Midjourney V7: Complete Guide

Midjourney: The Complete Guide to AI Image Generation

Midjourney produces some of the highest-quality AI-generated images available. It has a distinctive aesthetic — painterly, detailed, and often breathtaking — and a dedicated community that has developed sophisticated prompting techniques. This guide covers everything from first generation to professional-quality results.

What Midjourney Is (and Isn't)

Midjourney is a text-to-image AI: you describe what you want, it generates an image. Unlike Stable Diffusion (which runs locally), Midjourney is a cloud service — all generation happens on their servers.

The current Midjourney experience: Midjourney moved from Discord-only to a web interface (midjourney.com). New users primarily use the web app; Discord is still supported for community and advanced usage.

What it excels at:

Photorealistic portraits and scenes
Artistic and painterly illustrations
Fantasy and science fiction imagery
Concept art and product visualization
Abstract and atmospheric compositions

What it struggles with:

Accurate text in images (it's improving but still unreliable)
Precise physical accuracy (hands, anatomy in complex poses)
Exact replication of specific real people or logos
Very specific technical diagrams

Getting Started

Go to midjourney.com and create an account
Choose a subscription (Basic starts at $10/month; Standard at $30/month unlocks more hours)
Use the web interface to generate images

The core workflow:

Type a description (prompt) in the generation field
Midjourney generates 4 image variants
Upscale (U1-U4) to get a high-resolution version of your preferred image
Generate variations (V1-V4) to explore alternatives

Anatomy of a Great Prompt

A Midjourney prompt has several components:

[Subject] [Environment/Setting] [Artistic Style/Medium] [Lighting] [Mood/Atmosphere] [Technical Parameters]

Weak prompt: a cat

Strong prompt: A sleek black cat sitting on a rain-soaked Tokyo street at night, neon reflections in puddles, cinematic photography, shallow depth of field, atmospheric fog, high contrast

The difference isn't more words — it's more specific instructions on what type of image you want.

Core Prompt Techniques

Style and Medium

Specifying an artistic medium dramatically changes the output:

oil painting — textured, classical painting style
watercolor illustration — soft, flowing, translucent
digital art — clean, modern illustration style
cinematic photography — film-quality realism, dramatic framing
pencil sketch — hand-drawn aesthetic
concept art — polished illustration for games/films
flat design illustration — clean vector-like style
photorealistic — ultra-realistic photography-style output

Lighting Descriptors

Lighting has enormous impact on mood:

golden hour lighting — warm, soft, sunset quality
dramatic studio lighting — high contrast, professional photography
soft diffused light — gentle, flattering, no harsh shadows
volumetric lighting — beams and atmosphere
backlit — subject illuminated from behind, silhouette effect
neon lighting — cyberpunk, urban, colorful glow
candlelight — warm, intimate, flickering quality

Composition and Camera

wide angle shot — broad environmental context
close-up portrait — tight framing on face or subject
aerial view — looking down from above
rule of thirds — compositional balance
bokeh background — blurred background, focused subject
Dutch angle — tilted camera, tension and unease
macro photography — extreme close-up detail

Quality Boosters

Add these to consistently improve output quality: highly detailed, 8k resolution, award winning photography, masterpiece, trending on artstation, professional photograph

Key Parameters

Midjourney parameters go at the end of the prompt with --:

Aspect ratio: --ar 16:9 (landscape), --ar 9:16 (portrait/mobile), --ar 1:1 (square)

Model version: --v 6 (latest Midjourney model), --niji 6 (anime/illustration focused)

Stylize: --s 0 to --s 1000 — how strongly Midjourney applies its aesthetic. Lower = closer to prompt; higher = more artistic interpretation. Default is 100.

Weird: --weird 0 to --weird 3000 — adds unusual, unexpected elements. Good for abstract or creative work.

Quality: --q 1 (standard), --q 2 (more detailed, slower, uses more GPU)

No: --no [element] — exclude specific elements. --no text to remove any text, --no watermark, --no background

Example: A sleek product shot of wireless earbuds on white background --ar 16:9 --s 150 --no shadow

Practical Use Cases

Product Photography

[Product name/description] on [surface/background], studio product photography, 
clean white background, professional lighting, commercial photography style, 
sharp focus, 8k resolution --ar 3:2

[Abstract concept or visual metaphor], [brand colors if you have them], 
flat design illustration, clean modern style, suitable for social media 
header image --ar 16:9

Blog Post / Article Illustrations

[Concept to illustrate], digital illustration, clean editorial style, 
pastel color palette, simple composition --ar 16:9

Concept Art for Presentations

[Scene or concept], concept art, cinematic composition, dramatic lighting, 
highly detailed, professional illustration

Portrait Photography Style

Professional headshot of a [age] [gender] [profession] person, 
business casual attire, neutral studio background, soft professional lighting, 
Canon EOS photography --ar 2:3

Note: Avoid generating images of real people without permission.

The Iteration Workflow

Getting good images is iterative:

Start broad — run a basic prompt, see what Midjourney gives you
Identify what's wrong — too busy? Wrong style? Wrong lighting?
Refine specifically — add style descriptors, change the medium, adjust parameters
Vary the best result — use V1-V4 to explore variations on the image you like
Upscale and download — U1-U4 to get the high-res version

Don't expect the first generation to be perfect. Three to five iterations is typical for professional-quality results.

Image Prompts (img2img)

You can use an existing image as a reference:

Paste an image URL in your prompt
Add a text description after it
Use --iw (image weight) to control how much the reference influences the output: --iw 0.5 (slight influence) to --iw 2 (strong influence)

[image URL] portrait in the same artistic style --iw 1.5

Commercial Use and Licensing

Midjourney Pro subscribers get full commercial rights to their generations. Basic subscribers have more limited commercial rights. Check current terms at midjourney.com — licensing policy has evolved.

Important: Midjourney (and all AI image generators) learn from images including copyrighted work. Don't use AI-generated images as direct substitutes for specific copyrighted artwork, and be thoughtful about style-mimicking specific living artists.

Next lesson: DALL-E 3 and Adobe Firefly — understanding AI image generation for commercial and enterprise use.