You may have already heard about the very recent upsurge in AI image generation, with tools such as Midjourney and Leonardo AI allowing you to create complex and beautiful images simply by using word prompts.
These tools will revolutionise how many people create website images and other marketing materials.
They are in the early stages of development but are already producing some amazing results that can be upscaled across print jobs or used on an as-is basis on your website.
As this technology is so new, the law has yet to catch up with the advances, so copyright and ownership can be a little foggy.
As it currently stands, images created using artificial intelligence cannot be copyrighted, so if you do use them essentially, they can be used by other people, but this is the same as many free royalty-free stock sites where thousands of people use the same image.
One way to get around this is to do some post-production work in Photoshop to make the image unique to your brand; this could be erasing some of the backgrounds, adding a new element to the image, or adding your logo to part it, for example, to brand it.
This does add some additional cost to the image, but it means your brand has a perfect Image which is protected by Copyright and Is Yours Alone to use.
The main generator I use is Midjourney. If you have a paid account with them, you can use the artificially generated images for commercial purposes and even for sale on prints or t-shirts.
What makes AI image generation so exciting is the ability to create images that you previously would not have been able to find on royalty-free stock sites or would have cost a fortune to either commission photographers to take or bring in a Photoshop artist to create for you.
How easy is it to create artificially generated images?
Like all things, the people who know how to do it will tell you it’s really easy, but the interface for creating images varies from application to application.
Midjourney uses Discord to create the images, there is no web interface, so you need to have a Discord account and therefore know how to use it, and you also need to learn how to use the various prompts and commands to get the best out of the AI.
Then comes the craft of Engineering a prompt to get the appropriate image. it’s actually very easy to generate bad images using artificial intelligence. getting the image the way you want it takes practice and some skill.
I’ve been very lucky to be involved in developing the UK’s first AI-generated stock image website. We’ve been creating hundreds of images in unique and interesting Styles to illustrate both impossible and regular scenarios.
This is means I’ve spent hours learning the various AI tools, how to engineer prompts and the best ways to get the desired results. I’ve also done a lot of research into associated tools like image upscale and various other AI-related stuff that help generate great images.
If you’d like to try this out, drop me a line, and I’ll hook you up with a discount.
David Foreman
I'm Dave, a freelance WordPress developer with over 15 years experience in planning, designing and building bespoke WordPress sites for a wide range of clients. I've also run a creative agency since 1997 and I enjoy a good rant about WordPress, design, SEO and anything creative.
