Midjourney Blending Tips: How to Avoid Unwanted Blending

Yes, simple solutions exist

Midjourney excels at blending. The bot can combine various subjects, objects, colors, artistic styles, concepts, and so on into a single image.

However, sometimes the blending job goes far beyond expectations, resulting in strange images that users do not want and leading to frustration.

I’ll focus on blending images using the multiprompting technique in this story. Simply put, multiprompting is a better way of combining images and concepts than /blend. If this is unfamiliar to you, you can learn more here.

Before reading the explanation, let’s look at the following prompts and guess what images will be generated.

Prompt 1 — /imagine prompt: a photo of a policeman with a cat at the park

Prompt 2 — /imagine prompt: a photo of a policeman at the park:: a cat::

Prompt 3 — /imagine prompt: a photo of a policeman:: a cat at the park::

Prompt 4 — /imagine prompt: a photo of a policeman:: a cat at the park::0.5

Prompt 5 — /imagine prompt: a photo of a policeman with a cat at the park:: a photo of winter park::

Are you ready for the answers?

Prompt 1 is a straightforward prompt with two subjects (a cop and a cat) in a setting (the park). There’s nothing fancy about this — the prompt works as expected.

Prompts 2–4 are multi-prompts that separate the cat and the park into distinct promptlets. These prompts appear fine at first glance, but the results are quite surprising. The cop has been blended with the cat, resulting in a cop with a cat’s head. That’s cute, but it’s not what we’re looking for.

Prompt 4 — Reducing the weight of the second promptlet to half has no effect on blending.

Prompt 5 puts back the key elements (policeman, cat, and park) into the first promptlet and adds the details “a photo of winter park” to reinforce that the generated image is a photograph and that the park is during the winter. If you are new to Slider Method, you can learn more about this method here.

The promptlets do not have any weight assigned (so their default value is 1). The blending of policeman and cat continues, but Image 3 captures our intent accurately. The cat in Image 2 is too small and resembles a small dog.

So, what have we learned so far?

Don’t use multi-prompt to avoid blending? Or put all key elements inside the first promptlet to avoid them from blending in a multi-prompt?

• If all you need is an image with no further fine-tuning, use the simple prompting technique rather than a multi-prompt. It helps in reducing unwanted blending. Not a guarantee, but it does reduce the possibility.
• Including all of the important elements in the first promptlet does help. We’ll look into it in greater detail later.

In Midjourney V5.2, unwanted blending occurs, and it’s quite unpredictable.

Take a look at the following prompts:

Prompt 6 — /imagine prompt: an alien

Prompt 7 — /imagine prompt: an alien holding a pineapple

Prompt 8 — /imagine prompt: an alien holding an apple

Prompt 6 depicts what a “typical” alien looks like in Midjourney. Let’s pick Image 2.

Prompt 7 is a simple prompt (no multiprompting), but the alien is still blended with the pineapple.

Prompt 8 — However, the blending stops if we replace the pineapple with an apple. The alien still looks like a “typical” alien, unaltered by the apple.

There is no explanation for this. (What if the alien’s DNA is more compatible with pineapple? Who knows?)

Because we can’t predict when the unwanted blending will occur, it’s helpful to know what to do if it does.

Here’re the solutions to minimize unwanted blending

(1) Using the Slider Method, place all of your key elements in the first promptlet. The weight of the first promptlet must be greater than the weight of the second promptlet.

(2) Use [Pan] to insert a new element.

Both of these solutions can help in minimizing unwanted blending. However, there is no guarantee that they can resolve every case/issue.

(1) Slider Method with a weight assignment

Prompt 9 — /imagine prompt: a photo of a policeman with a cat at the park::1.25 a photo of winter park::

Prompt 10 — /imagine prompt: a photo of a policeman with a cat at the park:: a photo of winter park::1.25

Prompt 11 — /imagine prompt: a photo of a policeman with a cat at the park:: a photo of winter park::0.5

Prompt 9 — works well and prevents blending.

Prompt 10 — putting the weight higher in the second prompt will deprioritize your key elements, making the winter scene the focus.

Prompt 11 — It still works because the unspecified default weight value is 1. As a result, it has more influence than the weight of the second promptlet.

• Notice how the archetype of the subject (in this case, the police, which is often associated with dogs) is expressed in Image 2, making the cat look like a miniature German Shepherd dog.

(2) Use [Pan] to insert a new element

[Pan] is an Outpainting feature that allows you to add a new element (or several elements) to your image without blending with the main subject.

The [Pan] feature has been extensively discussed in previous stories. When using [Pan], remember to activate the Remix mode.

Before panning, consider [Zoom Out] your subject first, especially when your new element is smaller than the main subject. This will make the final image appear more natural.

Here are the [Pan] results to stop the pineapple from blending with the alien.

Would you like to play a game?

Which of the following prompts will result in unwanted blending?

There’s no prize for the winner, but I hope you enjoy guessing. (Haha)

Prompt A — /imagine prompt: a photo of a policeman:: a photo of a robot::

Prompt B — /imagine prompt: a photo of a policeman:: a photo of a teapot::

Prompt C — /imagine prompt: a photo of a policeman:: a photo of a banana::

Prompt D — /imagine prompt: a photo of a policeman:: a photo of a Barbie::

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Ready?

Here’re the answers:

I hope you like this little game.

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Conclusion

1. Unwanted blending will happen, and it’s unpredictable.
2. To avoid unwanted blending, use the Slider Method and place all your key elements in the first promptlet. Then give the first promptlet a weight greater than the other promptlets.
3. You can also add a new element by using [Pan]. It helps in avoiding blending with the main subject.

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