1. Check Your Story Text
The AI looks at the story text on the left page to decide what to illustrate as well as the details you provided initially. If the text is vague or missing details, the picture may not match your vision.
Make sure your story text matches what you want to see in the illustration.
Example: Instead of “We went to the aquarium”, try “Sophie, age 4, clapped as dolphins leapt high in the aquarium tank.”
2. Use the Edit Feature
If the image still isn’t right, use the Edit tool to fine-tune.
Give a clear edit: “Make the dolphin bigger, keep everything else the same.”
Pick a reference image: Choose one of your original pictures to help the AI understand what you want.
Pick a style guide image: Select a generated image with the tone and colors you want. This keeps the style consistent across the book.
3. Use Regenerate when you want to fully start over.
It creates a brand-new illustration.
Checked: Match the above photo closely tells the AI to recreate the selected photo as closely as possible and ignore the story text on the left page.
Unchecked: the AI uses the story text, reference photo, and style guide image together to create a fresh version of the scene.
Regenerate works best when the page feels very off or your edits are not getting you where you want to go.
Example prompt:
“Regenerate this page using the reference photo and style guide image.”
Tip: The reference photo helps with likeness and details, while the style guide image keeps the tone, colors, and overall style consistent.
4. Editing Tips
Rephrase clearly: “Make the dolphin jump higher out of the water.”
Add missing detail: “Add Dad’s baseball cap back on his head, keep everything else the same.”
Simplify requests: Instead of “Make the water brighter, add more fish, and change my daughter’s shirt color” try “Make the water brighter. Keep everything else the same.”
Give style cues: Select the Style Guide image that best depicts the style and tone you want.
Anchor to reference: “Use the same little boy from my photos, with short brown hair and a red hoodie.”
5. Common Mistakes to Avoid
Too many changes at once: “Make the shark bigger, add more coral, brighten the water, and fix Mom’s sunglasses.” This overwhelms the AI.
Vague language: “Make it cooler,” “Fix the background.” The AI doesn’t know what you mean.
Contradictory instructions: “Keep the turtle small, but also make it bigger.” This creates confusion.
Over-describing one detail: Repeating “blue stroller” or “curly hair” on every page may cause exaggeration.