AI image generation — a practical beginner's guide
Everything you need to start generating usable AI images — from choosing a tool to writing prompts that produce results you can actually use.
Choosing the right tool for your use case
The tool choice depends on three things: your primary use case, your tolerance for workflow friction, and whether commercial IP clarity is important to you.
If you already have ChatGPT Plus, DALL-E 3 is included and requires no additional subscription or new interface to learn. Start there. Move to Midjourney when you've identified that image quality is your primary bottleneck.
How to write prompts that work
Most beginners write prompts that are too short and too vague. "A photo of a person in an office" produces a generic result. A structured prompt produces a useful one.
Commercial use: what you need to know
The commercial rights situation varies by tool and is evolving. Current status as of April 2026:
- DALL-E 3: OpenAI grants commercial use rights to output generated through their API and ChatGPT. Terms apply — review them for your specific use case.
- Midjourney: Paid plan subscribers have commercial use rights. The company is involved in copyright litigation about training data — consult a lawyer for high-stakes commercial use.
- Adobe Firefly: Commercial use rights included. Trained on licensed content. The safest commercial IP position of any major tool. Adobe provides IP indemnification on enterprise plans.
Integrating AI images into your workflow
The most efficient workflow for content producers: generate in batches (10-20 images per session), not one at a time as needed. Batch generation produces better prompt consistency, allows style calibration, and avoids the interruption of leaving your workflow mid-project.
For brand work: create a prompt template that includes your consistent brand parameters (specific lighting style, colour palette description, talent demographics, setting characteristics). A well-calibrated template produces consistent output across a campaign without regenerating your style from scratch each time.
Common mistakes and how to avoid them
- Generating isolated subjects on white backgrounds: These look AI-generated immediately. Specify the context and environment in every prompt.
- Not asking for specific aspect ratios: Default aspect ratios rarely match your use case. Always specify — 16:9 for YouTube, 4:5 for Instagram, 1:1 for profile images.
- Giving up after one or two attempts: Professional AI image workflows involve 5-10 generation attempts per final image. Budget iteration time into your process.
- Using AI images without review: AI image generators produce errors — extra fingers, distorted text, implausible physics. Review every image before use.