Introduction
The following Article was verified with my own Checkpoint AlteredANIcoMEij (Careful product placement ;)). Most of the findings should be portable to other Checkpoints with an Illustrious-Clip.
This Article aims to teach some fun facts I found along the way, since Quality Tags seem to be still a misunderstood concept.
Let's say hello to Maybelle. (The Image has no quality tag or negative prompt at all, just plain danbooru tags with correct syntax.
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1girl, Solo, white_evening_gown, brown_eyes, red_lips, large_Breasts, narrow_waist, barefoot, blonde_hair, long_hair, twintails,
waving, seductive_smile
BREAK
The BREAK commands are used to create sections for my prompt, to minimize "concept bleeding".
This is Maybelle in her Bedroom - The bedroom is correctly danbooru tagged,
bedroom, padded_walls, red_lighting
Since everything is correct illustrious, I can turn up the red_lighting. (Red_lighting:1.7) That's a lot.
As you see, Maybelle isn't very excited (Does not change, that is important!)
And now comes the good part. Let's make things interesting, by leaving danbooru behind.
All I change is... I do not use red_lighting (correct danbooru), but use red lighting (incorrect danbooru):
Maybelle changed. her hair grew and got fluffy. Her Bedroom became a royal chamber. I like this image far more. But there is a catch.
The Price
By leaving the correct danbooru Path, I activated probably the inbaked Pony parts of the checkpoint. Now Maybelle has a split personality (or half technical: The Prompt has now not one solution anymore, or better, the tags pushed the image to the line where my alter ego lives!).
Let's turn up the light again.
bedroom, padded_walls, red_lighting. Oh, hello Illustrious-Maybelle!
This is directly transferable to quality tags.
First conclusion: As long as you use only correct danbooru tags, you can throw in a lot of "quality"-tags as you want - Maybelle should not change much.
And now the question... Is sharp focus correct danbooru? Is bad hands danbooru? No No No. The Image can improve, BUT the prompting control gets out of hand. Let me show you.
Multiple personality disorder
For this checkpoint, I use the phrase
"child, futa, penis, cock_cage, blurry_foreground, bad_anatomy, artistic_error, bad_hands
muscular, muscular_male, muscular_female, deformed, blurry, bad_source, fewer_digits, extra_digits"
As part of the usual negative prompt.
Here with the red_lighting.
Here with the red lighting.
I like the second picture more, but the more complex the prompt gets, The larger the price. With red_lighting, I can remove parts of this negative prompt. I can turn up emphasis on words. With red lighting, something has changed.
In the danbooru condition, the whole negative prompt reinforces a single solution (at least in this configuration).
In the red lighting condition, the prompt reinforces TWO DIFFERENT solutions.
child, futa, penis, cock_cage, blurry_foreground, bad_anatomy, artistic_error, bad_hands
muscular, muscular_male, muscular_female, deformed, blurry, bad_source, fewer_digits, extra_digits
The second picture could be prompted clean danbooru as well, what we see is called "skirt_hold, spread_arms"
Second conclusion: Non-danbooru tags can improve picture aesthetics a lot, but cause instability.
The negative prompt
"child, futa, penis, cock_cage, blurry_foreground, bad_anatomy, artistic_error, bad_hands"
"muscular, muscular_male, muscular_female, deformed, blurry, bad_source, fewer_digits, extra_digits"
Is something I would call a "stable configuration". As long as it is used together, the different directions it pulls nullify each other. As soon as only parts are used, it will derail your prompt - especially if you do not use strict danbooru.
Transfer and SHOCK! YOU WOULD NOT BELIEVE IT (hahaha)
But Maybelle promised us to write about Quality tags, I have not yet found any!
That's right. Neither did I. On the other hand... Are there any danbooru quality tags?
To my knowledge, there ARE NO quality tags in danbooru. Most things used as quality tags are "activators" of SDXL/Pony, that lead to more aesthetic images, and if they are used in stable configurations, they do not harm a lot.
"sharp focus" Is not a valid tag. sharp_focus neither.
Let's look what sharp_focus really does....
1girl, Solo, brown_eyes, red_lips, blonde_hair, long_hair, twintails, open_mouth
Now....:
(barp_mogus:1.5)
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1girl, Solo, brown_eyes, red_lips, blonde_hair, long_hair, twintails, open_mouth
Sorry. Typo. I meant:
(carp_mogus:1.5)
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1girl, Solo, brown_eyes, red_lips, blonde_hair, long_hair, twintails, open_mouth
Oops... one last try
(sharp_focus:1.5)
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1girl, Solo, brown_eyes, red_lips, blonde_hair, long_hair, twintails, open_mouth
There is no sharp focus in danbooru. And combined with a negative prompt that pushes the picture in a specific direction, this happens:
(sharp_focus:1.5)
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1girl, Solo, brown_eyes, red_lips, blonde_hair, long_hair, twintails, open_mouth
Negative: child, futa, penis, cock_cage, blurry_foreground, bad_anatomy, artistic_error, bad_hands
(Looks like the picture on my drivers license....)
what sharp_focus or sharp focus actually does is to translate into a form of the danbooru tag "sharp_teeth"... tadaaaa.
Conclusion: There are so called Quality-Tag or "photography configurations" that stabilize the prompt in a specific manner, and can lead to a better output. Or not. Is Photo a valid danbooru Tag? ;)
Now that we know there are no quality tags... what do we do with it? we put it to the test of course! Here the original bedroom picture without quality tags at all.
Here a Mixed-Image with only positive tags, in the following order:
best_quality, high_quality
Masterpiece, best_quality, high_quality
Masterpiece, best_quality, high_quality, highres, official_art
Masterpiece, best_quality, high_quality, official_art, highres
What we see is: Isolated positive quality tags without negative prompt do have an influence, I can not tell wether it's good or bad. Especially "Masterpiece" (originally used for the great classic paintings) has a destabilizing Influence, but it can be compensated with tag-order.
Now only a negative one:
worst_quality, low_quality
low_quality, worst_quality
Which one do you like better?
worst_quality, low_quality, lowres, production_art, unfinished
Negative ones seem far more important.
And to skip the rest here is my "expensive luxury bedroom" (Note: In this configuration, I kicked the Masterpiece - if I would prompt a specific style it's changing influence would be acceptable):
best_quality, high_quality, official_art, highres
worst_quality, low_quality, lowres, production_art, unfinished
And here it is with the "Don't show me" addon:
With red_lighting at 1.5
And with red lighting at 1.5
Conclusion:
Often it's not a simple tag that makes the difference, but a whole combination.
A comma (especially at the end of the line) can make the difference between a valid tagged, stable configuration, and something completely different.
And since this took longer then I thought, the funny things about styles I had in mind will have to wait.
I hope this had some interesting aspects, happy prompting everyone!
