Generating High-Quality AI Images
Chapter 3 was honest about where AI struggles — this chapter covers the actual generation workflow that minimizes those weaknesses, regardless of which genre you're working in.
The Generation Workflow
Write a specific, detailed prompt
Lighting, composition, and camera/lens-style descriptors genuinely improve output quality over a vague, short prompt — the same specificity principle this whole subject keeps rediscovering, applied here to visual generation.
Generate multiple variations
Never accept the first output — generate several and compare, the same multi-run testing discipline Selling AI Prompts applies to text prompts, applied here to visual quality instead of textual reliability.
Select the cleanest result
Pick the variation with the fewest visible artifacts, using the checklist below.
Upscale for resolution requirements
Stock platforms require specific minimum resolutions for commercial licensing, often higher than an AI tool's native output — an AI upscaling step is frequently a necessary part of the pipeline, not optional.
Do a final artifact check at full size
Zoom into the final, upscaled image and check it carefully — artifacts invisible in a small preview can become obvious at full resolution.
Common Artifacts to Check For
- Warped or extra fingers, or an unnatural number of limbs
- Garbled or nonsensical text anywhere in the background
- Asymmetric or uncanny facial features
- Inconsistent lighting or shadow direction across the image
- Illogical reflections in glass, water, or mirrors