How to get started with Midjourney?
Our step-by-step guide helps you set up your account, join Midjourney on Discord, and write compelling prompts. Unlock limitless creative possibilities and elevate your projects with stunning AI-generated images.
Midjourney has quickly become one of the most popular AI image generators around, producing photorealistic outputs from simple text prompts. With Midjourney, photorealistic illustrations, photography-like images, digital art, and even fused media hybrids are easily within your reach.
However, while the results can be impressively creative and detailed, Midjourney may seem complex - especially at the beginning. This post aims to answer all your questions about getting started with Midjourney, to help you generate beautiful images and unlock your creativity.
What is Midjourney? And How Does It Work? Midjourney is an AI image generator that produces imagery based on text descriptions or "prompts" provided by its users. Its neural networks have been trained on massive datasets to interpret text inputs and output digital images.
The beauty of Midjourney is that it doesn't require any coding or technical skills. All you need to do is provide a detailed text prompt, and the AI does the rest. The more specific and descriptive your prompt, the better the resulting image.
At a high level, here's how it works:
- You enter a text prompt describing the image you want to generate. This prompt is passed through Midjourney's AI model
- The model uses advanced machine learning techniques like diffusion algorithms to generate multiple images based on your input.
- Midjourney will return four images based on your prompt. You can then select variations (V1-V4) to create different options or upscale (U1-U4) your favorites to create higher resolution versions.
The more detailed, specific, and imaginative your text input, the more accurately Midjourney can visualize and materialize your conceptual ideas into digital imagery.
Signing Up For An Account
To start using Midjourney, you'll need to sign up for an account and choose a subscription plan:
- Basic - $10/month for around generated 200 images
- Standard - $30/month for 15 hours of "fast" generation time
- Pro - $60/month for 30 hours of "fast" generation time
You'll receive a confirmation email to activate your account and set your password.
Accessing Midjourney Through Discord
Once signed up, you'll need to access Midjourney through Discord to generate images. Here's how:
- Click the "Invite Discord" link in your verification email
- If you have a Discord account, log in. If not, create an account first.
- Click the "Join Server" button for the Midjourney Discord server
- You'll now be a member of Midjourney's Discord community!
Generating Your First Image
The simplest command to generate an image is "/imagine" followed by a text prompt:
Within seconds, Midjourney will output four images interpreting your prompt in varying styles and realism. You can include parameters in your command to control aspects of the output. For example:
The "--ar" parameter at the end of the prompt specifies a 16:9 aspect ratio. You can choose any other aspect ratio you like, for example 1:1 for a square image, or 9:16 for an image that fits an instagram story. Other popular ratios for photography are 2:3 and 3:2.
Midjourney offers various commands and parameters to refine the images:
Commands
/ask: Ask the AI a question
/blend: Combine two images
/fast: Shift to fast mode
/help: Learn how the Midjourney bot works
/imagine: Generate art from a prompt
/stealth: Shift to stealth mode (for Pro members)
/prefer: Create or manage a custom option
/remix: Shift to remix mode
/settings: Adjust settings
/relax: Shift to relax mode
Parameters
--ar: Change the aspect ratio
--chaos: For unusual results, set a high chaos value
--no: Remove an element from the results
--niji: Access the anime-style model
--hd: Generate high-resolution images
--quality: Set the quality/rendering time
--repeat: Obtain multiple results from one prompt
--upbeta: Upscale without the upscale buttons
Once generated, you can upscale individual images, regenerate a new set, and/or remix specific images to further evolve them.
How to Make Prompts More Effective
The quality of your outputs is primarily determined by the quality of your prompt. Here are some tips:
- Be specific - Instead of "dog", say "golden retriever playing fetch"
- Add detail - Include the setting, decor, lighting, weather, and mood
- Specify medium - Say "watercolor painting of..." or "photograph of..."
- Consider style - Say "impressionist painting of..." or "pop art style..."
- Utilize techniques - Try "HDR lit...", "motion blurred...", "cartoon filter..."
- Layer concepts - Build up complexity e.g. "a T-Rex dressed as a vampire bat"
- Experiment widely - Don't be afraid to try out silly or outrageous prompts!
Zooming out
A cyberninja perched on a rooftop in a neon cityscape at night, rendered in the anime art style --style raw
Uses For Businesses And Creators
- Generate cover art for books, albums, reports
- Create website headers, backgrounds and banners
- Explore product design concepts
- Develop character and environment ideas
- Produce graphic design options
- Generate concept art for movies, games and more!
With practice writing effective prompts and exploring the various parameters, you'll be amazed by what Midjourney can produce for your creative endeavors.
