So, I had this idea rattling around in my head the other day. I needed an image, specifically one of a referee blowing a whistle. Seemed simple enough, right? Famous last words.
Fired up the usual tool I use for making pictures. Typed in something basic like, you know, referee blowing whistle. What I got back was… interesting. Some pictures had the ref just holding the whistle miles from his mouth. Another one looked like the whistle was melting into his face. Not quite the sharp, decisive action I was picturing.
Getting Down to Brass Tacks
Okay, plan A wasn’t cutting it. Time to get a bit more specific. I started thinking about what makes that image work.
- The puffed cheeks, maybe?
- The whistle actually being in the mouth.
- Maybe some sense of action, sound being made.
So, I tried tweaking the prompt. Went with stuff like “Referee, intense focus, blowing hard on a metal whistle, cheeks puffed out”. This got me a bit closer. At least the whistle was usually near the mouth now. But the “blowing hard” part seemed to confuse it sometimes. Got some really distorted faces, looked more like they were choking than signalling a foul.
It kinda reminded me of watching my kid’s soccer game last weekend. The ref there, she had this very distinct way of blowing the whistle. Sharp, quick bursts. Not like she was trying to inflate a balloon with her face. So I thought, maybe “blowing hard” is the wrong angle.
Trying a Different Approach
Back to the drawing board, or rather, the prompt box. I decided to simplify again but focus on the key elements. How about “Referee with silver whistle in mouth, action lines suggesting sound”? I also tried variations like “Man in referee uniform, profile view, blowing whistle”. Added details like “black and white stripes”, “focused expression”.
This started yielding better results. Less weird faces, more actual whistle-blowing poses. Some were still a bit off – hands in weird positions, stripes looking wonky – but definitely an improvement. One image finally popped up that looked pretty good. The pose was right, whistle clearly in the mouth, slight puff to the cheeks but not exaggerated. It captured that moment.
It wasn’t perfect, mind you. The background was a bit generic. But for what I needed, it worked. Took more fiddling than I expected for such a seemingly straightforward idea. Just goes to show, sometimes you gotta play around with the words quite a bit to get the picture you have in your head onto the screen. Anyway, job done. On to the next thing.
