Best Prompts for Midjourney V5 (many styles & applications) - AiTuts (2023)

Only 5 months after the release of Midjourney V4, Midjourney V5 was released on March 16, 2023.

David Holz, Midjourney founder and CEO says this edition of V5 is only an alpha test and is subject to change in the future.

I remember with V4 they kept on pushing out changes to the model, some good and some bad.

I hope they don’t change V5 too much. I’m already thrilled with what I see.

What’s new? To sum it up:

• Resolution has increased considerably
• Prompting is more important than ever, because a lot more nuance in natural language can be detected. Try playing with the following:
  • prepositions eg. in front of, in a row
  • materials eg. made of marble
  • lighting conditions eg. golden hour lighting, moonlit
• Knowledge of art styles is important. Many users think Midjourney V5 is ‘generic’ but that’s only because they don’t know how to push their prompts with aesthetics and art styles. More explanation below.
• Use case fine-tuning: the new model “knows” the most important characteristics of each use case: vectors are cleaner, flat designs are flat, environments have more depth, realism is…well more realistic
• Upscaling is really fast now. No seriously, try upscaling anything.

btw: I wrote a free book on better prompting for Midjourney V4 when it first came out. You can check it out here. Alternatively, you can get updated when we release the (free) MJ V5 book:

Download Free Midjourney Prompt Book

Make sure to set V5 as your default:

To set V5 as your default, type /settings and then select MJ version 5 as your default version. Otherwise, you’ll have to include “–v 5” after every prompt.

In the examples below, you won’t see the “–v 5” command in any prompt because I’ve set it as the default. Let’s get into the prompts:

Photorealistic People

Midjourney V4 was a huge jump up from V3 in terms of realism. It’s fair to say V5 is an even bigger jump.

As with before, people mainly prompt in 2 ways and they both work:

• Comma separated words
• Long, flowing, grammatically correct sentences

Take note of the prompt lengths here. Shorter prompts are fine, but they tend towards generic results. Camera and lighting phrases work wonderfully:

21years chinese girl, in school, beauty, long black hair, sun light，insane detail, smooth light, real photography fujifilm superia, full HD, taken on a Canon EOS R5 F1.2 ISO100 35MM --ar 4:3 --s 750 --q 2

💡 --ar sets the aspect ratio. New in V5 is the ability to set this to any ratio!

elderly man with wrinkles and warm smile enjoying his morning coffee at a diner, portrait photography, beautiful, morning sunlight through blinds, smooth light, shot on kodak portra 200, film grain, nostalgic mood --ar 4:3 --chaos 10 --s 250

scandinavian girl, by the sea, portrait photography, beautiful, sunlight, smooth light, real photography fujifilm superia, full HD, taken on a Canon EOS R5 F1.2 ISO100 35MM --ar 4:3 --s 750

film photography portrait of beautiful hippie girl looking at the camera with salty hair and brown hair in the forest, moody rainy weather,machete wielding, shot on kodak portra 200, film grain, nostalgic mood she is covered with micro machines --ar 4:5 --q 2

film photography portrait of young scottish prince looking at the camera, plate armor, hyperrealistic, late afternoon, overcast lighting, shot on kodak portra 200, film grain, nostalgic mood --ar 4:5 --q 2

Editorial Photography

Prize-winning photos win prizes not because they’re pretty, but because they tell stories about the human experience.

One of the most interesting ways set your Midjourney generations apart is to use them to say things about real life.

photograph from 2018s China: a young couple in their 20s, dressed in white, stands in their home, displaying a range of emotions including laughter and tears. Behind them is a backdrop of a cluttered living space filled with white plastic trash bags and torn white paper rolls. Captured with a film camera, Fujifilm, and Kodak rolls, the image conveys a strong cinematic and grainy texture. This artwork uniquely documents the complex emotions and living conditions faced by the young people of that era. --ar 4:3

Real People/Famous People

V5 has knowledge of many more people and gets their likenesses very accurately:

Young, handsome Keanu reeves In a black long leather coat walking down the street in the rain --ar 2:3 --uplight 

(Video) Midjourney Prompt Tips: Codes & Tricks - WHAT STILL WORKS? (Perfect for AI Art Beginners!)

Taylor Swift looking out the window wistfully, wearing a floral pastel linen blazer, natural afternoon light, side-angle view, 4k --ar 2:3 --stylize 1000

actor jason momoa dressed as khal drogo drinking a mimosa isolated on a white background --s 250

See Also

100+ Best Midjourney Anime Prompts (updated for Niji V5) - AiTuts50+ Best Midjourney Anime Prompts (both V5 & Niji Mode) - AiTutsBest GPT-4 Prompts for ChatGPT [most recent updates] - AiTuts

The Pope wearing a full length white down shiny puffy jacket, gold cross jewelry, gold rings --q 2

You can also be a bit more creative:

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak as young men discussing the schematics of the Apple I in their garage, hyperrealistic, golden hour, kodak portra 800, 105 mm f1. 8 --ar 16:9 --q 2

Stock photos

Midjourney is officially a stock photo website killer. Sorry, Shutterstock.

Realistic japanese girl, 22 years old, working on a laptop, new Macbook Pro 16” 2022 on a White Clear Background with a lot of light from the ceiling. Real photo, cinematic image taken with the high key mood and tone, very detailed face and very sharp eyes. Super Realistic image with High Dynamic Range and very high resolution and no watermark.

stock photo of a man and women shaking hands after an interview, both wearing suits in an office, well lit, white background, taken with Canon --ar 3:2

Fictional characters in real life

A true Midjourney staple. Turn your favorite fictional characters into real life and other styles.

Photorealism, beautiful Asuka Langley Soryu in sci-fi armor in a futuristic city --ar 1:2 --q 2 --c 20 --s 750

photorealism, beautiful, Rei Ayanami in sci-fi armor in a futuristic city --ar 1:2 --q 2 --c 20 --s 750

Technique: Multiple Angles

Try generation multiple images from the same prompt. It’s scary how good Midjourney is at creating multiple angles of the same person or thing now.

realistic portrait photography of beautiful girl, pale skin, golden earrings, summer golden hour, kodak portra 800, 105 mm f1. 8; image split into 2, different angles of the girl --ar 2:1

Realistic Environments

One thing that people don’t take advantage of enough: lighting conditions. As photographers and painters know, light has a huge effect on the final impression an image creates.

Describe the type of light you want to see and the time of day it is. You don’t need complex vocabulary either, sometimes “large windows” is all it takes to create light pouring into a room:

A living room of a beautiful bright modern Scandinavian style house with large windows opening onto a swimming pool. The room is globally well illuminated and the photograph is taken with a Canon EOS 5D with a wide aperture lens set to F/8 and ISO set to 400. --ar 16:9

Hall of a magnificent baroque palace filled with golden statues of skulls and paintings of skulls, beautiful staircase, Renaissance paintings, marble columns, high plants, large windows --ar 16:9 --s 1000

Stylized Environments

Even without specifying the names of illustrators, V5 will create a fantasy illustration style if that if what your subject matter is about.

a beautiful alien planet crater with a huge fractal monolith created from multiple concentric circles, overgrown with moss, huge statues, trees, mountains, explorers --ar 1:2 --c 20 --s 750

an inside view of a wizard's glasshouse. The glasshouse is attached to a house and has a sitting area that's surrounded by plants and small trees. Morning and a beautiful light passes through the glass. --ar 16:9 --s 500

cinematic masterpiece, spring equinox festival, ancient cyberpunk celtic village, stunning architecture, jubiliant mood, cernunnos temple, aerial view, photorealistic --ar 4:3

a beautiful alien planet crater with a huge fractal monolith created from multiple concentric circles, overgrown with moss, huge statues, trees, mountains, explorers --ar 1:2 --c 20 --s 750

Design

Let’s get into some very practical use cases:

Web Design

pink shopify page for japanese product site,shopify,ui,ux,ui/ux,3d design,simple,clean and bright,pastel color,full page,website

Logo Design

The most striking thing about V5 design: vectors graphics look like vector graphics.

Try specifying what text you want. It’s so close (but so far).

flat vector logo of deer head, golden on white

logo for a jazzy cat cafe with the text: "CATZ"

Marketing/Blog Illustrations

As I’ve mentioned, vectors are super clean. These could go straight on a brand website:

illustration of a dog walker walking many dogs, tech, minimal vector flat --no photo detail realistic

web design for a plant database, minimal vector flat --no photo detail realistic

Illustration

hyperrealism colorful watercolored pencil:: amazing epic alien world Tomorrowland theme park in the mountains, style of Robert McCall and Jean Giraud Moebius and Craig Mullins, highly detailed, dynamic, expressive, clean lines, cinematic, stunning, realistic lighting and shading , vivid, vibrant --ar 9:16

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hyperrealism colorful watercolored pencil:: amazing epic alien world Tomorrowland theme park in the mountains, style of Robert McCall and Jean Giraud Moebius and Craig Mullins, highly detailed, dynamic, expressive, clean lines, cinematic, stunning, realistic lighting and shading , vivid, vibrant --ar 9:16

At-At on Hoth in the snow, dynamic cinematic action, by Moebius and Syd Mead, dramatic lighting, raking light, cinematic lighting, chromatic aberration --ar 4:7

Star Wars Rebel pilot getting into the cockpit of his X-wing, in a scrappy hangar by Moebius and Syd Mead, dramatic lighting, raking light, cinematic lighting, chromatic aberration --ar 4:7

In the home office, kids and a cat and a dog sit in front of the laptop screen. On the laptop you can see a construction drawing. The coffee mug on the table is knocked over. A potted plant are all over the room. The office walls are painted with felt-tip pen. Cinematic lighting, 16k, in cartoon style, intricate details, GLSL, raytracing, FXAA, bokeh, --ar 3:2 --s 800

Anime

In December 2022 Midjourney released Niji Mode, it’s specialized anime model (type /settings and look for Niji Node). It’s safe to say that V5 is as good at, if not better than Niji Mode than anime (likely that Niji’s model was absorbed into the new V5 model).

an anime girl holding a salad in the style of a cinematic still from the anime movie Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train glimmering, high angle, high resolution, gel lighting, crisp super resolution, intricate detail, rule of thirds --ar 2:3 --s 750

an anime girl stirring a bit pot of ramen, style of a cinematic still from the anime movie Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train glimmering, high angle, high resolution, gel lighting, crisp super resolution, intricate detail, rule of thirds --ar 2:3 --s 750

Portrait of an attractive young woman with a gun on abstract sideways city background with copy space and sunlight. Illustration Line Art, Stipple, comic, dark fantasy cyberpunk Sci-Fi, distant future, highly detailed, elaborate, Double exposure, Shirow Masamune and Ghost in the Shell and Granblue Fantasy style, dot matrix, risograph --ar 3:2 --c 10 --s 500 

Architecture

Monolithic, magnificent structure by Calatrava, photography in the style of Thomas Struth

cafe designed by kengo kuma, interplay of sunlight and water, photography in the style of Thomas Struth

Structure by Calatrava, Stunning photography in the style of Thomas Struth, --ar 3:1 --chaos 10

multiple perspectives of a monolithic skyscraper by zaha hadid, inspired by hellenic architecture, magazine photography --s 1000 --ar 3:2

balcony of a hotel design by eero sarinen, atmospheric background style of blade runner 2049, photography in the style of Thomas Struth --ar 3:2 --chaos 10

img2img

img2img works better than ever before!

If you’ve never done this: Midjourney takes image links as part of the prompt. If your image is from online, you can right click > Copy Image Address. If your image is not online, you can send it to the Midjourney Bot, then right click (tap the 3 dots on mobile) > Copy Link.

Stylize images

https://s.mj.run/CrXkjIZOxM4 half-body shot, Asuka Langley Soryu, background of a futuristic city, insane intricate details, smooth light, real photography fujifilm superia --ar 2:3 --q 2 --c 10 --s 500

Combine Images

You can use multiple image links to combine images together.

Prompting Tips

Midjourney V5’s system default is the photographic style. It’s what shows up if the prompter does not specify any other styling.

In --v 5, to generate something other than a photographic image, you will need to reference art movements, artistic techniques, genres, media types, games titles, directors, artist names, influences, time periods, etc.

To create an aesthetic, try referencing two or more of these:

• Art movement: Identifying the art movement in the prompt will introduce its style and techniques. Examples include Impressionism, Surrealism, or Pop Art.
• Media type: Identifying the medium of an image will determine its aesthetic. Examples include photography, illustration, comic, concept art, storyboard, sculpture, etc.
• Media title: – Identifying a media influence will influence its look. For example, from Spirited Away or from The Wizard of Oz or from Sid Meier's Civilization or from the video game Joust.
• Artist name: Referencing the name or the work of a specific artist will roughly invoke their unique style. Examples include Vincent van Gogh, Frida Kahlo, or Banksy.
• Technique: Referencing techniques will add that style to the image. Examples include impasto, pencil sketch, watercolor, or digital art.
• Time period: Identifying the historical context of an image will invoke its aesthetic. For example, images from the Renaissance, Baroque, or Modernist periods.
• Geographic location: Referencing regions and countries will influence style. Examples include Japanese Ukiyo-e prints, African tribal art, or American Abstract Expressionism.

Remember, –v 5 has more powerful styling and aesthetic potential than any other model, especially if you set --s 0 to get Midjourney out of your way.

Your own artistic style (crafted in your prompt) will replace Midjourney’s defaults.

To create a style, reference two or more: art movements, media types, art techniques, artist names, media genres, media titles.

Right now I’m in the process of updating my old (100% free) book of high quality Midjourney prompts from V4 to V5. In the meantime, check out the V4 version:

Download Free Midjourney Prompt Book

Or, join our community and I’ll let you know as soon as it’s ready!

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