Ep. 15: Legendary Midjourney Tokens You're (Probably) Not Using (Part 1)

0:00:00Midjourney Fast Hours Podcast Updates

Play from 0:00:00 8:88:88 0:00:00 What's up everybody Midjourney Fast Hours 📍 podcast. I don't even know what episode this is anymore. Rory. you were just asking me about how long we've been doing this thing now. And I think it was July. We've been pumping these out every week 📍 now. Feels like, feels like six months also feels like six days. And who knows at this point, but we're keeping them going, keeping them rolling. Why the hell not? Keeping them rolling. We have, uh, we have an awesome podcast that we're going to be releasing this coming weekend with a special guest, Billy Boman, which is going to be awesome. well, I guess, you know, by the time anybody hears this, it will already have been released, but in the case that you're watching this and you skipped over that one, Make sure to check that one out.

Play from 0:00:44 8:88:88 0:00:44 I think we're, we're trying to bring on guests that really have a diverse and experienced background with some of the things that we're talking about and can talk about even different things than we can talk about. So it's a compelling episode. I took a lot away from that episode. I think Billy's great at what he does and he was an awesome guest. Yeah, man. you know, I think we goal here. Of course, you have drew and I who have our own perspective on things, but there's people out there that have a different experience level with what it.

Play from 0:01:13 8:88:88 0:01:13 You know, they're doing and what they're being, what they're asking of the tools, I think. So it's cool to bring them in. Cause again, like this stuff is, this is also data collection for us too. Like we get inspired, we do stuff. I go, you know, after that conversation with Billy, I went right back to Midjourney and like, I got to do some stuff now, you know, like I gotta go do, I need to test some things here. That was way too much for me not to just like go back into the lab and get to work. So. It's cool. I hope everyone likes these episodes. You know, if you have any suggestions for people you want to bring on or you want to hear from, let us know. We'll try to, we'll try to coordinate as possible and keep things mixed up so that there's another, uh, too much of the same around here.

Play from 0:01:50 8:88:88 0:01:50 But that was a good one. That was a good convo. That was a good one. And shout out to you guys. The community here has been fantastic. We definitely just crossed over 8, 000. Subscribers on YouTube yesterday. We've only been doing this for a few months. We've got, I think three, almost half of those in the last 30 days. just insane growth right now. And if you've got feedback and preferably if it's positive feedback, leave us a review, man, we need some, we need some reviews on Spotify and Apple specifically.

Play from 0:02:19 8:88:88 0:02:19 Help us out, keep us going, keep pushing the limits because we want to make sure. Everybody that's looking for this type of information can find it. Yeah. I think the coolest thing to see was we got a comment. On the last video that was like, I'm the only one of my friends, he's Midjourney, so it feels like I'm having a conversation with my friends here, which is exactly what we're going for. So, guys, if that's what you're looking for, nerd 📍 out, get 📍 weird, not take ourselves too seriously, 📍 you know, that's what we're here for, so. Get weird, don't step on any nails. Don't step on any nails, you know, also don't get duped by an Elon Musk account on Twitter, which I thought my life had changed about 30 minutes ago.

Play from 0:02:58 8:88:88 0:02:58 I was like, holy shit, Elon Musk reposted my, reposted my tweet. Like I am done for today. I'm going to go have a beer, call it quits. But turns out it was just like, you know, fake dummy Elon Musk with six followers. Like my heart jumped. I was like, this is the coolest thing that's ever happened because I now I'm just going to get. You know, free exposure. I'll probably get ripped by about a thousand different people. But at the same time, it's just like, that's what, you know, you do on social. You hope for something like that every once in a while. Just to give you a break from having to grow like the real, the real long and steady way.

Play from 0:03:33 8:88:88 0:03:33 But, uh, hey, you know, get excited. You know what my favorite thing was? Was after we released that Midjourney After Dark episode, talking about your foot, how many people reached out and then, and then, uh, a guy on Twitter or an ex. Actually created that image for us and left that in the left that in the thread. So I thought I love it. spectacular That's how I know I'm dealing with friends here, guys, because that's exactly how my friends would react. They would just, you know, troll the hell out of me. Every joke would be about my stupid foot and potential tetanus and, you know, being an amputee. So, you know, regardless of if you think that's, you know, funny or not, I do.

Play from 0:04:11 8:88:88 0:04:11 And, uh, you know, I appreciate the, I appreciate the support in that, you know, that way. So thank you for that and my foot is alive and well and I think it's healing still a little hole in there But it's not you know, it's not disgusting or anything. No gangrene has appeared so we can still do the podcast Hey one one last Selfish thing I want to mention to like with with the followers with the engagement that we've gotten on YouTube We have gotten access to some membership opportunities So there are a couple different tiers.

0:04:15Photography Tokens

Play from 0:04:45 8:88:88 0:04:45 So what that gives you if you guys choose to Enroll in something like that You get extra benefits from us. Rory and I are talking about that in real time of what we could provide things like, merch or potentially even, you know, live streams with us that aren't just on the episode, right. That are specific to a small group, something that feels more personalized and so forth. So check that out. You can find that information under the videos, uh, that we post on here. So by the time that this one is live. Give that a, give that a look. Uh, maybe it's interesting to you. Maybe it's not, and that's okay. But, uh, we do appreciate the support. We don't get paid for this. This is not something that we're making a lot of money off of or any money off of, So anyway, selfish things aside, Rory, what the hell are we talking about today, sir? I

Play from 0:05:31 8:88:88 0:05:31 think we, uh, you know, we got, we got a lot of good, I gotta be honest, everything that, again, this is all community driven at this point, the same way Midjourney is every time we see comments or we get comments that we think are interesting. we kind of explore those a little bit more, because I think there's one person that has an idea. Or a question. There's probably not the only person. So going back a couple episodes, drew mentioned, the stills archive and how that like one little just token, the same thing with the skull on the, uh, on the S refs on the style codes and how to test them.

Play from 0:06:02 8:88:88 0:06:02 And it was like, all right, let's just, you know, maybe we talk about our favorite tokens today or things that we utilize often, you know, sometimes. All it takes is a couple, you know, maybe one to two words changes the entire output significantly. So, yeah, I think we're working on like power words here, power keywords, power tokens to, to give you a little bit more pop, maybe a little bit extra firepower in some of the images. Cause look, you know, a lot of people are prompting the same stuff, especially with style reference. Now those codes. The prompts seem to get shorter and shorter, but sometimes a couple extra tokens can do some magic. So, yeah, yeah. I mean, going back to the old days, the golden days of Midjourney, it wasn't so much about the coherent sentences as it was just combining and smashing tokens and words together, you know what I mean?

Play from 0:06:50 8:88:88 0:06:50 And so. If you were around during those days and you were creating a lot of images, you sort of became very, uh, intuitive about that approach, right? It was just like, Hey, love the balance of these two words, or I like to throw this in or this in, or let me explore this, haven't run this. And so I, I still get a little excited, like a little kid when I, when I use a new token and I'm like, Oh yeah. You know, and there are just so many good ones that you forget about too. So I, yeah, I think we're going to kind of break down, some of our You know, just top ones or things that come to mind off top of the dome. we did not plan for this, so we're going to give you the best that we can do on the fly.

Play from 0:07:27 8:88:88 0:07:27 But at the same time, I think going through some of the more typical things that end up in prompts too, right? Like, so this could be camera angles or lighting or composition or this, that, and the other. So we'll just kind of run through some of those two and give you guys hopefully some new juice. To run with, uh, in the prompts. So hell yeah. Like juice. This is good. Juice it up, baby. We definitely got, we definitely got a lot and you forget more than you ever remember. You really do.

Play from 0:07:54 8:88:88 0:07:54 I think there's one that we probably just go back to all the time, right? That we just know produce. It's like, yeah, there's some that are awesome, There's some that like you, you try once and it's cool, but then like you try to replicate it on another prompt. Doesn't work, but it's all very content, you know, context specific. In regards to what you're prompting, but a lot of times if you're more of these general holding areas, like we talk about, like breaking a visual down into, you know, it's key requisite parts where that's either lighting, composition, camera angles, things like that, that already have to be.

Play from 0:08:22 8:88:88 0:08:22 Sort of baked into an image, There's some different tokens there. And there's probably some other ones that we got in the bag here. I don't even know what Drew's got for me. So I don't even know what you got for me. This is, this is totally on the fly. I think we're going to hit a little bit of everything. where do you want to start with this? I don't know. Why don't we, uh, Kick it or should gimme, gimme one that you got, We'll go through it. Be a very visual one guy. So you can see some of this stuff if you're listening at home. Yeah. Great. Might wanna check this one out on a, you know, on a video platform after you listen to it if you wanna go back.

0:08:42Photography Types and Their Impact

Play from 0:08:51 8:88:88 0:08:51 But let's take a look. for starters, before we get like too deep, I like to. Start still with indicating the photography type. I think that does a lot of the heavy lifting. So, you know, when you're thinking about putting in a prompt, most of the time, my approach is I'm thinking about if it's, if it's realism, uh, specifically I'm focusing on blank photography. And a couple of those key ones, that I seem to like are, product photography, commercial photography, fashion, photography, editorial photography.

Play from 0:09:24 8:88:88 0:09:24 editorial fashion photography, cinematic stills, movie stills. All those have a very specific look and, um, baked in sort of data set within those that work extremely well if you're aligning it to the right thing. So for example, if you're showcasing a product, right, there are a couple different things you could do for that. There's the ability to put in something like photo photography. Commercial photography, um, you know, editorial photography, magazine, photography, macro photography, all within kind of like that same realm of showcasing something very specific. So I like to start there. I know that's a little bit broad, but I feel like we're going to get very, very, uh, specific here as we move on with other tokens.

Play from 0:10:10 8:88:88 0:10:10 A hundred percent, a hundred percent. What's the, uh, What's the go to one? What's the one you use up most often? Great question. I really like editorial photography. It's the one. Yeah, I mean, like, it, it, again, it depends on what I'm creating. But, like, I feel like most of the things that I create fall into that category. I can't say enough good things about cinematic still. So if you start cinematic still, comma. And then go into something like camera angle or your subject.

Play from 0:10:35 8:88:88 0:10:35 I mean, you're going to hit something great. So I like to take that approach, right? Like I always start with indicating what type of image I'm going for, putting that into some sort of container or category for the data set to pull from. Yeah, I think it's tough to know. what you're looking for. Sometimes this is where best case use for something like, uh, permutations. You know, right? Like, you can really see the difference. It's good to look at these things. Um, like editorial. The thing about, for me, right? Like, personally. Cinematic still. Sometimes it gets like, very saturated. For me, and like, big, like, way too much, like, warmness in terms of the look and feel.

Play from 0:11:15 8:88:88 0:11:15 So, you can offset that, though. You can offset that with camera or film stock, Like if you use cinematic still and then 35 millimeter, oftentimes that balances out or cinematic still and 16 millimeter or cinematic still. And you know, a film stock, something that you like in that, in that regard, you can balance out because sometimes these tokens have a big effect, right? Like to me, cinematic still has probably the biggest effect. Of those, in terms of like that holding category, if you want to call it that or what it's retrieving from, you know, oftentimes that's just if you're not controlling a lot of the other pieces, like if you just put cinematic still of like a girl and a dog, it's going to come out pretty saturated, pretty warm. Um, you know, the lighting is going to be pretty intense. So that's kind of how are you doing? Are you thinking about that in a similar way or no?

Play from 0:12:03 8:88:88 0:12:03 100%. Yeah. And I also think like when we're talking about something like movie still and cinematic still, you're thinking what's the difference there, but there are minor differences in those things. Right. So when you just said cinematic still, Sometimes a contract, like movie stills actually, I think got a little bit less contrast to it, you know, so like little things like that can be, really cool unlocks. If you've sort of compared these things side to side, let me, let me give you an example, right?

Play from 0:12:29 8:88:88 0:12:29 Cause we told you we're going to make this visual. I was just pulling this up while you were talking about that. And honestly, Rory, you just made a great point. And we talk about this a lot, but permutations, Don't be afraid. figure this stuff out and test it yourself. Throw in, you know, something like this where it's like, okay, if I've got this permutation would be, and for those of you that don't know, you're just throwing in a curly bracket and you're nesting whatever you, you want to run in within there.

Play from 0:12:54 8:88:88 0:12:54 So, right, if I'm going to do cinematic still and movie still, and I want to test those, I'm just going to go like this, And that's going to run two different prompts. So just for those of you that haven't been using that, you should be now. What is the difference? Subtle difference, but, and look, this, these aren't very specific prompts. But just on the fly right cinematic still sports car. These do have more contrast than these I mean you can especially tell in these two this looks a little bit flatter than these, The colors are just more contrasty and saturated. So, you know, there are minor differences. I mean, look, maybe that doesn't matter to you.

Play from 0:13:31 8:88:88 0:13:31 But the point is, you're not going to know what's going to work for what unless you weigh these things against each other. And the best way to do that, like you said, is to run permutations, right? So you can kind of figure out what, what type of photography, for example, that, that makes the most sense for you. Another fun thing to do with. Cinematic still or movie still is to put like a category of movie in there. So like horror movie still or romantic comedy still like that, you know, romantic comedies. If anyone, you know. Self admittedly, love myself a good rom com. You know, same story every single time. It works.

Play from 0:14:07 8:88:88 0:14:07 Keep using it. But it's a very specific look. Like, you know, it has a very, like, warm, bright, like, airy Everything is, you know, very contrasted. Like, I think of, like, the movie Hitch, Like, that to me is, like, the perfect example of it. As to, like, you know, there's never It's never It never feels like it's this dark, moody, you know, rom com. Like, it's a It's Everything is, like, shot in the middle of summer. You know, it's like everything is a super green and lush, you know, it's always like midday lighting. So, you know, there's, there's holding areas that you can look at for those two, which I think help sometimes, you know, because editorial same thing.

0:14:33Amateur Photography

Play from 0:14:43 8:88:88 0:14:43 And you know, the other part about something like this, when you're, when you're using a token like photography, you can also. Start to get really good values on things like light and shadow in contrast without having to include those tokens in the prompt. Right? So this can alleviate some of the mental burden of trying to come up with a prompt that feels very detailed if you know how the outputs work. also a big part of this. So you just mentioned, you know, cinematic still. And weighing that against like different types of movies. Let's, let's just take a quick look at that. I just ran that just now. So horror, uh, horror film, Yeah. You see the, these colors are very specific.

Play from 0:15:25 8:88:88 0:15:25 These could all be a part of the same film. Same with these, Romantic comedy. Although I wouldn't think of this as the romantic comedy action film. You know, maybe it's your personalized though that could be, it could be, it could be personalized. That's a great point. And then, you know, more like this documentary lifestyle, amateur type film, uh, that sometimes will give you a more realistic photorealistic output as well.

Play from 0:15:52 8:88:88 0:15:52 I like the documentary footage a lot too. Oftentimes the, uh, the composition is a little bit more. Asymmetric, if that makes sense from yes, in that sense, a little bit more natural movement, less looking at it. It's more candid, Like it looks less looking at the camera. Um, you know, more natural kind of look. Photography now, the like that horror movie that nailed it, though, like that's as good as it gets, right? Like that, that hand on the, you know, the backlight of the red contrasting against, you know, that one hand in the top left. So. With like that real big tonal balance between the, you know, the exposure on the top and the, you know, real dark on the bottom.

Play from 0:16:29 8:88:88 0:16:29 Yeah. It's interesting. They got, it's like they put those people in the rom com, they put those people's faces together. It kind of looks like a heart almost like that the, uh, negative space here and here. Yeah. Would you look at that? Midjourney getting subtly creative. Look at that. Yeah. the other thing too, if you're going to put shot or camera . It will take you quite literally, So sometimes it's about, and we'll get, we'll get into this with camera angles specifically, including. Things like perspective instead of angle or shot or camera, so there are different synonyms that you can roll in there too.

Play from 0:17:00 8:88:88 0:17:00 So we'll talk about that. But yeah, I mean, this is usually what I start with. What about you? Like let's, it could be this or it could be something else. Like just what are, what are maybe some of the first things you think about from a token perspective? Yeah, I think a lot of times it's like, what am I trying to achieve? Like, honestly, for, if I'm thinking in terms of like going to, uh, if I'm going to animate this, if I'm going to put this in Runway, Minimax, Luma, whatever, I'm thinking about like the motion first, because I want that. That's like the, typically, You know what I'm seeing I'm sure we've talked about this on here is that like whatever you put first is kind of like the most heavily weighted piece of the entire prompt just seems that way so documentation on this just run enough prompts to realize that whenever you put something first it gets weighted heavier so depending on what I'm looking for most of

Play from 0:17:45 8:88:88 0:17:45 the time it's it is like that holding category whether that's Documentary editorial photo X, Y, Z, or, you know, if I really want like crazy lighting, I'm putting that first. If I want, you know, motion, I'm putting that first, but like for something like the movement, I like a lot of, you know, especially these, these video categories. I like motion blur. Like that one, pretty simple, that or bokeh motion. Um, how do you, how do you say, is it bokeh? Bokeh? Is it bokeh? I've been saying it wrong for my whole life probably.

Play from 0:18:17 8:88:88 0:18:17 I've never asked anyone. That's alright. Um, you know, whatever. I mean, now, now, like, however many hundred thousand people watch this now, no, but yeah, that I've been saying it wrong forever, you know, square peg into a round hole. Uh, isn't that amazing? We got it back, bring it back from last week now because this is like when I look at, let me try to pull this thing up real quick. When you're looking at doing especially something on the animation tools with video, right? Like when you want to, you want something like, especially like the car wheels, when I've talked about this, like having a motion blur. Um, In here, it's just gonna make it more, you know, we're already have the spinning wheels.

Play from 0:18:56 8:88:88 0:18:56 The motion is going, you can see like the way that the lines are moving this way. So you, like it already bakes in to the, to the generator that you need to go forward. Right, like that's the way the lines are going. That's the way it's like implied the motion, so you don't have to worry about. A lot of different things like this one to me is perfect. I ran this one. It worked on the first go. You can just see kind of how the wheels are spinning. You don't have to worry about that. And then I'm talking about this in terms of generating video, but I think it's really important, for getting stuff like moving the right way, right? Like we have these, these trees in the background, they're blurred, right?

Play from 0:19:26 8:88:88 0:19:26 Like we have these lines from the street moving this way, the cars, wheels look like it's spinning forward. Like that will just immediately get it to move forward when you're trying to run video. Same thing with like, you know, I love. Yeah. When stuff comes up like this to like, it's a little bit more focused on the car. You know, it's moving to the right, same theory here, like it's super focused on the car itself, but the background is, is in motion. This stuff can be really cool. Like when you get moving with it, you know, like there's just in general for, for generation, different things, depending on people, depending on this object, whatever.

Play from 0:20:01 8:88:88 0:20:01 I really like motion blur also, going back to holding categories. I really like amateur photography because sometimes it just like makes people look more real. this isn't like your typical, Midjourney looking character, Like we get there's a lot more to this prompt, but the amateur photography also sometimes like will give you different looks that maybe aren't. necessarily always the same. Like this one again, looks like an amateur photo. It looks like someone took this with their own camera. Like these are not perfect. No one's looking at the, no one's looking directly at the camera most of the time. but I also like it cause you can add some weird elements that I wasn't expecting, right?

Play from 0:20:38 8:88:88 0:20:38 Like this one, it's screwed up now that's to me is cool because that doesn't look like Midjourney. Like you have a little bit of, you know, camera shake, or you have a little bit of. You know, extra like, uh, feathering here. Yeah. Shutters right there. Thank you, Drew. That's what I was looking for. There's a good token too. I actually like that. We might have to test that one. so, you know, like this stuff can be like, you see how it's not absolutely perfect, but it gives a nice aesthetic or a different look to it. So if we're trying to differentiate this stuff can be really.

Play from 0:21:07 8:88:88 0:21:07 great. I never even thought to use shutter drag. It's a good point, but also, you know, if you wanted to do some bigfoot stuff. Hey That also works, right? Yeah, I mean some of these I know I had some really interesting bigfoot ones that were like you could have been Maybe what is like shaky camera something along those lines or I forget but regardless I do like amateur I do like documentary photography Because oftentimes just like strays from the default. That's yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Play from 0:21:36 8:88:88 0:21:36 Well, hey, you know what? This is a good like segue to of people looking for those tokens to drill into realism Photo realism with people, amateur photography is great for that. Documentary photography is great for that. We also, this came up in conversation. yesterday, right? With Chris, when we did that, that live stream. but it's like, there are different tokens and so forth that you can use that also give you. pretty damn good results, that look just much more realistic. I just ran this really quickly.

0:21:45Camera Angles

Play from 0:22:07 8:88:88 0:22:07 I'm so glad that I got my Fast Hours back this morning, because otherwise I wouldn't, I wouldn't be able to do this. But, uh, like I just came up with this prompt on the fly. Cause we're, we're doing this in real time here, but Snapchat photo works pretty damn well. Right. Yeah. I mean, this specifically is like, Oh shit. Okay. Then you got something like Instagram photo. That's going to be something like that's probably got a little bit more of a, color sort of preset or LUT to it. But same thing you're going to get, you're going to kind of break out of that normal look of just that 30 year old woman that you might typically get.

Play from 0:22:39 8:88:88 0:22:39 Yeah. Uh, iPhone photo is another great one. iPhone selfie is another great one. We also talked about like Chris brought up, uh, something I've seen too. Which is, putting in something like, img or a png or a jpeg or a heic, which are, phone files for photos. As creepy as it is, like, I don't know how they're scraping that, but those also bring in that realism element to people.

Play from 0:23:06 8:88:88 0:23:06 So if you're thinking about using something like that and you're putting it in front, you probably don't really have to use that many other additional, prompts or tokens to zero in on the realism factor is my point, because all I used on that was just that, right? Like I could put other things in there to make it more real. Like your camera, like your film, like the lens that was shot on, those are other things that you could do as well to enhance that. But with tokens like that, like you might not even need it.

Play from 0:23:33 8:88:88 0:23:33 There's one that I just found with that, And like, I think everyone got really excited over, uh, the stuff you can do on flux, which you can do on Midjourney, right? Like where it looks really similar. I just remembered some of, some of these prompts where I used like yearbook photo. And then like, again, like JPEG artifacts, sometimes this works really well, natural skin tone and blemishes, you know, everyday people seen on Facebook in 2018 and perfect features, right? Like this is, it looks like something that came out of flux. Like you have, you know, this, this is subtly faded. This image, you know, it's not super crisp and clear. These people do look natural. if you were to throw something like this into Magnific, you probably wouldn't even be able to tell the difference if this was real or not.

Play from 0:24:13 8:88:88 0:24:13 Like even the, the teeth are imperfect. You know, you've got the blemishes, like the skin tone is, is kind of off. It's like, you know, she has this blush here. I'm not saying these are imperfect in any way. I'm just saying they look natural, like not makeup airbrushed BS that we get a lot of times out of the tools. So that stuff can, can really. Help and if you're trying to get real again I put probably put this in minimax or something. You would never know the difference 100 percent runway right like this could be three people taking a selfie except it's you know landscape, which no one does Instead of portrait, but these little things like this again when we talk about reaching the bottom We never do we just started at the top, right?

Play from 0:24:49 8:88:88 0:24:49 Like, so you can use like sort of those overarching general keywords and things, but you can also get into, like you said, like blemishes, maybe they've got a scar on their eye. Maybe there's a pimple that you're prompting for. Maybe there's, you know, your prompt, you're using no makeup or like you had like imperfections on the face. Like, All that stuff is going to help you get there. So, you know, I think a lot of people get hung up and thinking that's that this is super hard, but ever since six launch specifically, it's gotten so, so, so much easier. And maybe one other thing I would say is if you haven't really spent time with personalization, you can start to rank specific images that do feel more photorealistic.

Play from 0:25:29 8:88:88 0:25:29 So when you're using your personalized code, It's going to also tip you over that edge on that realism side. So just, you know, a couple of really, I think, key things that we just mentioned, it's really not that difficult. So if you're having difficulty, I think if you were to watch this little segment here, you shouldn't have any other issues. Yeah. It's a good, it's a good starting point, Like it's just a good way to get. The prompt off the ground per se, and then, you know, start moving it. when we come into this episode and drew and I have no agenda in terms of what we're going to do, and we already, you know, went about 30 minutes deep on just like the first part of the prompt.

Play from 0:26:04 8:88:88 0:26:04 Like we could probably do this for 10 hours, right? Like when you start getting into it, you're like, Oh yeah, there's a lot of stuff that I use, but you know, I just think text prompting gets overlooked at this point now. Yeah, especially with SRF codes, right? Yeah, style codes, yep. You know what, we might even, we'll see where we get with this. We might even need to split this into two. Again, once you go down the rabbit hole, it's hard to come out with these tokens because you start to realize how many of them you use all the time and then just like kind of scrap for specific projects. But I'll give you a really good one.

Play from 0:26:35 8:88:88 0:26:35 That, I used to use a lot more before V six. It still does work quite well, but not in the same way. I used to use POV of a lover a lot. That was like a secret, secret little weapon of mine because it like before it wouldn't necessarily put this other person in there, it would just give you these very, very cool angles, Like very creative. that is good. I like that, you know, so like let me let me for example, let me type this in and let me go back to like a previous model here like That's cool. You know what I mean?

Play from 0:27:08 8:88:88 0:27:08 Like they're almost like they're just I mean, of course like I'm at like when these specific I added in a director or he a director or producer? I don't even know Uh, I don't even know if it's a he or she to be honest shame on me um, but this token used to do a lot of heavy weighting. I, you can also use this outside of lover, right? So like POV of a, spy is a good one. Stranger is a good one. let me just kind of show you what that looks like. Something like this POV of a spy.

Play from 0:27:36 8:88:88 0:27:36 Look at that. Some of these are stranger's still a pretty good one. The only thing I don't like about Lover Now is it does throw that second person in here, which kind of sucks. Yeah. But, um, like, Stranger is interesting, too, because you know, sometimes it can be difficult to get that from the behind shot, even if you're indicating over the shoulder or from behind or whatever. these aren't even the greatest images, but you could see, I'm pretty much getting that, every time with this POV of a stranger from a hot, or POV of a stranger in general, kind of gives you almost like this, you're observing somebody, which already has a little bit of that storytelling aspect to it.

Play from 0:28:10 8:88:88 0:28:10 So, just thought of that one. I love that one. I don't. You know, honestly, I haven't thought about it in a while, but I should go back to it because that's one of those really good ones. This is why this is good, man. Cause it brings up this stuff. Like when going for me, when you go from want something from behind for anything, like I just type rear, just the word rear tends to work, whatever it's shot from the rear for whatever reason that works really well, and I've used it on my, especially on cars, because sometimes car angles is hard because they always want to give you that three quarter, you know, a three quarter panel shot where it's like diagonal this way. Um this is all when you get into the direction piece of it to, you know, like where you want the camera position.

Play from 0:28:46 8:88:88 0:28:46 Like, I find the hardest one to be, um, When it's an aerial shot, like you have to direct the aerial perspective way more than the other ones, you type in low angle. Typically you get that type in, you know, close up. Typically you get that when you want to do aerial, it's either, you know, cause aerial typically The dimensions change, right? So you can either do a like aerial shot to wreck, you know, looking directly down, like overhead shot, looking directly down, you know, aerial high angle is going to give you a different perspective than just like drone shot, there's all these little micro decisions that go in, but a lot of times it can be, it can be adjusted.

0:29:18Composition Theory

Play from 0:29:22 8:88:88 0:29:22 you know, with the text prompt and maybe just a little bit extra description sometimes. So That's a great point. I think, let me, you know, while we get into this seems like we're maybe transitioning into more of that camera angle thing, which I think is a good, that's a, that's a good one to get into. I think it's the same for you because I've, I've seen a couple of your prompts as you're bringing them up here. And I had a feeling anyway, that our prompt structure is pretty similar in some capacities, but yeah, it seems like with when you're going for realism shots, mostly you're really thinking about, the type of photography or the type of shot that you're wanting, but also the angle.

Play from 0:29:53 8:88:88 0:29:53 Second, I tend to do that a lot. I think my angle is almost always a first, second or third thing that I'm, that I'm interested in. for example, if you're not familiar with all these, these are just like different types of shots and what it's going to give you back. So a closeup is going to be very close. a macro is going to be even closer than a closeup or an extreme closeups even closer than a closeup. You've got like a medium closeup, which is going to go from like mid chest up. You've got a medium shot, which is going to go from like the belly or the waist up. You've got a medium full shot, which you're going to take it down to the knees, full shot, which is going to capture somebody's whole body.

Play from 0:30:28 8:88:88 0:30:28 Like these are things that, um, I think I was very drawn to initially because like from a photographer standpoint, I was like, Oh, you know, like if you don't prompt for this, you're going to get similar things back. And this was one of those ways to really. create images that stand out and are unique, right? And so, this is not the best image to capture what you're talking about with the aerial because there are so many, but, high angle. extreme high angle, like, so you could put extreme on any of these, which also works pretty well. but to your point, like with aerial, I mean, there's so many there's over the top, there's top down, there's aerial, there's bird's eye view, there's, drone shot.

Play from 0:31:05 8:88:88 0:31:05 God, I mean, you know what I mean? And then you could, you could add extreme or angled or diagonal or oblique on top of that. And that's going to change it too. Like I love using like diagonal or oblique as well. Yeah. That gives me a little bit of that one. Yeah. That gives me like a lot of good stuff too. Yeah. Okay. I like that. also the, another thing from a perspective standpoint, Is if you want like a perspective shot, like, just say where it's coming from. Someone asked me the other day for, like, they wanted a, they wanted a look of like a boxing match. But from like the top, the top rafters, So it's like, you know, perspective shot from the upper deck or perspective shot from the rafters of a stadium, perspective from shot from X, or if you want like a little layered composition to it, right? Like, soldier walking through the

Play from 0:31:51 8:88:88 0:31:51 woods and it's like shot through the bushes, So you get like that initial in the foreground, like the bushes and you see through, let me see if I actually have an example of that. I love that. Okay. That kind of goes back to the point too, right? Like, unless you're explicit with any of these things, you're going to get something that is. Default, which in a lot of ways, it's gotten better, but you're still going to get something that's probably not super, super unique unless you've got a great personalization code.

Play from 0:32:17 8:88:88 0:32:17 Right. And so that's why it's like on some cases you love the surprises, but you're going to get some of the surprises anyway, even if you're, you know, Kind of adding some of the explicit stuff like camera angle, like the photography type, like the expressions, love that with people too. So, here we have exactly what I'm talking about, right? Like viewed through the bushes at a low angle so you get like some of this artifact in the, in the foreground. That helps you kind of like tell the story of like a hidden perspective here. This is going to work extremely well.

Play from 0:32:44 8:88:88 0:32:44 These are some really old things. I'm just trying to find one thing that I could. Right, like this is, this is going to work well in something like, Runway or something like Luma or something like Kling, Minimax. Like this one in specific. Would work well, Cause it's just like a, you're going to get this, this super sort of textured layer example, you have this stuff in the foreground, you have the character in the mid ground, then you have a background. So it creates depth. Which is really nice because it can be translated really well in 3D. So I think that's like a good thing to sort of take into account every time you're doing this. because it's really like a interesting way to change perspective and to also just give your photos a little bit more dynamic.

Play from 0:33:20 8:88:88 0:33:20 You'll see a lot of this with, you know, in filmmaking in general. There's a lot of shots that are like that, little smooth panning shots through the bushes. As people like come towards the camera, things along those, along those lines. So Yeah. Like the angle is super, you know, I do love myself a low angle though. Like it's, it's something cool. I don't know what it is. It just, it just looks epic all the time. But the other one that I really like for it, like dovetailing on that is that layered composition effect where I do love that token specifically. Like I typically put that first, like layered composition, you know, that's right.

Play from 0:33:53 8:88:88 0:33:53 I remember you bringing that up before and I, I still have not tried that. you got to give it a whirl because it just, like, it listens to you, you know what I mean? Like, it's so weird that it does listen to you when you do this. Cause like, if I do layered composition. here, we have in the foreground, we have like the mid ground, which is, you know, these houses that are, you know, if you draw a box, right? Like we have our foreground here, our mid ground here, and then we have our whole background, right? So you get all of these sort of elements here. Same thing with the layered composition here. We have like this guy right here. We have this like little ridge creating the mid ground, and then we have the background. So it's like three layers. Yeah. Stuck together.

Play from 0:34:31 8:88:88 0:34:31 which can be very aesthetically pleasing, you know, especially in some of the like these photos too, where we have like, you know, the man in the foreground, we have the sheep in the midground, and then we have like the painted mountains in the background. But like this stuff can be really cool when you get it right. This is one of my favorite images Midjourney's ever created, right? It was just like this, landscape in the foreground here. They're kind of set up in the mid ground and we have this like subtle, artistic looking, you know, rainbow mountains in the background.

Play from 0:34:58 8:88:88 0:34:58 So you can get some really cool stuff, especially if you have the right types of tokens. This is another as well. Like you have him in the foreground, these three, this like little you here, if you can see it, the mid ground is kind of like these. Buildings in the background is more blurred, but it looks like there's three separate environments almost going on here. So I think that's a fun one. To play with, like it really works well. you can get some really intricate stuff. Like this is, I love that layered composition one. Love that. I like how you leverage that first too. I think that that only again, to the point of hierarchy and importance, only exaggerated that, which made that whole scene come to life, you know, like even though you had the foreground in focus, the background, obviously out of focus, but there were just so many things that you could still see that told the story.

Play from 0:35:44 8:88:88 0:35:44 The larger story, So when we're talking about, video and some of this stuff too, right? Like connecting the dots, you know, you do have to think a little bit more, strategically with some of this stuff. again, like where there's the way to, to just generate prompts, right? Like you write what you're doing. Then it does like the exploration point. So what are, what are the little pieces that just make this different from everything I've seen today? You know, and like that's something, something like that, something like, what you were talking about with a, you know, POV of a lover?

Play from 0:36:13 8:88:88 0:36:13 Like, you know that I don't see that one often. That's a very unique perspective and an angle, right? That's just like different firepower, different pop, and it has a big effect versus like trying to explain that in the whole grand scheme of things. Right. So that's why these tokens become important. Exactly. Right? Yeah. Like these tokens essentially bundle up ideas and compact those into. a few words, Or even a word. And so that's why it's powerful as you, it takes some of that, um, alleviate some of that, pressure or stress to, to imagine every single aspect when you have a generalized idea.

Play from 0:36:46 8:88:88 0:36:46 So I think, you know, just from that perspective, they're super powerful. I know you probably would bring this up if I didn't, but I also think, you know, like I know you use 35 millimeter a lot. Yeah, I also think about, you know, like in terms of those shots, that's something we could touch on too, is just like the different focal lengths and what they do to distort the image. Right. So I just pulled four examples here really quickly. So 16 millimeter, that's a wide angle shot. Most of the time I wouldn't even shoot that. Like, like if I'm a photographer, most of the time I'm not shooting. a 16 millimeter wide angle shot with a portrait in mind. I'm shooting at landscape, but just for these particular examples, right?

Play from 0:37:23 8:88:88 0:37:23 You just can see how it stretches things out a little bit, distorts it. Whereas if you get into these 35 millimeter. It starts to look a little bit more normalized, and then when you get into these larger focal lengths, like an 85 mil or a 200, for example, it's automatically going to take that in a little bit closer, and it's really going to give you a little bit more of like those, those specific details, whereas like something like a 35 mil is going to be more of like a storytelling shot.

Play from 0:37:51 8:88:88 0:37:51 You know what I mean? Whereas this is like, these feel more like a photographer took these, you know what I mean? Whereas this feels like this could be part of a series or a photographer took it, but there's not as much emphasis on the intricate details as much there is in the entire image or the scene. this is a really cool thing that you could play with too, is something like this, especially with these longer photo focal lengths too, you're going to get more out of focus already naturally built in. So you don't necessarily have to say, out of focus background. You're going to get that.

Play from 0:38:18 8:88:88 0:38:18 With these, so especially the 200 millimeter, right? Like we're, if anyone's not familiar with the, with the focal lengths, basically the lower the millimeter, the wider the shot, and like kind of the, the more, the higher you go, like 200, the more directed it is. Like, think about it like a beam of light in that sense. I just, I like that. Describe that. Well, I like that. Yeah. Yeah. And also this is like, if you really think about this from like a. Photographer's perspective. That's also the size of the lens usually too. So like a 200 millimeter is going to be a longer lens, you know? So like, if you've ever seen somebody, you know, a tourist, for example, they're on a boat and they're doing whale watching, they're going to be bringing those long ass things, or they're on a safari, they're going to be bringing out those telescopic lenses is what they're called.

Play from 0:39:01 8:88:88 0:39:01 And those are those really long ones that you see, you know, versus something like a 35 mil or an 85. Those are more compact. those are. So legit. And now like, I didn't, I remember the moment it clicked for me when like I saw some dude like holding it and it was, I don't know, it looked like it was about 24 inches long and it said cannon on the side. I'm like, Oh, it looks like a cannon. You know, that like never clicked in my head before. And I was like, Oh my God, you're so stupid. 35 years on this earth and never thought about that one time, but it does kind of look like one a hundred percent what they were going for. But Hey, yeah.

Play from 0:39:34 8:88:88 0:39:34 So I mean like there there's stuff like that, right? I mean, and so that's. That's super cool. It's just like another element you could be thinking about that. Maybe you don't, you know? And so very cool stuff. I think you could really tell a lot of different stories through that lens as well. It's a good one. No pun intended. There's the 30 and like 35 millimeter typically is right from like a photographer's perspective. Very generalist type camera, right? Right. Type lens. Yeah. 35 and fifties. Like the nifty 50 that's in a 35. Those are what, What people would typically take out to do everyday shots, street photography shots. And so I think that's why that also helps, helps with realism too. And I know you use that a lot.

Play from 0:40:12 8:88:88 0:40:12 Like that, how do we forget, how do we forget street photography in our, in our holding areas? I mean like that's your background. Yeah. Yeah. Street photography is great. Yeah. Street photography is good too. Yeah. That's, that's a, that's a great one. I think the, you know, the, there is, you know, if you were going to run these things subtly against each other, there's micro differences, but again, if you didn't really know what you want. Again, that's where this stuff comes in handy. Because if you, if you, I'm not saying the untrained eye, but I'm saying if you've never looked at, you know, a lot of images with a critical eye before, this might seem like they're not making any difference, but they do. And especially when it comes to, you know, trying to align exactly what you're doing, because a lot of this stuff is trained on that type of data, So it's like pulling its memory from its random, training set and it's going to pull the same things

Play from 0:40:57 8:88:88 0:40:57 that kind of like coordinates with. So that's like, why these little text prompt tokens can become so important, like crafting your overall vision. that was a little interjection there. Just a little interjection on, on that piece. Yeah. Anything like anything else from a perspective point of view? I mean, I know this, like camera angle kind of runs into composition a little bit. Like, is there anything more, I guess, from like a camera angle, category that comes to mind that, that you tend to like or gravitate toward?

Play from 0:41:23 8:88:88 0:41:23 Um, I do like, you know, I do like wide angle a lot of times when you're trying to get, when you, when you, it seems like things are condensed. In an image where you're trying, maybe trying to do, you know, something with like a landscape in it as well, like wide angle can really help. It doesn't go overboard. You know, if you're going to use like, you know, something like GoPro, like that might, that might help, but really like if you're doing something in two by one, you're doing something like a cinematic landscape type setting. Wide angle can be really helpful. Cause it just, it just packs more detail into the image from like a wider set.

0:41:26Focal Length

Play from 0:41:53 8:88:88 0:41:53 So it's not everything like super condensed into, uh, the image. So that one, that one, I use a lot. Also, especially for the image generators that I'm going to use, or the, uh, images I'm going to use for the video generators. Terrific point. Also, like, this isn't an episode about parameters. We've already covered that. But at the same time Need to be thinking about aspect ratio with these two, you know, in addition, because like, to your point, some of these angles work better with specific aspect ratios, So if you haven't seen that episode, that's a good one. We talk quite a bit about that.

Play from 0:42:23 8:88:88 0:42:23 but something to keep in mind because I think you told me this and it is true, right? It's like if you're going for. a high angle shot or a low angle shot. One of those two in, in like a four or five or something like that. It's just very hard to get the actual shot or perspective versus if you change that to a different aspect ratio. So like those things definitely do come into play. So if you're not getting consistent results or the result that you're looking for with any of these, it could lie like your solution could lie in something like the parameters for example, or aspect ratio, a hundred percent. Great point. That's just the, you know, aspect ratio.

Play from 0:42:59 8:88:88 0:42:59 It's like the forgotten, you know, actual modifier of this entire thing that, that people forget needs to be a big part of the composition. Right. So when you're taking a photo, you wouldn't take a, you wouldn't take a photo of a let, you know, maybe you do now with an iPhone, but like back in the day, if you're trying to take a landscape photo, you wouldn't do it in, you know, you wouldn't turn the camera to the side. Like you want the whole landscape, Yeah. Like you, that wouldn't, that wouldn't work. Or if you're trying to do a building shot, you know, shot of a building, you wouldn't keep it. In landscape format, you turn it the camera that way to look at it, right? Cause it fits. So it's a good point. Great point.

Play from 0:43:35 8:88:88 0:43:35 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. What about now, man? I mean, like where, where should we go after angles here? I think like, I think composition to me is, is I've always just been into that area because I think it just can affect the entire photo without having to put some radical details in there. they're good. General holding tokens. That, you know, there's a lot of different ways it can go. So I've always been a fan of, of that. Like that's really like my, some of my favorite photos or some of the favorite images I've created on there have been just like focusing on specific compositions, but it's also one that I haven't gotten, I'll be quite honest, I haven't gotten crazy with, like I haven't gotten, I haven't gone down the rabbit hole in terms of being experimental because a lot of them just work really well.

Play from 0:44:21 8:88:88 0:44:21 Like, yeah, yeah, I love that stuff. that's a really good one. Um, because, and we've, we've talked about this a lot, but it's, not as big of a problem now when you got stuff like personalize, six has come along, but. We used to just roast Midjourney for the symmetrical nature of what it gave back unless you really put in some of those things Uh, that were composition wise, really indicative of what you wanted, right? So it was almost like you could put in asymmetrical and it still wouldn't give it to you sometimes, you know? It's like you're really trying to push that symmetry on you, but, like Those, I mean, composition's great. I know you, you probably use it a lot more than me actually. but I know you use like leading lines a lot, which is great.

Play from 0:45:01 8:88:88 0:45:01 That's like a photographer term, right? Where it's like it leading lines is essentially, giving your eye direction to where it should be focused on. Right. So it's some sort of line. It could be, you know, It could be straight, it could be diagonal, but it's, it's leading your eye in a specific direction within the shot. So I love that one. I guess if anything that I brought up, like that POV shot, that's sort of, I guess a composition shot in some ways. I like that. I think the other one that, that, uh, could be interesting is, rule of thirds. A very basic example of a composition.

Play from 0:45:31 8:88:88 0:45:31 So if you're not looking for symmetry, rule of thirds basically breaks everything down your photo into a nine grid, And so rule of thirds basically wants important parts of the photo at the intersections of those grids. Uh, so that's like another good one. That's not hard, right? All you would just need to do is put that in experimentally. It works most of the time, but also it doesn't work. Right. So it's one of those that isn't super, super consistent. But again, I think if you add stuff like that in, that's great. Negative space is a good one. I'm trying to think of some other ones. Panning is a good one. We, you already talked about like motion blur and all that stuff that can be indicative of, of composition as well.

Play from 0:46:10 8:88:88 0:46:10 Let me pull up some here. There's a few again, like holding categories. That I like for this stuff. I especially like working with, with lines. Cause I feel like it just, a lot of it's subtle in Midjourney, but it's good. So like when I do, let's see, vertical lines, like I've always loved this type of composition because it, it, you can see you have the straight, like, con it like breaks the image up a lot of different ways like this. We have like these vertical lines. Again, it's not, I didn't specifically ask for. You know, pillars to be lined up symmetrically one by one, but it does like have this nice, but also that's, that, that worked for rule of thirds right there. If you pull that photo back up, so like, let's just, I think this is a really good example.

0:46:12Line Techniques

Play from 0:46:49 8:88:88 0:46:49 The photo that you just had was, was perfect on a lot of ways because, okay, if you were to divide this image into rule of thirds, it's like the bottom, bottom quadrant, right? Like it'd be intersecting, right? Yeah. Like your, your head is right in the, right in that intersection. You've also got this nice. Just black section all the way to the left, which filling all those three frames. And so, you know, like that's an example of you just putting in vertical lines, you kind of solve the composition, but you also did put off balance composition.

Play from 0:47:18 8:88:88 0:47:18 I don't know that matter, but that's pretty dope the way that one turned out. Yeah. And that's an image of me, right? Like I use myself as a, as a image reference there, but like some of these, right? Like these vertical lines ones, like I love the vertical lines. Yeah. That's a, that's a, that's a good one. It's good. See horizontal lines to work too. Yep. Yeah. You see it in, it comes through in all of the, I love this one 'cause it comes through in every single one. Right? Like the, they use the, the shadowing and then the texture to actually like create these vertical lines effect. Which is really cool. Tend to love that we even have these like right angles that are pointing directly at the guy. When you look at it that way, which is again from a, if you're nerding out on photography, if you were taking this shot, you'd be super ramped about it.

Play from 0:47:57 8:88:88 0:47:57 I'm pretty sure. You know, it's like, Oh yeah, subtle different things going on. Right. You also have like the silhouette framing almost or the shadow framing, like he is in like a light box, Everything else is dark around him. Your eyes go nowhere but him, That's the idea. So I love the vertical lines. That's number one. In a number of different ways, not just for specific things like that, you know, with trees and stuff, it can work really well too. Like, again, this is what the style code, but you get these vertical lines. You just get like this sort of rippling effect that makes things look cool.

Play from 0:48:28 8:88:88 0:48:28 So you can do the same thing with horizontal lines, right? Like these horizontal lines. Great. Like this is perfect with the, you know, in a library, right? Like we have these things coming straight across. But like, she is the, focal point of the image, Same thing with diagonal lines, Like these can also be, I did a lot of these for in the library, where again, you can see that just like you have like these diagonal sort of lines here to her face. That one might be more vertical. Um, you know, these are good example, diagonal lines coming across as the bookshelves, like just focusing in.

Play from 0:49:00 8:88:88 0:49:00 Uh, the other thing I like with this is implied lines. This is probably one of my, Ooh, okay. That's new. I haven't heard that. This one is good because it has like that, that sort of like portal kind of effect. like this one, not like a portal, but like, it's like repeating line over and over and over again. Like, just like the, with the arcade games, like sort of like texting to her, which I tend to love every once in a while, because if you get, again, if you're thinking about this from the photography standpoint, you'd be kind of obsessed. with that shot if you got it. Uh, me personally, I would. Same thing.

Play from 0:49:34 8:88:88 0:49:34 Something like this, right? Like these just repeats these books, sort of like these lines going back, like, it just feels like it goes on forever. Same thing here. These lines are just like, this is like so many lines. It's basically the focal point is the box here. There's so many different things to, to play with when it comes to lines, like in general, that's also, a great way to get, good composition. Perfect example, you know, again, we have these lines are kind of like they're coming number one, they're diagonal across the image, but like you, your eye goes here because that's what you're drawn to the white, this line goes directly cut across the half the image. This line is pointing towards the car.

Play from 0:50:11 8:88:88 0:50:11 This line is pointing towards the car they do a good job in Midjourney with this. I've always found that. I also love framing. Do you use framing often or no? yeah, but like, I also find like I have to negative prompt frame because it'll throw frames in there. Really? Yeah. That's an interesting one. Cause I don't get that. I do like that though. Like fill the frame. Creative framing, like those could be good ones, but I, like I've, I've run those, I sometimes I'll get the frame, like it depends on the scene, but sometimes I'll just get like somebody staring at a frame and it's like, yeah, I don't want that.

Play from 0:50:45 8:88:88 0:50:45 I typically like, these silhouette framing stuff. Cause it like, kind of, again, it just gives you like this. Perfect little, point here, especially on something like this, like, it looks like an arrow almost, and it's going kind of right, your eye will go right to her, like, so dark, and just again, against that background, it's like, it's framed appropriately, I've always loved that one, let's do shadow framing. That's the one I'm looking for. Like if you look at these Where the shadows are going it's like directly like you can draw a diagonal line across it Like just straight onto his face And I love that it actually does that because sometimes it also does like these constructed framings well, too Like this one here, you can see like the construction between the unnatural things like the wood.

Play from 0:51:25 8:88:88 0:51:25 It's creating like this box nice, compelling stuff that you don't have to prompt for when you just put this stuff in. I also think this is probably one of the best examples of shadow framing right here. Like this shadow just breaks the image in half and bang, like you have this complete Rectangle portrait of the man because the shadow is framing him on the right side. So like yeah these little nuances and we're Totally nerding out right now on this stuff But I think that's like, When you look at why we do, you know curating images that we share stuff Like these are the things that pop out to us, which is why we share them You know, I think that's probably why most of the time it's not stuff that you see all every single day.

Play from 0:52:03 8:88:88 0:52:03 there are so many images now, right? So, you know, people are becoming desensitized a little bit to this. I just always thinking about that portion of it in terms of, well, there are other ways to stand out, everybody has access to these tools, that's one level. The other level is just knowing specific things that can make an image unique. So it's, you know, that's where it comes into this background. And it's, it's kind of been impressive to me. Honestly, you're, you're not to my knowledge of photographer, but you've done the research to go through and play and experiment.

0:52:30Framing Styles

Play from 0:52:36 8:88:88 0:52:36 And this is where it's like, ChatGPT can really help you out. If you're not sure of like different photography types or different. camera angles or this, that, and the other, just to have that brainstorm and try some of those things out. Some of them are really consistent, some aren't, right? So, it just comes down to stuff like that, but like, if you at least dip your toe in the water, it can really set you apart from some of the other stuff that's being created and being put out there. It's interesting, because I've always been like a photography fan, if you want to call it that.

Play from 0:53:06 8:88:88 0:53:06 Like, National Geographic was like the coolest thing. To me ever. Yeah. Those images were just, I was mind blown as a kid. Um, but still like I love all that, I love all that technical work like you put, I've always looked at cinema a little bit differently, like not just like as the story but like as like the shot like how are they doing that. I'm just curious about how, how people do this or like how they see it. Cause 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, Oh my God, it's leading lines. You know, like it's, it's like once you learn what it is and it's like an actual, you know, someone called it out and put a term on it.

Play from 0:53:40 8:88:88 0:53:40 Right. It's hard to unsee that. That's what I really loved about photography. And when I was really just like doing travel or street photography is once you become very used to those things, you see them everywhere and it unlocks like this different POV of the world in some ways, because it's like hidden, right in plain sight. And you can only see it if you've got that sort of like trained eye in that aspect. And so I've, you know, like those little like gems of uncovery, like in life, it's so cool. And I think the same thing to be true with. Something like typography, if you've really gone deep in that and you understand what, what makes sense, where with what branding, what it says, the, the different, you know, real nuances and intricacies with that, you start to see that there's design in every single thing that exists.

Play from 0:54:27 8:88:88 0:54:27 Yeah. Right. And every single, you know, uh, logo that exists or every single shop sign and the, the choice of. The font, The typeface, the size, the kerning, like all that stuff. It, it's hidden in plain sight. And so it's like, it is nerdy stuff. But like when, when you go into those things, I'm glad you brought that up, man. it really does unlock something where it gives you a different perspective. That's exciting. You start to see it everywhere Like really good photography looks like it's created by AI because you can't believe they got that shot. Right?

Play from 0:54:57 8:88:88 0:54:57 I sent this to you the other day, there was this one shot that like, I don't know, took my breath away of the pyramids in Egypt where the guy got all the pyramids like symmetrically lined up with a silhouette. And I was like, that's Absolutely incredible. Whoever did that, let me see if I can pull that up. Cause that's, you would look at that and you'd say that's created by AI right now. You know, now, now I don't, well, here's the thing too, like also with photography, you know, before AI really the, the polarization was. How much editing are you doing in Photoshop?

Play from 0:55:27 8:88:88 0:55:27 And how far removed is that from the story? And a lot of people would get mad and they would say, okay, well, that doesn't look like a real photo, but it's like, well, you know, the, the photographer, the artists eyes, it's always like, well, that's the way that I envisioned it. Right. And so it was like, well, at the end of the day, that is kind of art, right? It's like, yeah, on one hand, you're, you're trying to capture something one for one, but you're also trying to like tell a story with it and you know, whatever your point of view is. A camera's great, but no matter how much realism you think you're getting with that shot, it's still not what actually exists, right?

Play from 0:56:00 8:88:88 0:56:00 It's, it's not, the image could be flatter. The colors might not pop. There could be, you know, something it doesn't pick up. The distortion is there. Right. And so like all those little variables come into mind. And I think like with these photos, if you're going to bring those up, maybe he did something in Photoshop, like to motion blur the other, pyramids in there regardless. It's like fucking awesome. Like he might've put some motion blur in there and Photoshop and then just. Extended that maybe uh, adjusted the opacity or the transparency on those either way. It's fucking sick And it looks like a logo right like that looks like a logo to me, you know Like I I was like that is so clean from like just a aesthetic perspective to even try to get that shot Now, I don't know like I I don't want to discredit the guy this could be i've never been But this could be he found this angle where he actually did get all three

Play from 0:56:48 8:88:88 0:56:48 that lined up and he didn't have to edit too much to that's also possible, right? It looks like a different shot that he got here. Similar aesthetic. Now, is that something you could do with? playing with like focal length, for example, is this like a, is this like a trick that you could pull with a camera to get something like that? If they all lined up like a Ken Burns effect, kind of that's motion. You know what I'm saying? They all line up. I think where I'm seeing the distance he is from that, though, it just, it doesn't strike me as like straight out of the camera per se, like with minimal, it could be like, it just depends. Like you, I always looked for that specific angle cause I always use prime lenses.

Play from 0:57:27 8:88:88 0:57:27 I never use zoom. So it was all about like moving in and moving out and then shooting it manually. So that was the best way to learn how, how much exposure, how much shutter speed I want to put, you know, like the, the F stop on it. So it could be like, maybe he found that angle. I don't know how, how much distance is between those two. Cause that would also affect. how out of focus they are. And then also the amount of color saturation that exists within those, because obviously the further away that would fade and fade and fade.

0:57:45Emotional Photography

Play from 0:57:58 8:88:88 0:57:58 It's interesting, man. I was just like, again, when we go back to this stuff, which is why we like Midjourney so much is like, I look at that and I'm just like, that is so awesome. And I want to, you know, want to go recreate that, right? Like, I'm just like, I. Now that I'm going to go do that, but I'm just like, that's a really cool idea of getting like three pyramids, some basically like symmetrically or almost symmetrically just positioned against each other. And it looks, it's got that, it's got that like motion, that motion blur effect where it's like, I'm not seeing this straight kind of thing, which I love.

Play from 0:58:27 8:88:88 0:58:27 I love that nuance. to, to photography. That's why this stuff is, you know, that's why these little things because you might go put that into ChatGPT. I'm not saying to do that. I'm just saying like, well, what, how would you describe this? Yeah, I might give you some little, you know, little factors or you might, you know, I wouldn't want to go throw that photo into, into Midjourney and kind of like ruin it. I just think there's so much cool shit from a photography perspective that people don't explore because it's not known, what did we say before? What was the, the, what, what the amateur photography, the, um, shutter, shutter, blur, what was it?

Play from 0:58:59 8:88:88 0:58:59 Shutter drag. Shutter drag. Like I'm going to go use that one now a ton and see if I can figure out how to, you know, all those like little optical things too, with like lens flares and light painting and this and that and the other, and like, You know, all those are, are things that you can get in photography, but those add like a great dimension, multi exposure. Oh, I love multi exposure. that's a really good one. Also a really good one that I just remembered. I feel like we, we need to probably do another episode of this, like we get into, you know, light, shadow, colors, textures, that kind of thing. I was just reminded of tabletop photography. I used to use that a lot.

Play from 0:59:41 8:88:88 0:59:41 Um, and I, I love these. Uh, this was like this whole series. I did tabletop photography and I used to use this a lot, raw and emotional imagery. I haven't run that so much in six months. I don't know how that works, but man, I did like those Two tokens. I played with so much. And this is almost a little bit emulative of, I wasn't going for exact realism. There's like this, there's this artist, this photographer that exists, I think in Poland.

Play from 1:00:10 8:88:88 1:00:10 And he does these shots where they almost look like wax figures. And that's what I was going with this. Like these almost look like they're wax. Yeah. You know what I mean? they're real, but they're not like, and so I became like really fascinated with these for a while. but yeah, tabletop photography is great. Like the way that I think that. Uh, sort of lens itself is more or less like magazine type of photography, something you would find on a tabletop, right? Like on somebody's coffee table, like coffee table photography. I haven't tried that, but I think that could work too.

Play from 1:00:41 8:88:88 1:00:41 now that I just remember this, I need to go back to this. Like tabletop photography was a good one for me for a long time. Long, long. This is good because I see a lot of like, your inspiration from kind of the things that you like and what you're interested in. Right, then like I go back and look at my photos now, and I'm like, you know, my my My obsession was always like I loved pictures of like old people like I love yeah me too old me, too They're interested really old like really like because it's skin is so differently textured you have the wrinkles you have the contrast a lot of times Like old hands are my favorite thing You know, like worn weathered hands.

Play from 1:01:17 8:88:88 1:01:17 I don't know why I like it so much, but it's such a cool like aesthetic because it just looks different than your average stuff. You know, elderly is a good one. Like there, I feel like there are different ages to like elderly wrinkled, weathered skin. That's I like to put that in a lot of my prompts. And now I see that, you know, I'm always prompting someone from, you know, that's probably a little elderly, has a little bit of a wrinkle or a different effect to their face than the 30 year old. But you could tell a story with somebody's face, you know?

Play from 1:01:44 8:88:88 1:01:44 So like there was a point in time where I was just doing photography of homeless people in Atlanta. I did a whole series on it and it didn't really start out as an initial idea. But I had a homeless guy when I was doing street photography, like come up and be like, yo, take my picture. And I was like, okay. But like he had a super interesting face. So I was like, okay, like let's do this. Gave him a couple bucks. And then I like had this idea. I was like, man, I should, I should find more of this. Cause like, just looking at him tells a great story, a little bit of a sensitive thing.

Play from 1:02:14 8:88:88 1:02:14 Right. Because I don't think a lot of people want to be photographed at their lowest point in life. Uh, so that like brought on some really interesting conversations, but I broke through there and I really got a lot of people to open up and do that and those were just focused on portrait style their face. That was it. Awesome. Right. And those, it, those alone said so much about what was captured. And so I'm the same way.

Play from 1:02:40 8:88:88 1:02:40 I love, Kids, old people, there's wrinkles, like there's something like it's either new, new or it's like old, old, you know, like those in betweens, those extremes or super ugly or, you know, like all that is what can make an image really interesting and break out of that typical Midjourney box and aesthetic. Yeah, there's because, you know, you just most of time people just type like man, woman. Like that's, yeah, exactly, exactly. And it's easy to do because most of the time you get so excited, you don't want to spend a lot of time on the prompt right. But if you do sit with that for a minute, you can kind of build that muscle and that habit of thinking about different things, unique things, which is all, I think the underpin of this conversation is just like, how do you make your, your shots more interesting?

Play from 1:03:25 8:88:88 1:03:25 Right. How do you tell a story? that's so the, the underrated part, right? Like you can tell a story with video, cause you're going through the entire entire progress. It's not so much about one. Yeah, it's not so about one one shot as it is Two three four five shots in a row and the different things that exist within that maybe the music. Yeah, like 100 We should definitely do we should definitely do some episodes on like where we pull up some good inspiration like that Like some of the good stuff like some of the good, you know Photos and things that we've that we've liked in the past. I I have like a whole database of stuff that I'm saying, dude, I, I mean, I'm, I'm constantly on the hunt for inspiration because I'll, I'll use, I'll find one piece and I'm like, like, what if I did this from this perspective or, or, you know, instead of doing like this, I'm going to do this and then I'm going to add that, right?

Play from 1:04:11 8:88:88 1:04:11 Like that's, that's where creativity is born out of. It's all borrowed and built on, you know, that's, that's what it is. Like, I hate to say this, but some of my favorite, this is from New York, right, like, you guys, hang with me. Some of the 9 11 photography is some of the most intense, real, visceral, like, impressive art I've ever seen. Like, it's, for someone to, to capture this stuff in the middle of, like, absolute war zone at that point, and terror and panic, it's crazy. And some of this stuff is so intense, like, you feel it right away. You know, like there's, there's like images of, you know, like the dogs, like stiffing on top of the rubble pile.

Play from 1:04:51 8:88:88 1:04:51 And like, you just see some, you know, firemen in the background, like totally distraught. That sucks to be the person that takes that picture. It tells the entire story, you know, like it's so, it's so good. I hate nerding out on this, like, like being open about it. But it does, like, I hate to say that I like that stuff because I just think that someone from a visual perspective and artistic perspective, I don't want to say had the, had like the burden of doing it, but that's the thing, dude.

Play from 1:05:19 8:88:88 1:05:19 I mean, and that's where it's like, not to, not to put this story back on me, but it's, it's like that same thing with the homeless thing, , selfishly, I want that shot. Yeah, right. but I also know that it could be used for good. Right. And, and I think that's a lot of that photo journalism kind of stuff can be. So I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Right. Because at the end of the day, you are looking to spark emotion, the lines can get a little bit blurred. And like, so for me with the, with the homeless guy, like it was just like, Hey, look, like I'll give you a couple bucks if you give me two minutes.

Play from 1:05:51 8:88:88 1:05:51 Right. I'll buy you lunch or this or that and the other, give me two minutes. I want to tell your story. And I ended up turning that into like a fundraiser. So it wasn't because I did kind of selfish. I'm like, am I being selfish here? Just trying to get these shots because from a photographer's perspective, it's like, these are good shots and they tell stories and they're unique, but on the other hand, right, like there's the other side of it. So I think like when I'm. Thinking about what you're saying, both things can be true.

Play from 1:06:17 8:88:88 1:06:17 That's a good point. It's a good point. I mean, you know, I look at those, I look at those photos every year. I probably spent on nine 11. I spend two, three hours. I go through all of them because I, you know, so it's just a good reminder of how different things were back then, but also like seeing the people covered in ash, just walking like zombies, like a different world. And you think I can see it from my window, you know, like you'd see where it happens. So it's a very, you know, I'm not saying that we have it. Really hard over here, anyone I'm just saying, like, that's a pretty visceral moment in the U. S. History and to be here. Right. And it's just like something that is just so that's why I used to love just journalism in general, because you had people on the ground that had no stake in it.

1:06:28Closing Thoughts

Play from 1:06:59 8:88:88 1:06:59 Just those are the best photos are the visceral stuff when you think about it, It's the homeless people. It's the 9 11. It's the I just traveled to Africa with a tribe that doesn't know technology and I'm getting shots. You know, like it's, it's, it's like stuff like that. Right. And so, it's kind of a, an interesting line to walk, but those are, those are highly emotional photos and I don't think there's anything wrong with liking them, you know? No, it's just, uh, again, you try to take some of that, a little bit of whatever it is. Try to bake it into what you're doing. So again, do get, we do get a lot of shit for putting stuff up on, on AI, right? Like, I mean, it's, it's not real art, it's not real this, but like it's inspired by something, you know, there is a conscious effort, whether we're doing it or taking it or not, or crafting it.

Play from 1:07:41 8:88:88 1:07:41 give it, that's all drawn from some sort of human experience, yes, there's give me a product shot of a skincare brand, there's that, there's this stuff that we don't share that we're doing for ourselves that are really like. What makes this stuff like compelling to why we have a freaking podcast about it? That's just that's just me That's how I feel because I can go and explore that route if I want to and I don't have to share it It's just for me.

Play from 1:08:06 8:88:88 1:08:06 Yeah a hundred percent a hundred percent like there are so many different things you could do With these photos, some are just going to be personal to you and that's cool. Right? Like you're doing it for the little dopamine hits and all that stuff. And it's, it's much, it's a much healthier thing, I think, than, than probably, you know, just scrolling through social media and reading news stories. So, I think this is great. Like from a creative perspective, what do you think, man? Should we, should we break this one? Come back for a round to get into some of the other stuff.

Play from 1:08:34 8:88:88 1:08:34 I think, you know, one other thing that comes to mind that we were just talking about during this. Is probably doing something related to chat. GPT is involvement from the AI creation perspective, just because there are so many different things that you can use it for. We've talked about a lot of them already on this podcast. There's a lot of things that we haven't talked about. So I think that using those tools, uh, in a combined fashion can unlock a lot of different things for the creator, but also. You know, probably save you a lot of time and energy at the same time.

Play from 1:09:04 8:88:88 1:09:04 So and it's, you know, it's great for alternative opinions as well. Just to like tell you to go different directions with it, to get general inspiration, to have it be a creative partner. I think it's a whole, definitely a whole episode, whole thing. Maybe two. Who knows? Yeah, brother. So many things you can do with it. Oh, man. Damn. I'm sad that this is winding. But there it is. There it is, folks. There it is. Had to do it. Had to had to get some of that out. This is a good one, man. Like I'm going now. I'm going after I get off this. I know I'm going right in. I just got juices right back up.

Play from 1:09:39 8:88:88 1:09:39 I absolutely fucking hear you, dude. I'm, I'm, I'm thinking about the same thing. I'm like. You mentioned some good ones I want to play with. I found some that I just haven't thought about it forever. Haven't tried with the newer models. So it's, it's fun. Hopefully you guys found this to be valuable in terms of new things that you can try different perspectives you can have when creating the images. So that's why we wanted to bring this into the fold. Let us know your thoughts and your comments, and we'll catch you in the next one, like, and subscribe. See ya.