like DALL-E 3 and Stable Diffusion into one simple, powerful interface. Try ImageNinja today and turn your ideas into stunning visuals instantly.