10 Tips for Better Midjourney Prompts
Let’s not beat around the bush: the Midjourney AI image generator is a game-changer for digital asset creation. Imagine a platform so intuitive and powerful that it aids in crafting mood boards, key consumer demographic profiles, product ideation and potentially striking key art (or the inspiration for key art). Not only is it a whirlwind of fun, but Midjourney’s capabilities for outputting useful images are nothing short of mind-blowing. It all begins with the Midjourney prompt.
Midjourney can instantly turn ideas into awe-inspiring visuals. However, the true magic lies in mastering the subtleties of its prompts. By unlocking the nuances of Midjourney prompts, you're granted a key to an inexhaustible wellspring of imagination, where the sheer variety and customization potential of the results are bound only by your creativity.
There are lots of folks out there selling prompts—don’t waste your money. Just scroll down to start perfecting the art of the prompt.
Midjourney Prompt 101
Midjourney can be easily learned by doing. Just remember these basic things to get started.
Prompt Length Matters:
Simplicity has its charm. In a Midjourney prompt, a single word or even an emoji can conjure an image. Brief prompts lean heavily on Midjourney's default style. For distinctiveness, lean into detail. However, don’t be tempted to go overboard. It’s about focusing on core concepts, not length.
Grammar & Structure:
Remember, the Midjourney Prompt Bot doesn’t process language like us. Grammar and traditional sentence structures might be lost on it.
Word specificity is key. Instead of "large," opt for more vivid terms like "enormous" or "immense” or “vast” depending on the context.
Less is often more. Reduce word count to amplify each word's impact. But don’t expect the bot to always decipher commas, brackets, or hyphens. And note, capitalization doesn't sway the bot.
Stay Positive & Specific:
Focus on articulating what you want, not what you don't. Mentioning "no planets" in a space-themed image might inadvertently land you planets in the image. For more control, use advanced prompts with the --no parameter (scroll down for example) to exclude specifics. Such as “astronaut cat orbiting earth --no planets”
Numbers & Nouns:
Plurals can be a gamble. For precision, use specific counts like "12 astronaut cats" over "astronaut cats." Collective nouns shine here. Say "flock of seagulls" instead of just "seagulls."
Harnessing these insights will ensure that you not only navigate Midjourney prompts effectively but also craft prompts that consistently bring your unique visions to life.
Enhance Your Prompt
To perfect the art of the Midjourney prompt, there are quite a variety of specific things to consider. This is when you get to put on your Art Director/Creative Director hat and imagine away. Consider including the following in your prompt to get exactly what you want:
Subject: Is it a human, creature, fictional character, place or item?
Medium: Do you envision it as a photograph, drawing, statue, sketch, textile art or something else?
Setting: Is it set indoors, outdoors, in a fantastical realm like Narnia, a celestial body like the moon or perhaps the vibrant Emerald City?
Lighting: Would you prefer gentle ambient lighting, bright neon, the softness of overcast or the precision of studio lights?
Color Palette: Are you inclined toward vivid tones, subdued hues, a monochrome spectrum, lively colors, stark black and white or delicate pastels?
Mood: Should it convey tranquility, serenity, exuberance, vigor or another emotion?
Composition: Do you picture it as a full portrait, a focused close-up, a sweeping birds-eye perspective or another viewpoint?
Let’s Make an Image
To get started, we’re going to use a Midjourney prompt to create an image of a cat in space, and then we’ll iterate with additional prompts. Try out these sample prompts to see how adding words can change your final product.
“Astronaut cat orbiting earth”
That simple prompt produces a fun image of our Astro Cat floating in space. Those ears!
“Vintage Photo Astronaut cat orbiting earth”
By adding ‘vintage photo’ to the Midjourney Prompt, we’re able to bring in a cool graininess and old-school feel to the final product.
“Movie Still Astronaut cat orbiting earth”
Get high-def, cinematic quality by adding “movie still” or “cinematic” to your prompt. You can almost reach out and pet Astro Cat here.
“Astronaut cat orbiting earth wes anderson aesthetic”
Playing around with adding phrases like “wes anderson aesthetic” can help recreate the look of your favorite artists, photographers and directors.
“Sketch Astronaut cat orbiting earth”
Don’t want a photo-realistic image? No problem. Just add ‘sketch’ to your prompt. Here’s our Astro Cat in pencil.
Advanced Prompts
Midjourney Prompt: Pan
If you don’t like the framing of your image, you can prompt Midjourney to pan right, left, up or down. It will magically fill out the rest! Here, we panned right to reveal more space and weirdness.
Midjourney Prompt: The “--No” parameter
Like we mentioned further up, you can exclude things in your image by including the “--no [insert object]” parameter. Here, we did we took our original Astro Cat prompt but excluded a spacesuit (sorry, kitty!) PROMPT: “astronaut cat orbiting earth –no spacesuit”
Midjourney Prompt: Blend
With this prompt, you can actually blend two images together…for mixed results. Here we blended our astronaut cat with an underwater scene.
Midjourney Prompt: Describe
What’s the best way to get good at prompts? Use the /describe function. Simply upload any image to Midjourney and it will provide suggested prompts to achieve a similar look. Pictured is the before and after.
This is just the tip of the iceberg.