How to Write Killer Midjourney Prompts for AI Images

Midjourney is my favorite AI tool for generating images. In fact, most of all of the images created on this website were generated using Midjourney. I previously wrote a guide on how to get started with Midjourney. For this article, we’re focused in on how to write better Midjourney prompts.

What is Midjourney?

Midjourney considers itself as a small self funded research lab focused on design, human infrastructure, and AI. For everyone else, Midjourney is best known as an AI tool that generates images.

What is a Prompt?

To generate an AI image with Midjourney, it starts with a prompt. A prompt is a text phrase submitted by a user that the Midjourney Bot then analyzes to create an image. It breaks down the phrase into smaller elements, known as tokens, which are then matched against its trained database to generate an image.

Anatomy of a Prompt

Understanding how the Midjourney bot interprets prompts allows you to control how the image is generated leading to better results.

Image Prompts

You can add multiple image URLs to influence the style of your images. Separate each URL with a space. All image URLs should go in the front of the prompt.

Text Prompt

At a minimum there’s the text prompt. It can be as short as a single word or emoji. Midjourney works best if you use short sentences to describe what you want. IE: “Mountain range at night with stars, river, and campfire”

Parameters

Use parameters to have more fine tune control of the image. You can change the aspect ratio, model version, style, variations, and more. Here are all of Midjourney’s parameter list.

Prompts to avoid

A bad prompt can result in an image that is far from what you envision. Here are some things you should avoid.

• Overly Complex: Bad prompts often include too many details or instructions, which can confuse the AI or lead to cluttered and unfocused results.
• Vagueness: On the flip side, prompts that are too vague or general can produce generic or irrelevant images because they don't guide the AI sufficiently.
• Contradictions: Including contradictory instructions or descriptions in a prompt can hinder the AI’s ability to generate coherent results.
• Unrealistic Expectations: Prompts that ask for outcomes beyond the capabilities of the AI, such as generating images of specific, real-life people it hasn’t been trained on, or overly ambitious concepts that require abstract thinking, can lead to disappointing results.
• NSFW, Adult, and Offensive Content: As part of Midjourney’s community guidelines, the content generated must be PG-13. If you try to go beyond what is ethical, you may be reported and banned.

Good and Bad Prompt Examples

Animals

• Bad Prompt: Show me an extremely detailed and lifelike depiction of a lion hunting in the savannah, with every single hair visible, in the middle of a dramatic chase scene involving numerous other animals.

• Good Prompt with Parameters: Lion in the savannah --ar 16:9 --chaos 15 --quality 1

People

• Bad Prompt: I want a hyper-realistic image of a teen girl from the Renaissance period, with at least fifty people in intricate costumes, each person showing a distinct emotion and activity, in a bustling market setup.

• Good Prompt with Parameters: A portrait of a girl standing in the middle of a renaissance era market.

Illustrations

• Bad Prompt: Create an illustration of a fantasy battle with hundreds of unique creatures, including dragons, elves, and orcs, each engaging in different combat actions, with a detailed magical forest background.

• Good Prompt with Parameters: An illustration of a fantasy battle featuring dragons, elves, and orcs in a magical forest, each creature distinct and in action.

In Conclusion

Midjourney can be a powerful tool for generating images. You can theoretically create any image with your imagination. To generate images of your dreams you will need to understand how the Midjourney bot breaks down a prompt. Lastly, I also built The Better Midjourney Prompt GPT. It's meant to help people write better prompts using Midjourney's own documentation. I hope to improve it over time by using my own custom instructions.