Okay, so today I wanted to mess around with generating some images of, well, Laura with a horse. Sounds simple enough, right? It kinda spiraled from there, let me tell you.
First Attempts: Just Getting Started
I fired up my usual image generator, typed in “Laura with a horse”, and hit go. I figured, how hard could it be? The first few results were… interesting. One had Laura with, like, three legs and the horse had this weirdly human-like face. It was creepy, to say the least. Another one had them both melting into the background like some kind of bizarre painting. Definitely not what I was going for.
Tweaking the Prompt: Adding Details
So, I realized I needed to be way more specific. I changed the prompt to something like, “photorealistic image of a young woman named Laura, smiling, standing next to a brown horse in a sunny field.” I thought adding details about the setting and making it “photorealistic” would help. It did, a little.
The images were better, for sure. Laura looked more like a normal person, and the horse, well, it looked like a horse! But things were still off. Sometimes the lighting was all wonky, like the sun was in two places at once. Other times, Laura’s hand would be, like, phasing through the horse’s mane. It was like watching a glitchy video game.
Experimenting with Styles: Going Artistic
I decided to try a different approach. Maybe photorealism was the problem. I started playing with different artistic styles. I tried “oil painting,” “watercolor,” even “comic book style.” The results were kind of cool, in their own way.
- Oil painting: This gave it a classic, kind of romantic vibe. Laura looked like she belonged in a museum, and the horse was all majestic and stuff.
- Watercolor: This was softer, more dreamy. It was pretty, but a bit too abstract for what I originally wanted.
- Comic book: Okay, this one was just fun. Laura and the horse looked like they were ready to fight crime, super stylized and dynamic.
The “Perfect” Image (Almost)
After a ton of experimenting, I went back to the photorealistic idea, I had the image in my head and the style was not a problem, but kept messing with the prompt. I added things like “high resolution,” “detailed textures,” “natural lighting,” and even specified the breed of horse (I went with “American Paint Horse,” because why not?).
Finally, I got something I was pretty happy with. Laura looked great, the horse looked great, the setting was perfect. There were still a few tiny imperfections, like a weird shadow here and there, but it was close enough. I felt like I had spent way too much time, but finally I generated a pretty decent picture of Laura with a horse, that’s how I spent my day.