Use a conversational AI like Claude to collaboratively refine a vague idea into a detailed prompt. Then, take that perfected prompt to a different AI, like ChatGPT's DALL-E, for the actual image generation. This separates the creative strategy from the technical execution, yielding better results.
Instead of trying to create a perfect prompt from scratch, instruct your AI assistant to ask you specific questions about composition, lighting, and mood. This turns the process into a guided discovery, forcing you to make crucial creative decisions you might have otherwise overlooked.
If an AI-generated image isn't working despite multiple tweaks, the issue may be the underlying concept, not the execution. Instead of endlessly iterating with the generator, return to the ideation tool to fundamentally rethink and rewrite the core prompt. This diagnoses an "idea problem" instead of an "image problem."
Before developing the creative aspects of an AI image, provide the ideation AI with all technical constraints. Specify the aspect ratio, potential cropping on different devices, and where text overlays will go. This embeds practical requirements into the final prompt, saving significant rework and preventing unusable results.