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- [00:01]
A
Let me ask you something. When your team needs AI guidance, do they come to you? When leadership asks about AI strategy, is your opinion the one that matters? If you hesitated on either one of these questions, you're not alone. The AI revolution is creating a new hierarchy in marketing. Those who master AI are becoming indispensable. Those who don't are becoming replaceable. AI Business World Business positions you on the right side of this divide. Two focus days in Anaheim, California, April 29th and 30th, designed to transform you from quote, the person learning AI unquote into quote, the AI expert everyone depends on, unquote. Melanie Miller told us the AI teaching was mind blowing. You'll master workflows that deliver measurable roi, learn from practitioners already providing results and and build a network of 1000 AI focused professionals. This is more than just learning new tools. It's about professional security, career advancement, becoming the person your organization can't afford to lose. Learn more@AI businessworld.live. get your tickets at a businessworld.live.
- [01:20]
B
Welcome to the AI Explored podcast, helping you put AI to work. And now here's your host, Michael Stelzner.
- [01:31]
A
Hello, hello, hello. Thank you so much for joining me for the AI Explored podcast brought to you by Social Media Examiner. I'm your host, Michael Stelzner, and this is the podcast for marketers, creators and business owners who want to know how to put AI to work. Just a heads up, today is an incredible episode. People say that using AI images is cheating and not really creative. But is that really true? In today's episode of the AI Explored podcast, we'll explore using AI images for business. My special guest is an AI creative futurist. She's known online as your AI Ante. She's a former creative director who helps marketers and entrepreneurs build bold brands with creative design, strategy and AI. Her course is Foundations in Photography, spelled Faux X Photography. Lauren Devane, welcome to the show. How you doing today?
- [02:26]
B
I'm doing good, Michael. Thanks for having me.
- [02:28]
A
I'm really excited you're here. I would love to start with your journey into AI. Where did it start?
- [02:33]
B
Yeah, so I've always been a very future forward tech kind of girly. I mean, I grew up, my dad built my computer, I had a computer in my room when I was in third grade. And so I've just always been very interested in the newest tech and I went to school for graphic design and so these two things kind of came together after I left. I was running social media creative at Ulta Beauty for a While and in 2021, I left there and started my own brand design studio. And then 2022 came around and AI was starting to kind of trickle its way into my purview. And as soon as I discovered mid journey, I went into like a two day AI K hole where I was just creating and it wasn't even very good yet, but I was like, oh, my God, this is going to change everything for creatives. I saw it immediately. Even back then when it wasn't that good, I knew that it was going to get better and that was the best it was going to be and it could only, you know, improve. And so I immediately decided, all right, Lauren, you're going to shift course because you have all of this experience with photography and styling and producing shoots and art directing and creative directing. And I knew that AI was going to be able to change all that. So I shifted direction and started teaching about how to use AI as a creative. And that's kind of how I've made myself a little name for myself on the Internet.
- [04:07]
A
Love it. Tell us a little bit about the kind of work you were doing with Ulta and how that kind of worked into the AI. Just give us a little bit of that story.
- [04:14]
B
Totally. So I was overseeing all of our social media creative, which meant we were shooting content in our office studio where we have, you know, multiple bays and multiple photographers stylist. And I was the one talking with the merchants and they're saying, okay, these are the products that need to be in this shot. And it was my job to figure out, okay, what is the shot, what is, what angle are we leaning into? How are we going to bring this to life? I was also on shoots in LA with our actual physical human models. Right. And having to figure out, what's the makeup going to be, what's the hair going to be, how are we styling them, what's their expression? So all of this sort of stuff, I had real life experience, experience around. And so when I realized that AI could help me with the planning or actually execution at this point, I was like, oh, my God, this is the future. And so I decided, let's do it. Let's dive in right now.
- [05:10]
A
Well, and before we get into the details, is it true that right now AI can do pretty much all the same things that you had to do with humans?
- [05:18]
B
Yes. I mean, there are use cases for sure where using real humans is the right move, and then there are use cases where you could be using AI generated people. Right. So there's always going to be use cases for both. But in the last few weeks, I mean, we're recording this the very end of the year 2025, and we were introduced to Nano Banana in August and then Nano Banana Pro in late November. So these two models have changed everything, changed the game completely for businesses to really be able to use this as a tool for actual assets that they can use.
- [05:56]
A
Awesome. So what's one of the biggest misconceptions that you see when it comes to AI images?
- [06:01]
B
I would definitely say that a lot of people think that it means that you are no longer being creative, that you're letting the bot do the work for you. And that couldn't be further from the truth.
- [06:12]
A
Tell me more.
- [06:13]
B
I really believe that creativity is not about, you know, the physical labor that you're putting into something. Creativity really is about, for me, connecting dots and finding connections that other people don't see there. It's about ideas, it's about perspective, it's about your intuition and your taste and being able to take all of these things and come up with something new. I really think that creativity is taking existing ideas and flipping them on their head. And I think that if you can do that without a bot, the bot is really just going to help expand those ideas for you and really show off the your creativity even further.
- [06:55]
A
Love it. Okay, so what I'm hearing you say is AI images is an art form. It is a creative endeavor. And what I would love to hear before we get into the how is what are the benefits when it's done well, assuming people take what they're going to learn later today through this interview and they put it to work, what's the upside for them?
- [07:15]
B
Yeah, I mean, businesses and brands being able to use AI imagery, first of all, it's going to democratize high quality imagery. Right? You don't need to have a 6 figure your budget in order to have quality photos anymore. You don't need to wait six weeks for your images to come back or six months in some cases because the photographer that you hired, you know, didn't get around to your work. So it's going to allow brands and businesses to move faster, to move more agile, and to be able to produce and create imagery that they need, you know, at the drop of a hat, as soon as they need it. It's also going to unlock the speed aspect. Speed is such a huge piece and, you know, getting to market faster than your competitor is massive. And if you both got the same similar products and you're able to get yours out there faster because you were able to, you know, just create imagery around your product with AI in an hour versus, you know, in a month. You're getting to market before they are. And it's also going to let us focus on taste and execution rather than getting bogged down the weeds of, okay, how are we going to get this done in this timeline? So it's really opening a lot of different doors for brands.
- [08:32]
A
Do you think it's going to allow people that, in their mind said, I'm not a photographer or I'm not a designer, I can't do this. Do you think it's going to unlock some creative unlocks for people?
- [08:44]
B
I do, I think it will. But I also believe that the people that are going to be the best at AI imagery are those people that already understand the language and the lexicon because. And we'll get into it. A lot of what you're doing with AI imagery is describing what you want to see. So as a photographer, you're already familiar with lighting and composition. A stylist is really, you know, already familiar with how they want the shot to look and what textures and colors they're using. But if you aren't a photographer and you aren't a stylist or an art director or a creative director, you can, if you're able, if you've got taste and you can describe what it is that you're thinking in your head or understand how you can be using AI large language models like ChatGPT to help you figure that out. Right. Like, I've built a custom GPT that helps with that, where, yes, I, I have those words to be able to describe it, but it's going to be a lot faster if I just say, here's my idea, give me some prompts and then let me go in and finesse what I actually want from it. So if you understand how to work with it. Yeah, absolutely. It's going to. Because being a photographer, of course you have training around that sort of stuff, lighting and angles and expressions and all of that, but you are still just, at the end of the day, you set up the camera, but you're pressing that button and it's capturing what you want. And with AI, it's doing something similar, is that you're telling it exactly what you want to see and then you're pressing that button. And there is a lot more, not risk to it, but a lot more chance in that it is still AI and it's creating images out of nothing. And so, you know, you could get four different images that are all following your prompt, but they're all different because it's making it up, basically. So I definitely think that that is going to unlock for a lot of.
- [10:35]
A
People and folks, we are going to help those of you that don't have that insider knowledge on the things that you need to be focused on. We're going to get through that today for sure. Before anyone begins thinking about AI images or begin using AI images, are there any other concepts that they need to kind of wrap their brain around?
- [10:56]
B
I mean, I think that there are two pieces to the puzzle here. We talked just now kind of about the prompt and what you're describing that you want to see. But then there is also understanding how the image models work and the differences between the image models. So just a few minutes ago, I was talking about Nano Banana Pro, which is Google's image model. But then we also have models like Seed Dream, and we have models like Flux, and we have ChatGPT's new image model. And all of these models are all trained differently on different images and their metadata. And so they're all going to roll out an image a little bit differently because it's trained on that data versus this data. And so understanding which models are good at what is going to be a huge unlock as well. Because, you know, maybe you want a stock photo, you're going to go and you want more of an editorial vibe. You're going to go to one model over. If you're looking for maybe product photography where you're trying to recreate your product exactly, you would go to a different model. So understanding how to work with the tools as well as what they're good at is going to be the other piece of that unlock.
- [12:08]
A
Okay, so I think I heard you say two things. One thing is the words that you use, that is the prompt is going to make a big difference in the output of the images. And that was based on a summary of what we previously talked about. And then secondly, understanding your tools, we already mentioned Nano Banana Flux is a tool by Black Forest Labs, if I'm not mistaken, and they're really good with images. But C Dream, I've never heard of. I just searched for it. It's SE dream. Is that correct? Like, what's the deal? Tell us the skinny on that a little bit and then any other tools that you recommend.
- [12:39]
B
So C Dream, I really like for its editorial kind of vibes. It's really great at just like different poses. And this is me even still giving it, you know, hey, this is what I want in this prompt, but I'm still going to see very different looks. And so I think that the images that I get out of C Dream are definitely more saturated and the color is definitely more intense. So it's really about understanding what the esthetic that you're looking for from that images as well. And all these different images, you know, with C Dream you do have the ability, they have a 4k model, so you know, you're able to get much larger images without having to upscale them. So there are benefits that way. And I actually use a tool called FreePik, and that's F R E E P I K. And what that allows me to do is access all of these different models right inside it. So I'm not having to go and pay for one model here, one model there, one model there, and then have to have all sorts of different user interfaces that I have to learn. I'm learning one interface and I'm able to select from the different models, depending on what I'm working on. So, you know, maybe I run it in C Dream and then I run that same prompt in Nano Banana and I can compare and contrast and be able to say, oh, I actually like how this one's looking. Maybe I take some ideas from there, bring that into my prompt and run it over here. So it really is, again, you are being very creative when you're working with these tools. And I think that proves that is that you are the one curating those final images. So being able to have access to a bunch of models and knowing what they do well is going to be the key.
- [14:19]
A
I would love you to describe Nano Banana Pro after I just give this little bit of an intro. If anybody who's listening has a Google Workspace account and you know you have one, if you have a paid Gmail account and you go to Gemini, I think it's gemini.google.com or something like that. There is an option you have to choose, I think the Pro or whatever, but it's called Nano Banana Pro and kind of explain to people why this is such a game changer, because I don't think a lot of people have messed around with it.
- [14:46]
B
Yeah, for sure. So the reason that Nano Banana Pro and Nano Banana are so good and different than most of these image models is the other image models were trained, like I said, on the images that they looked at and that metadata and that's what they're trained on. Whereas Nano Banana is actually using Google Gemini as a large language model on the back end. And so it has all of the world knowledge of Gemini while it's creating these images for you. So it can even be doing real time sort of stuff. So you could go in there and say, find the weather forecast for me for Chicago and create an infographic for the next week. And I wanted to use these colors and this style and it's going to go and literally find that information for you, pull it in and generate a gorgeous infographic with the weather. Like it's nuts what you can be doing. And it's perfect at text. Like you can have full paragraphs of text in there and it is nailing it. I think before we saw Nano Banana, text was a major issue for people because it just looked like gibberish. Even now if you go into mid journey, you're going to still get crap text and being able to actually have faces replicated properly. Nano Banana is doing an incredible job of doing that as well. And so this model is just so much better than any of these other image models that we've seen when it comes to being able to recreate and pull actual data and be able to analyze it. Like I could drop in a mood board and tell it to act like a graphic designer and analyze this mood board and now generate a mock up for a website using this brand mood board and what it knows about what a good website is. And it will give me something that's actually a really good starting place. So being able to use it as this creative consultant or counterpart to is an incredible way to be using these tools.
- [16:51]
A
Yeah. And folks, just to give you some perspective, Gemini is multimodal, which means it can see and it can hear. And it's been trained on all the content of YouTube, which Google owns. And think about Google images. I mean like literally you can Google search any image you want. It's been trained on all the images of the world. That's why it's so good. And it is really hard to discern that it's not real. And what Lauren said is true. Like you can tell it to like you can add like a subject in there and then you can tell it to place it into a setting and it will look pretty darn good. I mean like it's hard to discern it, which I think is incredibly creative. So. All right, just real quick on free picks. So this is a tool that basically you must have to add tokens into it and then you can select any model you want. Is that generally how that works?
- [17:38]
B
Yeah. So they actually have different levels. I pay for like the highest level because I'm using it a lot. But what I really love, love about there's the Premium plus and the Pro levels. They give you unlimited image generations. Unlimited. Okay, so you're not paying every time you're creating images.
- [17:57]
A
How much are we talking for this?
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B
It depends on which one you're on. So if you're on the premium plus plan, I want to say it's less than $300 for the entire year.
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A
Oh, wow.
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B
Which is a really good deal.
- [18:08]
A
You could pay that much for one stock image. Right?
- [18:10]
B
That's what I'm saying. It is an incredible, incredible deal. And you're getting like, I can't remember the amount of tokens. Because what you can do in freepik outside of image generation, you can do video generation using the top video models, audio generation using those top models, upscaling. So taking your images and using AI to make them bigger or to improve on skin so it looks better. And so when you're using one of those higher tier subscription levels, you're not using your tokens for any of your image generation, you're using them all towards video or upscaling. So you're really able to feel like you have more freedom to actually generate. Because when you're using it on kind of that token based level, I think there is this sort of feeling inside where you're like, oh, I don't want to keep running this same prompt like four more times because I don't want to use my tokens. Whereas when you have that unlimited ability, it really opens up your creativity to like, oh, what if we try this way? Or what if we change the prompt a little bit that way and you can see start really playing and exploring different ideas. And so that's really why I love the freepik model is because I have that ability to do those unlimited generations. And if you're not using a tool like freepik and you are just using Nano Banana right inside Google Gemini, or you can go to Google AI Studio and use it there for free as well. But you do end up, you know, you're only getting one image back and then you're kind of like, okay, do I like this or do I not? Rather than saying, okay, run it again, run it again. So there is a difference in terms of like workflow. If you're really serious about AI image generation, then I would absolutely suggest getting into like an aggregator like freepik where you've got access to all the models and you have more unlimited ability to play. Whereas if you're just, you know, using it sometimes go in and use it in Nano Banana Player or use it in Gemini and play around with it and see. And if you're like, yeah, I could get into this, then, you know, make the jump over to Freepet.
- [20:11]
A
Okay, perfect. Every year, the gap widens. The marketers who understand AI are pulling ahead, creating better content faster, automating strategic work, and delivering results their competitors Simply can't match. 2026 could be your best year ever because you finally embraced AI. Now you're listening to this podcast, but why not join us for two days of systematic mastery at AI Business World, April 29th and 30th in Anaheim, California? Here's what Melanie Miller told us. Quote the AI teaching was mind blowing. I'm so far ahead of so many people that claim to do what I do because Michael Stelzner only brings the best to teach, unquote. Here's what sets apart this from random tutorials and scattered learning, which I know we all use. You're going to get complete workflows, not isolated tips, strategic frameworks that connect everything, implementation plans you can execute immediately, and 20 sessions dedicated to build comprehensive AI mastery. These are the best of the best that I have recruited. By the end of the event, you'll have all the AI skills that took others years of random implementation to figure out literally at your fingertips. The gap is widening. Which side are you going to be on? Learn more at aibusinessworld Live. Grab your tickets today at aibusinessworld Live. Let's get into your framework for actually putting together a really good prompt so that you get a really good output. Where do we begin?
- [21:41]
B
So I have this seven pillar prompt framework that I've come up with that I really feel like does the best job of getting all of the detail in there. Because the thing to know about AI image generation is if you don't tell it, it doesn't know it can't read your mind and it's going to just make up what it thinks you want there. And so if you gave it the prompt of a woman walking down the street with a coffee, what does the woman look like? What is the street? What is the weather? What is the coffee? What is she doing? Like, there's so much to it that it's going to have to just decide for you, right? And so the more details you give it, the better it's going to be. And previously to these models being really good at being able to follow long prompts. A year ago in mid journey, a long prompt was kind of frowned upon because it Gave it too much to try and do and it couldn't hit on all those details. Whereas now with Nano, Banana Pro C, Dream and flux, and Chad GPT's image model, all of those models are like, give me those long prompts. I am open and willing to be able to take all of that in and actually execute on all of the things you're asking for. So the first thing is the subject. So in our example, that would be the woman, right? And so you want to describe your subject. You want to talk about, what does it look like? What colors is it wearing? If it's a person, what do they look like? Short hair, long hair, curly hair, brown hair, blonde hair, you know, what skin color, what's their body type like? All of those details are important when you're trying to describe a person. Whereas if it's a product, is it a can, is it a box, is it a cylinder, is it a square? Like, there's so many details around the.
- [23:30]
A
Actual subject real quick on the subject. So how much detail do we want to give on the subject? Because you mentioned these prompts can be super, super long. Is like just a good paragraph enough, or are you talking about lots of paragraphs when you're talking about a subject.
- [23:46]
B
It depends how specific you want to get, right? So if you have this exact idea in your head of this person, maybe it's an older woman, and she has wrinkles and age spots, and she's got a weird scar on her left eyebrow and she has an interesting haircut with like a pink stripe through it. Like, all of these details could be put in there. Or if you care less about the actual identity of the woman and you just, you know, need an older woman, you could say an older woman in her 70s, wearing a, you know, woolly scarf. Like, it's all about how much you want to direct it. So if the person. And that is exactly what you want, and you're really trying to get a detailed portrait of this character that you're maybe going to go and use in all of your images. Because now you can take that image and use it as a reference.
- [24:37]
A
Ah, I love this.
- [24:39]
B
If you're starting to create characters to be able to create stories so that you can have a full storyboard. You using this exact person, Right? I use in quotes, but person. So maybe at the start you want to get really detailed about what that person looks like. And then now once you're using her as a reference, you can just say an old woman. Because now it's got the reference and you don't need to go super into detail. Does that make sense?
- [25:03]
A
Yeah, totally. So let's go to the next thing. We got the subject, what comes next?
- [25:07]
B
So then we want to have the action. And I think that this is something that a lot of people I don't even think about. But the action is what's going to tell the story, right? So if it's a person, is she walking, is she running, is she limping? And yes, obviously it's a static image, so some of these things might not be that obvious, but it is. Like, if she's running, her hands are pumping, right? If she's walking, her hands may be down by her arms. If she's limping, maybe she's got, you know, one of her knees is slightly lower than the other. So is she in a hurry? Is she standing in a line? Is she staring into space? Is she on her phone? Like, what is it that she's doing so that we can tell the story? You should think about it as, like, what was happening right before this shot and what's about to happen right after this shot and kind of understand, okay, this is what she's doing in the middle of that. And so that's an important piece of it as well. And if you're talking about a product, maybe it's that it's floating or it's balancing or it's stacked or it's being opened, right? So there's so many different actions that a product can take. Even if it's just a cup of coffee or a water bottle or something like that. I think we think, oh, it doesn't need an action, but it does. You know, is it sitting softly or is it kind of pushed in or what? You know what I mean? So it's like, what is that thing that it's doing in order to tell the story rather than it just there.
- [26:33]
A
Okay, so so far we've got a subject which is a thing or a person.
- [26:39]
B
I mean, even light could be your subject. You know what I mean? It's just a matter of, like, what is the focus?
- [26:44]
A
Yeah, exactly. It's the focus of the image, right? Which is the subject, which is typically going to be either a thing or a person, I would imagine. And then the action is. I love what you said. What happened just before and what will happen just after. That's kind of like a snapshot of, like, time, right? Like, is this person awakening? Is this product being picked up? I mean, there's all these kind of cool things that would kind of help the AI understand What's actually going on? What's the next thing we need to be thinking about?
- [27:12]
B
So the next thing is going to be the scene or the setting. So where is the thing that is doing the thing, right? Is it on a countertop? Is it on an iceberg? Is it in a rainforest? Is it in a tiny room? So where is it? What's happening around it? And again, the level of detail that you go into here is going to be all up to you. If the scene is really important, you can get really detailed where it's like a man in a blue coat walking in the background towards her as a small raccoon runs across the foreground, right? So it's like you can really get super detailed about what's happening here. And that's why a photographer or an art director is going to have a lot of these words or even storytellers or authors, you know, if they're really good at being able to describe things. So using this sort of language is what's going to really get you a great shot. And if you don't have all of those details included, like I said, it's making it up. So maybe you don't know, maybe you just start off by saying it's in a busy city and then you see some options and they're like, oh, actually, yeah, we should have some cars going through there. Oh, oh, we should have this light this way. So rather than always describing everything, sometimes leaving it up to chance is going to give you these ideas of what you actually want to put in your scene. And then you go and adjust your prompt to say, okay, now I'm going to do this in there. Right? So it's just as much using the AI to help your creativity and your ideas and explore different concepts as it is that you're just driving it and telling it exactly what you want. So using it for both.
- [28:49]
A
Okay, so we've talked about subject, action and scene slash setting. What I'm curious about is if you've already got a really good image, maybe it's a photograph, a real photograph, or maybe it's something you've created in the past, which is a setting. Is it possible that you could actually, instead of describing it, could you show it with some of these models?
- [29:10]
B
Yeah, 1000%. So there's a couple of ways you can do that. You can use your image, if it's your image or if it's like a royalty free image, you can use that image as the reference. So you could put that image here in there and say, hey, I want to swap out the man for a woman, and I want it to be snowy instead of summer, and I want it to be nighttime instead of daytime. And so you can really use natural language to kind of edit existing images into new images. The other thing that you can do is you can take an image and like, I've built a custom GPT that is called Prompty Poppins. And basically I can give her an image and say, break this image down for me. And I've trained her to work as like an entire creative department. So she will break down the image based on everything. We're kind of going over right now.
- [29:59]
A
And I'll give you a description that.
- [30:00]
B
You could use, and then being able to take that, and I can say, okay, now I want it to be this. Help me write a new prompt for that. Or even if you're in freepik, there is a way to just upload an image and you can have it write a prompt for you in regular, plain text, or it will write it in JSON, which is a kind of coding format for writing prompts, where it basically breaks down everything in a more like developer language. But it will break down that entire image for you and rewrite it as JSON code and basically be able to recreate that whole image for you. And you can go in and make your changes and say, okay, instead of a blue coat, I want a red bandana, or whatever the changes you would want. But those are three ways that you can kind of get started with an initial image that you already have access to.
- [30:51]
A
Okay, folks, so there's a lot more. As Lauren mentioned, there's seven things that we're going to talk about. But I would imagine if people just use the three things that we've talked about, subject, action, and scene, they're going to see a radical improvement in the quality of the images that they're getting from any of the models they're using. But wait, there's more. It's like a ginzu knife sale. All right, so let me just ask, of the three things we've talked about, what is the most important? The subject, the action, or the scene? Just out of curiosity, before we get into the other stuff, I think it.
- [31:23]
B
Depends on your use case, right? So I think, Avi, generally speaking, your subject is the main piece. So I think making sure that the thing that they're supposed to be looking at and focused on is exactly what you want from it. So I would probably say the subject, but I think they're all kind of equally important. And when you are writing your prompts. It's not that you don't have to have. And we'll go through the rest of them. You don't have to have, you know, sentences upon sentences of each of them. But like I said, you can leave some things out to leave it up to chance to then help you kind of come up with what you actually want if in your head you're not totally sure. Because creative block is a very real thing. And that's also why I love AI to be able to just get your brain going and you know, know have some ideas. But when we are leaving it up to chance, it's using kind of like the most basic. It's going to just default to like the most basic image of a woman walking down the street. Whereas when you give it the detail, it's able to then shift to some other things that are going to be more exciting.
- [32:27]
A
Okay, let's go to the next one. What's next?
- [32:30]
B
So the next is going to be medium. So right now we're kind of talking about photography or photography. But there are plenty of different types of photography, right? So it could be an E commerce shot where it's, you know, shot in a studio on white, it could be a cinematic still shot, it could be nighttime photography, it could look like CCTV footage, it could be drone photography, it could be portrait photography, right? So all of these different types of photographies, when you explain it that way, like we said, you know, it's using a large language model on the back end. So it knows, knows very well. Especially like Google is going to know what good E commerce photography looks like. So even if you don't put in the rest of what we're about to talk about, just telling it E com photography, it's like, okay, I know what that looks like or I know what a cinematic still is supposed to look like. And so you're infusing that direction into it now. We don't have to just talk photography though. That's the thing is these things are capable of all sorts of different mediums. Whether that is an illustration and illustration. Okay, we've got watercolor painting, we've got Gua Sha, we've got oil painting, we've got Sharpie marker, we've got crayon. Whatever you want, you can ask for. Make it out of, you know, ripped up magazines, a collage style image, make a stained glass image for me, make it into a playing car, right? There's just so many different mediums that you can ask for for that. It opens up the possibilities in so many ways where we're not just talking photography, Right. If you're a brand and you want to come up with an illustration style that you use all the time for all of your imagery, you can basically take that, use that style as your reference all the time. And then you're able to just create your branded imagery in your brand colors. Right. So it opens so many doors.
- [34:26]
A
Okay, this is where a lot of people are going to need a little guidance, obviously, because most people aren't going to know what the heck the difference is between a cinematic still and a E commerce photography stuff. Is there any good resources out there, that kind of showcase? I would imagine you could just Google search, like the different kinds of photography that's out there and find stuff. But you know, a lot of people, if they don't know what they don't know totally.
- [34:51]
B
And I would say yes, Google search, but I would also say like Chat GPT or Google Gemini is going to be really a great option because you can prompt it in a way that's like, hey, I'm getting started with AI imagery and I'm really trying to figure out like, what sort of mediums should I be using if I'm working on a photo for. I've got this candle brand that I'm launching and I want to know how I can be creating images and it'll then, you know, help you. It's like my custom GPT is trained to do that, but ChatGPT can do that too, as long as you give it that direction. And so then it'll break it down for you and be like, okay, let me explain what an E Commerce shot is versus let me explain what a lifestyle shot is going to be. Lifestyle, your product is going to be in an environment where it's being used and shown and showing the efficacy of the product and showing smoke. Whereas an E Commerce shot is going to be. Here is the packaging, it's on white. We're not trying to distract you. We just want you to know exactly what you're about to buy. Right. And then we can ask for different angles of it and we can ask to shoot from above and from below, which we'll get into in a minute. But that's really kind of. I think ChatGPT is, or any really large language model is going to be very well versed on this at this point. So going there and using that, you can say, show me examples. It'll go and pull images for you to look at. So. Well, yes, I'm sure that There are websites that exist and I have an entire, you know, prompt resource for my course that they can go into. But chat is so good at this now. So I think that's a really great place to start because you can get as specific as you want with it in terms of what you're trying to do. You can even give it the product that you're working with and it'll help you love it.
- [36:32]
A
Okay, what's next?
- [36:34]
B
So what is next? So we went over our medium, we went over our action, our subject, our scene. Now we want to talk about our composition. So the composition is going to be how. Let's assume that we're talking photography at this point is how is this shot? Is it a close up shot? Is it a really pulled back shot so that it's small in the scene and everything else is kind of white space? Is it shot from above, bird's eye view or is it shot from below? So the product feels very heroic. Are we cropping in interestingly on someone's face so that part of their ear is cut off, but it's giving us a little bit more an interesting image rather than just straight on where she's centered right in the middle. Is it following the rule of thirds? So again, these are all words and phrases and terms that photographers are going to feel very comfortable with, but maybe not everyone else. So again, this is why, you know, I've built this custom GPT, but using your own chat GPT as well, to be like, okay, what are some different angles that I could be shooting this at if I want it to feel very heroic? And it's going to give you terminology that you can use. That's another big piece is really like the first framing of that shot. How do you want it to look? Because someone really close up to the camera is going to be a very different shot than someone pulled back where you see their entire body.
- [37:57]
A
What's really cool about this is as you're saying this, I'm thinking about like if you put your hands up. You know, in the movies they used to hold their hands up to make a frame. That's the idea, right? Like if you were to take a picture, what's included in the picture is really what you're saying. And you can get creative, right? Like if you were shooting down into a cup, that would be a good, really, really unusual, you know, if you're trying to get something in the bottom of a cup. So can you take an existing image and recompose it if you will?
- [38:20]
B
Absolutely. You can nano Banana Pro truly is so good at all of these things because while, yes, it is an image generation tool, it is also the best thing that we have on the planet for editing images. I mean, Adobe put it into Photoshop, they're like, yeah, we can't argue with this. So now we're just going to let our users use Nano Banana and they've also put Flux in there because Flux is really good at editing. But yes, so that's the benefit here now too, is that you can take products and like, yes, if you said, show me the opposite side of this, if it's a real product, you're going to need to give it those reference images that, you know, you shot on your phone and just uploaded because otherwise it's just going to make up what's on the back of your product. Right? Or it's going to make it up. So if you're giving it enough information around what the actual product is, it can absolutely do that for you. Or if it's something that's made up, or if it's a person or something, you can say, show me, you know, this at a three quarter turn or show me this shot from the other side of the room. And you're literally using just regular natural language when you talk to it, which is.
- [39:24]
A
That's so cool.
- [39:25]
B
So nuts. It's crazy, but it's so beneficial because like we're talking about where I was saying, all right, you've got this first part of the story and then the second part of the story and the third part. It's the same with like your product, right? Is if you wanted to turn that into a quick video to be able to just show your product spinning, because you can do this now, you have the ability to do that. And so if you've got a start frame and an end frame, you give that to the model and it's just like, I'll figure out what goes in between and it, it creates it for you and it's, it's truly nuts.
- [39:55]
A
Awesome. What's next?
- [39:57]
B
So next after composition is sort of in the same realm and that's lighting. So a lot of people leave this out, but lighting is like such an important piece I believe, to really making that image sing. Is it warm golden hour lighting? Is it cool clinical lighting? Is it studio lighting? Are we using colored gel lighting? Right. So we're able to really give the feel and that extra tactile vibe by integrating the lighting direction in. Do we want light hitting from the side? Do we want it coming in from a window. Do we want it as, like, this halo effect? So really being able to describe that lighting. And again, ChatGPT is going to be your best friend for helping you figure out what's good lighting for this shot. And you could even bring that image in and say, like, help me figure out five different ways that we could light this and it'll, you know, tell.
- [40:52]
A
You, that's so cool. What's next?
- [40:54]
B
So after that, we are going to have what I like to call, like, the vibe or esthetics of the image. So while we described all of that, that there are these sort of key phrases that we can kind of put in there to infuse a lot more without having to describe too much. And that could be anything. That could be a certain decade. So you want it to feel 70s or you want it to feel futuristic, or you want it to feel like the Renaissance period. It's going to immediately infuse that kind of aesthetic into your image. Or maybe it's that you want it to feel Gen Z like, and it's going to infuse more Gen Z vibes in it. You know, there's a million different things that it could be, but it's just kind of like whatever the vibe is, I want it to feel premium and editorial. Like, now it's gonna feel like that versus I want it to feel comfy and warm. Right. These are just words that you can throw in there that are just going to take it up a notch.
- [41:54]
A
Love it. You have one more. Let's hear what that is.
- [41:58]
B
So this is the last one. And this one, honestly, was not something that I would actually keep in my prompts until recently, where we got Nano Banana, where it can actually, like, understand what it is that you're telling it. And that's intent. And the intent is really important because if you can explain to the model what it is that this image is being used for or what the goal of the image is, it's going to do a better job. So if you've got a shot of hand cream and the goal is to show the premium quality texture, it's going to focus more on the texture than if you say, I want to show off that this is like a new product, right? Or you tell it the intent is to go on a billboard versus to go on, you know, a social media logo. Those are two very different intents. And it's going to focus, you know, if it's meant to be a logo, it's going to make sure that this is going to be scalable and readable at a small scale and you tell it that and it will be able to take that in and understand it and give you images that are going to align more with what the actual intent is.
- [43:08]
A
Lauren Devane we have had a masterclass in AI images at a level that I can't even begin to explain how cool it was. Thank you. If people want to see your work, because I know you're creating a lot of images, where's the best place for them to connect with you on the socials and or see your work and if they're interested in possibly working with you or being part of whatever you've got going on, where do you want to send them?
- [43:31]
B
Yeah, so Instagram is like my main jam. It's where I've kind of been living. And you can find me at the Bemused Studio, that's B E N U S C D Studio and you can reach out to me there. I've got a link in Bio that's got a bunch of different things in there for you to be able to set up one on ones. I call them chat bots and chills. But if you're like, listen, I need you to help me with my business. I need to understand how I can be using this. That's a great way to do it. I also have a course, Foundations of Photography. I'm not sure exactly when this will be live. The doors might be closed, but they'll be opening very soon.
- [44:08]
A
If they are closed, January 27th is when this is coming up.
- [44:12]
B
Okay. They should be. I'm closing for majority of January, but then reopening the end of January. So hopefully it'll be open. If you hear that and they're not, it's coming soon, I promise. But Foundations of Photography is really going to be the best place to learn how to do all of this. You're going to get more in depth into what we just went over. You're going to learn how to prompt with to edit things. You're going to learn how to use the different models, what each of them are good at, real life use cases for it for your business or your brand. And I'm just so excited to finally be able to bring this to life because this is what I wanted to teach three years ago, but the models hadn't caught up to where my brain was at. And now in the last month and a half they have. And so it's really truly, you know, if you are getting into this and listening to this now, AI imagery is truly like at a point where it is usable. You can actually use these assets that you are creating in your business and your brand. And it's very exciting and you are going to be one of the first people doing it because it is so new.
- [45:14]
A
So I know that this course is not open all the time. Time. But where would they go to find the course?
- [45:18]
B
So the links will be in my bio on Instagram.
- [45:20]
A
Okay.
- [45:21]
B
I'm working on the sales page right now, so there isn't the full sales page for it yet, but there will be and just come and find me on Instagram. Everything will be on there. I also have a community on school.coms K-O-O-L.com and that's called the Launchpad. You can get the link to that in my Instagram as well. And there's over a thousand people in there just sharing the work that they're doing, sharing prompts that they're using, talking about AI and how they're using it. So it's a great place to come and learn. And if you're looking for other people that are doing the same sort of thing and getting excited about AI, it's a great place to be.
- [45:55]
A
Lauren Devane, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with us today.
- [45:58]
B
You're welcome. Thanks for having me.
- [46:00]
A
Hey, if you missed anything, we took all the notes for you over@socialmediaexaminer.com a90. Be sure to to follow this show on your favorite podcasting app. And if you've been a listener for a while, we would love a review. And also let your friends know about this. You can tag me on Facebook, LinkedIn and or X. And do check out my other show, the Social Media Marketing Podcast. This brings us to the end of the AI Explored podcast. I'm your host. Michael Stelzner will be back with you next week. I hope you make the best out of your day and may AI help you become more successful.
- [46:31]
B
The AI Explored Podcast this podcast is a production of Social Media Examiner.
- [46:39]
A
What if you could get year round AI training? That's exactly what's waiting for you with our AI Business Society. To learn more, visit socialmediaexaminer.com AI.