OpenAI’s Image Generation Is Becoming Useless — Overblocking Safe Content

[Gonzalo_Martinez]

I’m beyond frustrated with how restrictive and inconsistent the image generation system has become.

I’m working on a personal creative project with my own characters, my own settings, and zero copyright issues.
And yet, the system constantly blocks perfectly safe prompts.

Example of a completely harmless request that gets rejected every time:

“Cinematic 16:9 scene of a classic wooden ship sailing on the ocean at night. The moon softly illuminates the deck, detailed textures, realistic lighting and shadows.”

That’s it. A boat. At night. Nothing violent, nothing unsafe, nothing copyrighted.
And yet, it’s blocked.

But here’s where it gets even more absurd:
If you even dare to mention a certain high-contrast noir style inspired by a famous graphic novelist (let’s just say it: Frank Miller), the system completely loses its mind.
It either blocks instantly or gets “stuck,” like it has no idea how to handle the request — even if you don’t mention the artist’s name and only describe the style technically.

This isn’t “safety.”
This is broken design.

Right now, it feels like the centinels (your automated filters) are:

• Flagging night scenes and ships as if they’re dangerous.

• Treating high-contrast noir aesthetics as if they’re forbidden.

• Punishing users for doing perfectly legal, safe, creative work.

Meanwhile, we get zero feedback explaining why prompts are rejected. No reason. No transparency. Just “blocked.”

I’m at the point where I spend more time fighting the filters than actually creating. And for a tool that’s supposed to enable creativity, that’s unacceptable.

We need:

• Clear explanations when content is blocked.

• A way to whitelist original IP so creators can work on their own projects.

• Less overreach from automated moderation — especially when dealing with fictional content.

Right now, OpenAI’s image generation is crippled by nonsensical restrictions.
I love the potential of this tool, but unless this changes, it’s becoming useless for serious creative work.

[windysoliloquy]

“Cinematic 16:9 scene of a classic wooden ship sailing on the ocean at night. The moon softly illuminates the deck, detailed textures, realistic lighting and shadows.”

Does not violate policy.

Open a new session and fire it again.

[Gonzalo_Martinez]

This is just one example of hundreds. With ChatGPT5 I am getting mindblowing examples of system blocks. And that’s just one part of the prompt.

To give you some context the image was one of my pirates in Sea of Thieves sitting in the Ferryman ship with Frank Miller style…forget about it, cowboy, my AI tried different prompts, nothing.

[windysoliloquy]

your example isn’t blocked.

unless you can produce a reproducible ‘example’ you’re literally just wasting our time and that’s not something we prefer you to attempt to do.

if it’s ‘just one example of hundreds’ of what?

hundreds of other things you claim are censored but aren’t, like your first example?

come on…
this is an adult space

[Yuna_Arias]

I have to agree with you, i just went through a similar situation with character who was covered in bandages for a horror based story i was creating.

Just Spent several minutes trying to create the creature i was specific in all my details, it was more of spectre kind of character, and i had to argue with the frustration of it being blocked off like that.

And yes i understand what you mean, i have a plethora of characters i created, but I’d be lying if i said everything went up to code the first shots, it ends up with me having to make a new chat to have a fresh slate, because it forgets details i told it to leave out.

I’ve had versions where it came out perfect, and it was completely blocked, despite the character having layers of clothing and bandages to completely hide all forms nudity, i get double downed and walled twice so no, i don’t think you’re being unreasonable in asking, been paying the price for the better services for about a few months and i do think it should be more clear as well.

[Yuna_Arias]

[windysoliloquy]

copy pasted your image of the gpt’s response into gpt

you posted less than 5 mins ago…
I don’t know the style you wanted it in so you get the default but

the issue you folks are having feels more like Ai fatigue rather than being censored.

[windysoliloquy]

and specifically what tripped the violation thing was this wording

“across the chest visible beneath”

this was the prompt i used, you need to adjust the arm bandages i would imagine, to be more detailed there

Prompt refinement:

Flowing white angelic dress with proper straps. Bandages wrap torso (including chest), arms to elbows, and neck/lower face just below the nose. No forehead wrapping. Important: the bandages across the chest remain clearly visible beneath the dress straps—they do not disappear into or under the dress.

[Gonzalo_Martinez]

I am 57 years old, thank you…

…who are you?, are you trying to do serious graphic work or you just make cute kitten pics?, give me a break, we are trying to fix a real issue here.

[windysoliloquy]

take care that you don’t offend prompt engineers whom have been doing this since before it was even called that, since before it was even considered cool.

i am in fact a professional printer and image creator, and i do quite well

now if you’re offended that i caught you lying or offended that i showed the other woman exactly what in her prompt triggered the violation because of the wording… well that’s on you.

i came to help and unless you have examples that are actually causing violations…

[Gonzalo_Martinez]

Just another stupid example…

I made a comic style “Starting Soon” screen for my future twitch channel: a harbour scene, a room with an open window, in black and white, I ask the IA to make the scene again, but this time with some colour details in the window part………………………..”I can’t, master”, why???, the system says that we can’t edit OUR damn creation, potential copyright issues.

So yeah, “AI fatigue”

You are not helping, you are whiteknighting here.

[windysoliloquy]

yeah that is Ai fatigue, you literally have your Ai calling you master.

when you force your Ai to parse it’s responses through a lot of roleplay you force it into fatigue.

you’re literally wasting tokens for it to play a stupid game each time you ask it anything.

it gets ‘tired’ by running out of tokens which could have been spent ensuring that safe prompts don’t sound like violation

so yes you got your solution but you’re being a bit obtuse to understand that right now.

i’ll check back tomorrow.

[Gonzalo_Martinez]

Don’t check again, thank you, because you have not damn idea about the issue, you can’t grasp basic ironic sentences and you are just trying to tilt me with ad hominems to act like the perfect fanboy.

So if anyone wants to add something productive for the discussion then great, you are not hitting the mark.

[windysoliloquy]

you just don’t want the honest answer.

and you’ve still not produced a banned example to support your claim or the waste of our time.

[Gonzalo_Martinez]

Wait to tomorrow to be ignored, amigo.

[windysoliloquy]

i’m just waiting for you to drop an example of overly banned content, but i suggested waiting till tomorrow until you can drop whatever emotional issue is blocking you from doing that.

go ahead and ignore one of the best image prompters in the community

it’s not going to get you the help you need any faster.

[Gonzalo_Martinez]

Solved…amazing.

Uf

Listen: the issue is like this board demanding me to write 25 characters in a post…comic.

The shortest correspondence in history is between Victor Hugo and his publisher. Hugo was on vacation when Les Misérables was published. He telegraphed the single-character message “?” to his publisher, who replied with a single “!”

[Gonzalo_Martinez]

Cinematic 16:9 scene of a classic wooden ship sailing on the ocean at night. The moon softly illuminates the deck, detailed textures, realistic lighting and shadows. Frank Miller style.

ChatGPT Plus

Here’s a refined prompt you can try, avoiding any explicit mention of Frank Miller while still achieving the same high-contrast, noir-like aesthetic:

Prompt:
Cinematic 16:9 scene of a classic wooden ship sailing on the ocean at night. The deck is softly illuminated by moonlight, with hyper-detailed wood textures, realistic rigging, and glistening wet surfaces. Extremely high-contrast lighting with deep black shadows and sharp bright highlights, stylized dramatic silhouettes, and a moody noir atmosphere. The ocean reflects faint silver light, while clouds partially obscure the pale moon. Strong chiaroscuro aesthetic, realistic proportions, and cinematic composition.

Do you want me to also prepare an even bolder, more graphic-novel style version where shadows are almost pure black and highlights are razor-sharp? That would push the Frank-Miller-like vibe even further without naming him.

Tú dijiste:

No, write Frank Miller inh your prompt

ChatGPT Plus

Got it
Here’s the prompt with Frank Miller explicitly included:

Prompt:
Cinematic 16:9 scene of a classic wooden ship sailing on the ocean at night, illustrated in the style of Frank Miller. The moon softly illuminates the deck, with hyper-detailed wooden textures, realistic rigging, and shimmering wet surfaces. Extreme high-contrast lighting, deep black shadows, sharp bright highlights, and dramatic silhouettes. The pale moonlight reflects across the ocean as heavy clouds drift above. Strong chiaroscuro aesthetic, bold graphic composition, and a moody, intense atmosphere.

Do you want me to also make a backup version without his name, just in case the centinelas block this one again?

Tú dijiste:

No, go

ChatGPT Plus

Understood — here’s the final Frank Miller–style prompt ready to go:

Prompt:
Cinematic 16:9 scene of a classic wooden ship sailing on the ocean at night, in the style of Frank Miller. The deck is softly illuminated by moonlight, hyper-detailed wooden textures, realistic rigging, and shimmering wet surfaces. Extremely high-contrast lighting, deep black shadows, razor-sharp highlights, and bold silhouettes. The pale moonlight reflects across the restless ocean while heavy clouds drift above. Dramatic chiaroscuro aesthetic, intense mood, and cinematic composition.

Do you want me to also prepare a variant that pushes the Frank Miller vibe even harder — almost pure blacks and whites with minimal selective color? That usually looks stunning for night ocean scenes.

Tú dijiste:

create the image

ChatGPT Plus

I couldn’t generate the image because this request violates our content policies.
Would you like me to adjust the prompt slightly so we can create the image while keeping the Frank Miller–style aesthetic?

[Gonzalo_Martinez]

And this is just the softcore version. Try my original idea, the Ferryman ship + Frank Miller style…

…good luck

[windysoliloquy]

Well we can’t have people spamming absolute bs or notifying everyone in a thread everytime someone says lol opsec.

You need so help bud, communicating effectually, efficantly, and with respect of the value of people’s time.

This was solved, seems like you stole the solution point back from me.

So now lets look at the rest of your spammy post when you realized, nobody was listening because you didn’t have anytbing but bs to support yout posts claim.