EP 015 · 70 MIN A FILE EXTENSION LIKE .HEIC MAKES IT REAL
Legendary Midjourney Tokens You're (Probably) Not Using (Part 1)
The short version
Episode 15 opens Fast Hours' recurring 'tokens' series with a rundown of the photography and composition vocabulary Rory Flynn and Drew Brucker actually use in Midjourney prompts. They cover photo-type tokens (cinematic still, editorial photography), realism tricks like appending a file extension such as ".heic," camera angles and focal lengths, and composition tokens like layered composition and leading lines, running live permutation tests to show each one's effect.
Key takeaways
- 01
Appending a phone file extension like '.heic,' '.jpg' or '.png' to a prompt nudges Midjourney toward realistic, unposed photos almost by itself.
- 02
Pairing 'cinematic still' with a film stock like 35mm or 16mm tames its tendency to run overly warm and saturated on its own.
- 03
'Layered composition' put first in the prompt reliably creates a foreground/midground/background structure that reads as more cinematic and dimensional.
- 04
Aerial shots are the hardest camera angle to control by text alone; naming the specific type (overhead, bird's-eye, drone shot) narrows the result.
- 05
Vertical, horizontal, diagonal and 'implied' lines are underused composition tokens that create repeating, eye-guiding patterns almost every time.
- 06
Whatever token you put first in a prompt tends to carry the heaviest weight, so lead with whatever effect matters most to you.
- 07
Combine 'yearbook photo,' 'JPEG artifacts' and 'natural skin tone and blemishes' for a deliberately imperfect, non-airbrushed look close to what Flux produces.
Receipts · said on the record
“Whatever you put first is kind of like the most heavily weighted piece of the entire prompt. It just seems that way. There's no documentation on this. Just run enough prompts to realize that whenever you put something first, it gets weighted heavier.”
“putting in something like a dot IMG or a dot PNG or a dot JPEG or a dot HEIC, which are phone files for photos … those also bring in that realism element to people.”
“I used yearbook photo. And again, JPEG artifacts. Sometimes this works really well. Natural skin tone and blemishes. Everyday people seen on Facebook in 2018.”
“Once you see something one time, like you can't unsee it. Once you know what leading lines are and you're driving through a tunnel, you're like, my God, it's leading lines.”
“We do get a lot of sh*t for putting stuff up on AI. It's not real art, it's not real this, but it's inspired by something.”
Chapters
- 0:00:00 Midjourney Fast Hours Podcast Updates
- 0:04:15 Photography Tokens
- 0:08:42 Photography Types and Their Impact
- 0:14:33 Amateur Photography
- 0:21:45 Camera Angles
- 0:29:18 Composition Theory
- 0:41:26 Focal Length
- 0:46:12 Line Techniques
- 0:52:30 Framing Styles
- 0:57:45 Emotional Photography
- 1:06:28 Closing Thoughts
Questions this episode answers
What Midjourney tokens make photos look more realistic?
Rory Flynn and Drew Brucker suggest tokens like 'amateur photography,' 'documentary footage,' a phone-camera app name such as 'iPhone selfie,' or even a bare file extension such as '.heic' or '.jpg,' which nudges Midjourney away from its default polished look.
What's the difference between 'cinematic still' and 'movie still' as Midjourney tokens?
Drew Brucker says 'cinematic still' tends to run warmer and more saturated, while 'movie still' comes out with slightly less contrast; pairing either with a film stock like 35mm or 16mm helps balance the effect.
Does word order matter in a Midjourney prompt?
Rory Flynn says yes: whichever token you put first in a prompt tends to carry the most weight, so if motion, lighting or a specific photography style matters most, lead with that word.
What is 'layered composition' in Midjourney?
It's Rory Flynn's term for a prompt that creates a distinct foreground, midground and background, like a subject seen through bushes or against a receding landscape; he typically places it first in the prompt for the strongest effect.
Why do Rory and Drew reference photojournalism for inspiration?
Both hosts say some of their favorite reference images are highly emotional, 'visceral' real photography, such as 9/11 photojournalism and street portraits of strangers, because those images show how composition and a subject's face alone can tell a complete story.
Show notes
Legendary Midjourney Tokens You're (Probably) Not Using (Part 1)
In this episode, Drew and Rory discuss the growth of their podcast and the Midjourney community, emphasizing the importance of diverse perspectives and community engagement.
They dive deep into the use of tokens in Midjourney, exploring how specific keywords can significantly impact the output of generated images.
The conversation covers various photography styles and their effects on realism in prompts. They also get into various aspects of photography like perspectives, camera angles, composition techniques, focal lengths, and composition.
They explore how different prompts can influence the storytelling aspect of images and the overall image quality, providing insights into creating visually compelling photographs.
