What is DALL-E 2?
DALL-E 2 is a natural language artificial intelligence image generator.
That’s nerd speak to say DALL-E can generate and edit images based on a text prompt you provide it.
Let’s say you need an image of a cat astronaut chasing a ball of yarn through the cosmos for a website hero, or maybe you need a cute robot with big eyes in an 8-bit pixel art style for a TikTok cover.
You can’t get images like that on most stock photo websites, and while you could probably create that from scratch with Photoshop that will take a pretty significant amount of time.
Enter DALL-E.
Simply describe the image you’d like to DALLE to create, press generate, and sit back and watch the magic happen!
a cat astronaut chasing a ball of yarn through the cosmos
a cute robot with big eyes in an 8-bit pixel art style
What can DALL-E do?
DALL-E is changing and adding new features faster than I can write these articles! As of the publishing of this post, DALL-E has 3 core functions:
Generate New Images
This is the main functionality most people know of when they think about AI Art.
You have an idea for an image, you describe that image to DALL-E in the main prompting area, DALL-E then generates 4 image options based on the text prompt.
Imagine searching Adobe Stock, or Google Images for the perfect photo for your project, but instead of grabbing an image that already exists, DALL-E generates a completely new and unique image.
Interested in tips and trick on how to prompt better and get better results from DALL-E? Check out our best practices section.
How to Edit Images in DALL-E
A complete tutorial
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Edit Existing images
DALL-E’s ability to edit and extend images are why DALL-E stands superior to all the other AI image generators out there.
Simply select the area you’d like edited using DALL-E’s eraser tool (in the edit window), type a prompt for what you’d like replaced here, then select an option that fits you best.
See below where I upload an image I took on a morning walk, and see what DALL-E generated it into:
Original
DALL-E Erase
Final
Extend a Photo in DALL-E
A complete tutorial
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Extend Images
Ever find the perfect image for the project but there’s not enough room for the copy?
Forget monkeying around in Photoshop, you can just use DALL-E’s expert AI to generate a new part
Before
After
How to get Access
Since late September Open AI (DALL-E’s creator) removed the waitlist to their beta. Now anyone can create a DALL-E account! Click below to start creating!
Get Started
DALL-E Prompting Best Practices
After using and researching DALL-E over the last 6+ months, I have the following pieces of advice to improve your prompting:
- Give your Prompt Structure: I’ve found the most success using the following structure {adjective}{emotion} [Subject], [Style], {color}
- Keep it Simple: Avoid overly complicated descriptions or concepts, and instead focus on a single, clear idea to reduce the chance of the AI getting confused.
- Build your Subject First: Simplify your prompt to just details on your subject. This ensures DALL-E’s been trained on your subject matter, and you can always add details with outpainting later.
- Reinforce your Goal: AKA Keyword stuff your prompts. It helps the AI understand what your subject is.
- Try Different Combinations: Try experimenting with different combinations of words and phrases when DALL-E is close but isn’t quite getting what you want to create.
Wanna know more? Check out my prompting tutorial below!
Top 5 DALL-E Prompting Tips & Tricks
A Beginner’s tutorial
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What does DALL-E Cost?
DALL-E works off a system of credits. Every prompt (including those used when editing a photo) costs one credit. Unfortunately, as of April 6th, 2023, Open AI is no longer giving out free credits.
You can buy more credits in $15 chunks. You get 115 more credits for every $15 USD spent.
Simply click on your profile from any screen in DALL-E, then click the “Buy More” button beside the number of credits you have remaining.
