🖼️

Beginner's Guide to Stable Diffusion

Apr 8, 2025

How to Use Stable Diffusion - Beginners Guide

Introduction

  • Stable Diffusion AI: A latent diffusion model for generating AI images that can be photorealistic or artistically stylized. It is free to use and can run on personal computers or online for a fee.
  • Prompt: A description of an image that guides the generation process.

Advantages of Stable Diffusion

  • Open-source: Encourages community-developed tools and models.
  • Designed for low-power computers: Cost-effective to run.

Cost of Stable Diffusion

  • Free when run on personal machines (Windows or Mac).
  • Requires a fee for online services.

Getting Started

  1. Run on PC or use online services.
  2. Choose a suitable GUI (Graphical User Interface):
    • Online Generators: Good for beginners, simple setup.
    • PC Setup: More powerful with an Nvidia GPU on Windows or Apple Silicon on Mac.
    • Advanced GUI: For more features beyond basic online generators.

Capabilities of Stable Diffusion

  • Image Generation from Text: Create images based on textual descriptions.
  • Image-to-Image (img2img): Transform one image into another using prompts.
  • Photo Editing and Inpainting: Edit parts of images, similar to Photoshop's generative fill.
  • Video Creation: Generate videos from text prompts or stylize existing videos.

Building Good Prompts

  • Detail and Specificity: Describe images with detailed and specific prompts.
  • Use Powerful Keywords: Celebrity names, artist names, and art mediums can strongly influence the output.
  • Prompt Generators: Useful for learning and developing effective prompts.

Parameters and Image Generation

  • Important Parameters:
    • Image size: Typically 512x512 pixels.
    • Sampling steps: Start with at least 20.
    • CFG scale: Commonly set to 7.
    • Seed value: Use -1 for random images.

Generating Multiple Images

  • Always generate multiple variations to find the best result.

Fixing Image Defects

  • Face Restoration: Use AI models like CodeFormer for fixing facial artifacts.
  • Inpainting: Repair defects by regenerating parts of the image.

Custom Models

  • Base Models: Official models released by Stability AI.
  • Custom Models: Trained for specific styles or objects.
  • Model Training: Use Dreambooth or embedding techniques to train new models.

Negative Prompts

  • Used to specify what should not be included in the generated image.

Creating Large Prints

  • Start with appropriately sized images and upscale them using AI upscalers.

Controlling Image Composition

  • Image-to-Image: Use input images to guide the composition.
  • ControlNet: Extract specific information like poses to direct output.
  • Regional Prompting: Specify prompts for certain parts of images.
  • Depth-to-Image: Control composition by distinguishing foreground and background.

Generating Specific Subjects

  • Generate realistic people and animals using specific prompts and models.

Unstable Diffusion

  • A separate company focused on AI models for adult content, not affiliated with Stability AI.

Next Steps

  • Continue learning through structured courses or explore more advanced tutorials.