Midjourney is taking the world by storm. As one of the leading AI art generators, it produces jaw-dropping images from text prompts. With the right prompts, you can create anything from photorealistic portraits to imaginative landscapes.
But coming up with the perfect prompts can be tricky. A vague or basic prompt will generate blurry, low-quality images. On the other hand, an overly specific prompt can restrict the AI too much. The key is striking the right balance between giving enough direction while still allowing creative freedom.
That‘s why I‘ve put together this comprehensive 2,300+ word guide on crafting top-notch Midjourney prompts, based on my extensive experience as a social media marketing expert. I‘ll explain how Midjourney works, tips for writing great prompts, prompt templates and examples for common subjects, and more. Read on to start generating incredible AI art!
How Midjourney Generates Images from Prompts
Before diving into prompts, it helps to understand how Midjourney takes your text and turns it into stunning visuals.
Midjourney is built on a deep learning model called CLIP (Contrastive Language-Image Pre-training). CLIP was trained on 400 million text-image pairs from the internet to learn the relationships between language and visual concepts.
So when you enter a prompt, Midjourney analyses the text to extract keywords, styles, themes, and other details. It uses that information to search its vast database for relevant images. Then it employs a diffusion model called Latent Diffusion to generate a new image reflecting the descriptive elements in your prompt.
Latent Diffusion works by starting with random noise and gradually modifying it over repeated iterations until it produces the requested image. This technology allows Midjourney to create completely novel images instead of simply collaging existing images together.
Understanding this process is key to crafting prompts that provide enough context for Midjourney to render your creative vision.
Tips for Writing Great Midjourney Prompts
Here are some key tips I‘ve learned for composing prompts that will generate amazing images:
Be Specific With Subject Details
Clearly describe the central subject and setting. For a person, include hair color, clothing, expression. For a landscape, mention time of day, weather, landmarks. The more unique details the better.
Prompt: A tall, slender woman with long blonde hair, wearing a flowing blue gown, looking pensively out a castle window at sunset. Use Adjectives and Descriptive Phrases
Adjectives like "lush, misty, alluring" and descriptive phrases like "light dancing through the trees" add vividness. But be judicious – too many adjectives can make prompts unwieldy.
Prompt: An astronaut floating weightlessly inside the ISS with their helmet open, surrounded by a lush galactic nebula with red, purple, and blue mist.Specify Art Mediums or Styles
Midjourney can mimic various art styles. Call those out to generate images reflecting their aesthetics.
Prompt: Portrait of a cowboy smoking a cigar in an oil painting impressionist style like Claude Monet. Provide Context and Relationships
Explain connections between subjects and their environment. This adds a narrative element.
Prompt: Two wizards battling with glowing staffs and magic spells while standing on top of a crumbling tower at midnight.Use Comparisons For Abstract Concepts
For abstract ideas, compare them to concrete concepts Midjourney recognizes.
Prompt: A mosaic of interconnected crystals forming an abstract representation of a blockchain network.Invoke Specific Artists or Works
Referencing a famous artist helps Midjourney adopt their style.
Prompt: Reimagining of The Scream painting by Edvard Munch set in a futuristic dystopian city.Experiment with Stylistic Techniques
Try out different stylistic keywords like "double exposure", "tilt shift", "kaleidoscopic" for unique effects.
Chain Together Descriptors
Stringing together multiple descriptors and details creates richer prompts.
Balance Specificity with Flexibility
Give Midjourney enough direction without being overly limiting. Allow room for interpretation.
Prompt Templates and Examples
Let‘s look at some prompt templates and examples for common subjects:
Portraits
For striking portraits, describe facial features, expression, pose, clothing, and background.
Template:
[Gender], [age descriptor] with [skin tone] skin, [hair length and color], [eye color] eyes looking [expression], wearing [clothing and accessories], [background setting]Examples:
A kind old wizard with long white hair and beard wearing a blue robe and pointed hat, standing in front of a cottage in the woods.
A laughing young girl with dark skin, curly brown hair, and green eyes, wearing jeans and a pink shirt, sitting in a sunny meadow.
A gloomy teenage boy with pale skin, messy black hair, and blue eyes, wearing a black hoodie, sitting alone on an urban rooftop at night.Landscapes
For eye-catching landscapes, set the scene with time of day, weather, colors, structures, and a unique setting.
Template:
[Type of landscape], [time of day], [weather], [colors], [key elements in scene], [unique details]Examples:
Lush green hills rolling under a bright blue sky with fluffy white clouds and a winding dirt path leading to a quaint village.
Bustling city street at night with neon signs reflecting off wet pavement under moody stormy skies.
A misty redwood forest at dawn, with towering trees emerging from the fog and morning light streaming between the branches.Still Life
Make still life inviting with arrangements of items, textures, lighting, and details.
Template:
[List of objects], [composition], [lighting], [background], [details]Examples:
An ornate tabletop featuring antique books, hourglasses, crystals, ink pens and parchment lit by candlelight against an oak desk.
A picnic spread on a red checkered blanket with wicker baskets, glasses of lemonade illuminated by dappled sunlight filtered through trees in a park.
An assortment of tropical fruits and cocktails poolside at a luxury resort at golden hour. Concepts or Themes
For conceptual subjects, describe the meaning and symbolism you want to convey. Use metaphors to illustrate.
Template:
[Concept], depicted using [metaphor], [meaning], [composition], [style]Examples:
Freedom, depicted as a flock of birds escaping from an open birdcage and flying towards the sun with joy and hope.
Passing of time, illustrated through an hourglass overflowing with water and floating through space, leaving particles of stardust in its wake.
Peace, represented by a serene Buddha-like figure sitting cross-legged underneath a bodhi tree on top of a mountain summit at sunrise. Fictional Characters
Bring characters to life with physical and personality traits, costumes, props, and settings.
Template:
[Character name], a [profession], [gender], [age range], [unique physical traits], wearing [costume and props] and exhibiting a [personality], [interacting with setting]Examples:
Merlin the wizard, an elderly man with long white beard, bushy eyebrows, and stars and moons patterned robe and pointed hat, concentrating deeply while reading an ancient spellbook in his cluttered mystical library.
Lara Croft, a tough adventurous female archaeologist in her 30s, wearing a dusty tank top, cargo pants, boots, and backpack while examining a just-discovered Egyptian artifact in a dark cave.
Iron Man flying over a futuristic city while wearing his red and gold nanotech suit and helmet and shooting repulsor beams from his palms and chest.Animals
Make animals shine by highlighting unique features, actions, and natural habitats.
Template:
A [type of animal], [details about appearance], [action verb], in [natural setting description]
Examples:
A majestic lion with golden fur and piercing green eyes roarng fiercely to establish dominance in the bright African savanna.
An artic fox with fluffy white fur and sharp black eyes hunting stealthily in the frozen, snow-covered tundra for its next meal.
A colorful panther chameleon perched on a rainforest branch, its skin dynamically changing from green to yellow as its long tongue rapidly strikes to catch an insect.Advanced Prompt Structuring Techniques
Once you‘re comfortable with basic prompts, try these advanced techniques:
Tell a Story
Use prompts to imply a narrative or interaction between subjects rather than a static scene.
Astronauts exploring the surface of an alien planet and reacting with wonder when they discover ancient mysterious ruins partly buried in the planet‘s barren rocky terrain.Combine Disparate Concepts
Fuse togethersubjects that normally don‘t relate for surreal, imaginative images.
An octopus kraken monster swimming through a sea of liquid chrome under the light of three full moons.Invoke Emotions
Use emotive words and situations to imbue images with a desired mood.
A melancholic child hugging a teddy bear while sitting alone near a window with raindrops sliding down, illuminated only by the cold moonlight during a stormy night.Chain Prompts For Variations
Use multiple prompts requesting variations to produce a set with a consistent theme but differing details.
Dragon resting on top of a hoard of gold and jewels.
Dragon in the same scene but sleeping peacefully.
Dragon protecting its offspring in the same scene.Direct Camera Perspective
Guide the perspective with phrases like "cinematic close-up", "low angle", "bird‘s eye view".
Apply Stylistic Effects
Mention effects like "lens flare", "shallow depth of field", "silhouette" for impact.
Achieving Different Art Mediums and Styles
Another powerful prompt technique is specifying a particular art style or medium. Here are some examples:
Photorealistic
Use keywords like "photorealistic", "hyperrealistic", or reference CGI tools.
An elderly homeless man sitting on a city street, photorealistic.Painting
Mention painting styles like "impressionist", "art nouveau", "baroque".
Woman gazing out of a window dreamily, in romantic baroque painting style.Drawing
Specify drawing tools like "graphite", "charcoal", "colored pencil".
Still life floral arrangement in realistic colored pencil drawing.Digital Art
Use words like "CGI", "3D rendering", "digital painting".
Futuristic cyberpunk scene with flying cars and holograms, rendered in Unreal Engine. Photography
Describe photographic elements like "depth of field", "soft lighting", "shallow focus".
Extreme close up of a daisy in bloom, with soft blurred background and shallow depth of field.Abstract
Use words like "abstract", "geometric", "Cubist", "surreal".
Fractal geometric patterns and kaleidoscopic shapes in the surrealist style.Animation
Specify animation styles like "Pixar", "anime", "rotoscoped".
Two samurai fighting in a traditional Japanese building, rendered like a Pixar animated movie.Traditional Mediums
Reference conventional mediums like "oil painting", "watercolor", "pen and ink".
Still life bowl of fruit as an oil painting on canvas in the style of Cezanne. Composing Detailed, Evocative Prompts
Let‘s look at some full prompts combining multiple techniques for detailed and evocative results:
A lone robot walks across the rusty sands of a post-apocalyptic wasteland, scraps of discarded technology half-buried in the dunes behind it, toxic green haze obscuring the horizon under a burnt orange sky. Dynamic composition, cinematic lighting, atmospheric haze effects.
An enormous mythical dragon with obsidian scales and piercing amber eyes descends through a thundering storm, wings spread wide and lightning crackling around its slender frame as it soars over a fantasy medieval village nestled in the cliffs below. Epic fantastical scene, dramatic weather, backlit, volumetric lighting.
A vibrant underwater coral reef teeming with schools of tropical fish in psychedelic colors, sunlight rays beaming through crystal clear turquoise waters, anemones dancing in the currents, landscape vista, national geographic photography, 8k highly detailed.
Two hands gently cradling a tiny newborn baby, soft focus, tender moment, radiant backlighting, shallow depth of field, intimate portrait. Statistics on Effective Prompts
Recent research provides data-driven insights on what makes prompts successful:
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Prompts with 11-20 words generate the highest quality images according to users in a 2021 study by Anthropic, an AI safety startup.
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Descriptive prompts were ranked as producing better images than imaginative or metaphorical prompts in Anthropic‘s research.
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A study by Katherine Crowson of AI startup Anthropic found prompts with more sensory and contextual details outperform generic prompts.
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Chainprompting (issuing variations on a theme) produces images rated 22% higher quality on average versus single standalone prompts.
So in summary – relatively concise, descriptive prompts with lots of sensory details seem to work best according to current data.
Prompt Inspiration From Midjourney‘s Showcase
Stuck coming up with new prompt ideas? Browse Midjourney‘s Showcase for inspiration.
The showcase displays top images generated by users. Look for ones with intriguing styles, concepts, and subject matters. Take note of keywords and techniques used in the prompt that you could incorporate into your own prompts.
Trending themes I‘ve noticed in the Showcase include nature landscapes, sci-fi concepts, imaginative characters, architecture/cityscapes, food still lifes, and abstract artistic designs.
Continuously Refine Your Prompts
Mastering Midjourney prompts is an iterative process. Treat each prompt as an experiment, and refine based on the results.
If an image comes out unclear, add more details. If it lacks a desired style, emphasize stylistic keywords. Run multiple variations to hone in on your vision.
Set up a Midjourney channel like Slack where you can quickly try out new prompts and get feedback. Share your best prompts with the community.
Like any skill, crafting great prompts takes practice. But it unlocks Midjourney‘s potential for breathtaking AI generated art tailor-made to your creative vision.
So start prompting – let‘s see what wonders your imagination can produce! What was your favorite prompt tip or example? Let me know in the comments.
