Midjourney is essentially ChatGTP for imagery. A text-to-image generation app, Midjourney used artificial intelligence to create ‘bespoke’ images from the thousands of existing images on the internet. Whilst this app is incredibly powerful, if you have tried it you will know that a few simple words will most likely not generate the visuals you are imagining - you might even need to try many different prompts before something even slightly similar to what you want appears. To get the most out of Midjourney, we have provided some tips and hacks to help you get the most out of this new app.

Specificity is key in Midjourney. The way to do this is through styling cues that allow the app to get a clearer idea of what you are envisioning in a more technical sense. Keywords are your best friend. Using any descriptors will help Midjourney pinpoint exactly the style you’re looking for. Here is a list of our favourite keywords:

Styling

Here think visual art keywords. Some of the most effective include prompts such as “pixar movie style” or “Japanese anime style”. You can also include art movements, ‘pop art style’ or ‘expressionist painting style’ are both great examples.

If you have an even more specific idea of the style you can include an artists name. Again, simply add the name followed by the artist and then style to see your image reimagined as if it was painted by your favourite artist. A great example here would be “Picasso style”, or “Turner style”.

Another great styling prompt is to specify the lighting state and style you want in the image. Adding a lighting property can alter the image in a completely different way. Editing the basic lighting qualities such as intensity, form, colour, direction, quantity and movement will give you much more scope to play with imagery alteration. Colour is an obvious and easy one to alter, but other prompts such as “cinematic lighting”, “backlighting”, “volumetric lighting” and “sunbeam lighting”.

Don’t forget basic descriptors such as defining if you want photo images, illustrations, sketches etc as well as colour, size, objects, and eras.

Technical styling

In addition to experimenting and being specific with more general styling ideas, there are some more in depth technical keywords that will elevate your imagery to the next level.

From a more technical point of view, specifying a resolution helps (4K, 8K, ultra photoreal), as well as composition specifications like aspect ratio. To do this, simply add “--ar 4:3” for aspect ratio, or specify a height and width by typing “--w 600 --h 300”.

This app also responds to specific camera and lens types, so adding a camera model will generate a photo as if it’s been shot by that particular lens.

You can also get creative by increasing abstraction, which essentially creates a more and more abstract image. To achieve this, type “--chaos” and then any number between 0 and 100. The higher the number the more ‘chaotic’ the image becomes.

Midjourney is incredibly powerful, especially if you know how to make the most of it. In general, be as specific as possible, the app does respond to the prompt you give it so make sure to give it as much information as possible. Combine this with experimentation and you’ll be generating your dream images in no time.