Midjourney Muse: How to stay sane and not drown in a sea of captivating images
Keep your end goal in mind.
Midjourney is addictive. You can feel it the day you start prompting and creating those “I can’t believe how beautiful this is” photos.
It’s easy to see why people couldn’t resist browsing through those pictures that Midjourney had made. They are gorgeous. After all, those beautiful images are the main reasons that drew you into Midjourney, right? Wait, there’s more. How about those wonderful prompts that you can copy-paste and create similar images? And those seemingly endless aesthetic styles that you can plug into your prompt? Irresistible.
By the way, Midjourney’s /describe command often churns out the phrase “I can’t believe how beautiful this is” in its output. If you understand the phrase in the first paragraph as second nature without an explanation, congratulations! You are a real hardcore fan of Midjourney.
No need to hoard stuff like a hamster
With more than 4,000 aesthetic styles and artist names to choose from and mix and match in the prompt, there are endless ways to be creative. But to “try’em all” will take tremendous time and effort.
It’s OK to save the ready-to-use prompts for your project. But keep in mind that Midjourney changes quickly, which could make these prompts less useful or even obsolete.
Those aesthetic styles and artist names? They’re helpful; someone will keep them online so you can refer to them. The fans will also constantly update the database/spreadsheet. There’s not much reason to keep an offline copy.
The reality: you only need some of those resources to make what you need.
Stay focused to be more efficient
- Think about the type of images you want to make.
- Consider the purpose, theme, specs, aesthetic, legal risk, and the needs of your audience.
- Use ChatGPT/Bard or another AI to do simple research for your project. Find out the answers for Point 2.
- Use Midjourney to make what you need (as opposed to what you want) by letting the answers in Point 3 guide you.
More than 2,600 Midjourney styles (as of July 2023)
More than 2000 artist’s names (Midjourney V4) and near to 400 for V5
These are just two of the many online resources about Midjourney. Even as you read this story, there could be more in development. Let me know in the comments if you’re interested in the topic of Midjourney resources. Follow me and stay tuned because I’ll share more about this in future stories.
A checklist for your sanity
(1) What is the purpose of the image?
- Do you want to make a picture for fun, or will you use it at work, like in a presentation to your bosses and other important people? For example, there may be other better choices than the Niji anime-style image for an official board meeting in a legal firm.
- If it’s for marketing, have you looked at the model’s fingers and other anatomical features of the subject? Yes, I agree they are beautiful, but do they look normal? You don’t want someone to tell you that the model is missing one finger (or two) after you printed out a billboard poster.
- Stay on track, and stay focused.
(2) What are the image’s specs?
- Should you print it? Remember that the colors look different for CMYK printing; pictures with vibrant colors on the screen may look dull when printed.
- If it’s for the screen, what kind of devices? File size?
- Yes, it’s true that you could fix some of the above problems later with [Custom Zoom] or [Pan], but you can avoid all these troubles if you know the specs before making hundreds or thousands of images.
(3) What do people need vs. what do you want?
- Just because you love the Art Nouveau style doesn’t mean you should use it in all of your training materials for a nurse continuing education program. Ask yourself, is the picture appropriate for the occasion?
- An example of an artistically beautiful but confusing image is the “knolling photography” — pretty, but the majority of the items are fictional. You will confuse your audience if you use it at a scientific conference.
(4) Any problems with the law or copyright?
- The legal question of AI-made images is complicated. Consider using your common sense. If your artwork contains a Marvel or Disney look-alike character, can you use it for your Print-On-Demand business without getting in trouble? I don’t know. It’s better to ask a legal advisor or an attorney. The easy way? Avoid it.
- Instead, consider using images in the public domain as an inspiration to craft your prompt.
(5) What’s the theme?
- Midjourney is great at showing you random pictures made with different styles, mediums, time periods, techniques, etc. You can easily get off track and start looking for a picture that has nothing to do with your theme.
- If the project needs real photos, those beautiful watercolor illustrations don’t fit in. No matter how good they look.
(6) Keep your end goal in mind. Divide your time between work and play.
- Of course, you can use Midjourney just for fun. Explore new creative ideas, be inspired by the artwork, learn clever graphic arrangements, etc.
- But if you want to use Midjourney for work, do set a time limit and ensure you complete your image creation on time.
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Key takeaways
- Stay focused to be more efficient in creating images using Midjourney.
- Consider the purpose, theme, specs, aesthetic, legal risk, and the needs of your audience.
- Keep your end goal in mind.
- Separate your time between work and play.
Midjourney V5.2 prompts for the images in chronological order:
(Drowning hand) /imagine prompt: a minimalistic risograph illustration of a drowning hand, simple illustration, outline, blue and light-yellow (Hamster) /imagine prompt: a photo of a hamster cheek-pouching food in the mouth (Knolling) /imagine prompt: a photo of knolling a nurse — ar 3:2
No animals were harmed nor stressed in the making of this story. The images were created by the author using Midjourney.
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