Ep. 3: Prompt Theory in Midjourney: Our Best (Proven) Tips

0:00The Midjourney 6.5 Hype Train

Play from 0:00 8:88 0:00 All right, what's up, everybody? We are back. Drew Brucker, Rory Flynn, Midjourney Fast Hours, and we're about to get deep into some stuff, as usual. But, you know, I think it's good to be back. Midjourney's been somewhat quiet over the last couple weeks. You know what that means, though. Typically when we go quiet for a few weeks, no big update, something big is coming. I wouldn't be surprised if 6. 5 is rolling out in the next two weeks or so. You know, that'll throw us into a freaking tailspin, and we'll just have to be all, you know, spending all hours of the day.

Play from 0:28 8:88 0:28 Getting weird, getting funky, seeing what this thing can do, but you know, I know you're excited. I'm kind of, especially as a parent, man. I mean, the only time we can do that late at night, late at night and when the kids are sleeping. So I'm right there with you, dude. I think 6. 5 should be coming in the next couple of weeks. I mean, we were told, end of the month when July started, we're getting there. take that for what it's worth, but, you know, obviously with the changes that are coming to six, five clarity, coherence, things like that.

Play from 0:59 8:88 0:59 I mean, this is going to be a pretty big update one that we haven't had. What, when did six come out last year at the end of last year? So, I mean, it's been a good seven months since we've seen that, next model come through. And so, yeah, we're getting a little giddy over here, man. You know, it's every time, like every time there's a new I'm just like, what can it do better? Like, I remember thinking like V 5. I was like, how much more realistic can it get? And you know, 5.

Play from 1:25 8:88 1:25 2 comes out and then V6. And I'm like, come on, you know, like what, look, where else does it go? Like how much realer. Does it get because some of the stuff now, I mean, even when I'm looking around on social media too, and you know, there's a lot of stuff on, you know, like luma dream machine, things like that. You know, all those base images are from Midjourney. So it's like or majority of them. Sorry. For Midjourney, but it's like, I always, you know, a little behind the scenes for everyone to, you know, we get excited about when this stuff drops, but it's also just stress bomb.

Play from 1:54 8:88 1:54 It's just like, all right, we got to go learn this thing, put the content out. Got to get good at it. It becomes like, you know, like Drew said, yeah, you're up at two in the morning on the night of the release, like trying to figure out what to do, what to post about, how do I be different from everybody else that's posting the same exact thing? So, you know, it's a it's a good time, but it's also a little bit nuts. So I think we we got to brace ourselves for that. Let, let me ask you this. What are you really looking forward to with future models?

Play from 2:19 8:88 2:19 Like to your point, I, I, I think. You're spot on when you say, how much better can it get? I mean, we already see images that you and I create that are there, you know, like they are there. It just kind of depends on, have you put in enough time to really like nail it with everything, right? Like, are you going for photo realism? Then, you know, have you indicated camera angle, maybe even a film, you know, things, things of that nature. But for me, like, I think hands and legs, obviously we've, we've already talked about that.

Play from 2:46 8:88 2:46 I think those have gotten much, much better. Also maybe just some, some artifacts in the images. We'd like to see that, next upscaler come through, which is supposed to be a part of these six, five, and then dude, you know what I'm going to say with the far away faces. Like, please just give me that. That might be my number one request. Like, please solve that. And what I mean by that is guys, if you're, if you're creating an image let's just call it like in a 16 by 9 landscape and in somebody's faces in it chances are right, like you might get a smoosh face or all the details may not be proportionally correct.

3:00The Realism Race: How Far Can AI Images Go?

Play from 3:19 8:88 3:19 Like we have got to fix that. I'm tired of the smoosh face. I'm tired when you have multiple faces in that that image that it's that are far enough away. Where it's just like not usable. So those are the things that are on my list. What, what are, what are you hoping that they solve here? Whether it's with six, five, or let's just say seven for that matter. That's definitely one of them. You know, I'm kind of tired of, of like hacking around that. I would like a better upscaler. I mean, if you guys can take me off. Magnific, please.

Play from 3:46 8:88 3:46 Do I would like to save some money. That'd be awesome. But yeah, you know, I think there's a few things like, you know, I'm just so picky about what I'm looking for, but I, when I look at it, the things like object reference is something that I want, like we have character reference, I want object reference. I also want a second character reference. So I want to see ref for a second character. Cause you know, one character is awesome, but having two characters. Way better. Also because, you know, it's great with things like, you know, it's good with things like dogs and stuff too, which is odd.

Play from 4:11 8:88 4:11 That character reference is so good. So those things those things I'm looking for, you know, I would really like a zoom in feature to be honest. Like sometimes you get something that, that looks really good and you want to zoom into it or, you know, like crop maybe a little bit. I think crop would be an interesting sort of functionality. It doesn't seem too crazy. So, you know, there's so many little problems that you've run into. Like, I wish I had X, but typically they're good at that. You know, I like that crop idea. I like that idea because like technically, right?

Play from 4:38 8:88 4:38 If you upscale an image, you've got good enough quality where you could crop into a photo. The problem is you just don't think to do it. And it becomes too much work to do it because you've already got all these other things that you're trying to do just to get a good image in the first place. Like I'll, I'll even admit. Just as like somebody with the photography background, I I'm too lazy to even think about the cropped most of the time to be, to be frank. so I think that's a great point. If, if there were an easy way to do that, that's right in the tool.

Play from 5:04 8:88 5:04 Now you're talking right. Because now you don't actually have to create that tech to do that. And instead you can have it just apply right in the tool, maybe even with upscale specifically, just so you know, the qualities there, like once you upscale, that becomes a button, Do you use, do you use Adobe Photoshop at all? Have you used a. Yeah. Like generative fill and those, those type of tools. I have. Yeah. Yeah. So like, that's how I'm thinking about it. Like, in terms of how you can, you know, basically expand on, you know, a little bit more interactive or intuitive than what we get from pan or vertical or, you know, up or down, whatever that might be.

Play from 5:36 8:88 5:36 I'm looking at it like that would be really cool if we had that also the way that they have like smart select and runway did that with gen two where, you know, okay, it's like smart select where if I don't want to, the one thing that You know, pains me in there, in the in the reframe or the repaint. Is when you gotta go and like, Oh, I wanna get rid of this you know, this, this arm that's like mangled or something. You gotta use the little pen tool that sucks. Especially if you're trying to do that on your phone. Not great. The it's either you get a square or a pen.

6:00Wishlist for Future Midjourney Updates

Play from 6:02 8:88 6:02 And that's it. And then, you know, I wish there was just like a little bit of a smart select. Look, I'm complaining about small things guys. Like, it's not even a big deal. I like that idea, bro. That's a good idea. No, I mean, that would be killer, Like, that would be super cool. It doesn't seem too hard. Dude, that would be so fire. Give me that. Actually, hey, go, go in right now and put that in as a request. That, that's a killer one. I'm going to have to look back over this when we're done, see what else, see what else I can complain about, but really, I mean, like, I don't have any complaints because I just do stuff and then I'm like, I think about it after the fact, it'd be easier if, you know, this is me being super particular, but it's you know, like I said, I don't know how much better you can get from a quality standpoint.

Play from 6:38 8:88 6:38 I'm interested, obviously, what you just said, the faces being pushed, you know, closer into the image and more defined. Yeah. Eyes would be a, would be a nice upgrade to, I don't know if, you know, you noticed that with the eyes every once in a while you get like either the pupils like off centered or like, you get like a little reptilian slit right down the middle. Hey, you know, you know what I've noticed lately? I don't know if this is just me or not. I, it can't just be me. Have you ever noticed when you're upscaling an image, sometimes you're getting like this gray.

Play from 7:08 8:88 7:08 Distortion in the photo. Have you seen this? No, I don't think I've noticed that on the specific parts of the photo or just like the whole thing. it could be any part of the photo and it's not a big distortion, but it's, but it's noticeable and it's just like it wasn't there when you got the original image and then when you upscaled it, it got there. So gray is in like it's desaturating and turning into more like a like black and white ish in a spot than it is like.

Play from 7:33 8:88 7:33 That's interesting. I'm gonna pull up an example. I mean you haven't seen this? No, no. Oh my god. If this is just me, I'm gonna be pissed. Okay let's rip it open. Let's see what, let's see. Well, let's see what we're talking about here here we go. let me show you exactly what this looks like. I'm going to go ahead and share my screen. So if you're just listening to us, you're not going to be able to see this. Sorry about that, but check us out on YouTube and then you'll have access to what we're talking about here. I don't know if anybody else is noticing this, but I sure have.

Play from 8:00 8:88 8:00 Okay. You see this right here? Yeah, okay, that is a distortion right in the photo. I'm gonna show you another one. See these lips. Oh, yeah I see that way more. So let me go to the original. See here's the original not there. Isn't that wild? What the what is that about? That's so weird now. I haven't I haven't noticed that at all. Here's another one. See this It's like there It's totally different photo I mean, you get there and it's just like, Oh shit.

Play from 8:27 8:88 8:27 Well now, I got to fix this. And you know, obviously when you upscale it, you can't just repaint. So then I got to reframe then upscale again. I've just been seeing this all over the place. I'm surprised you haven't seen it. If anybody else is seeing that. Let us know because I, I have no idea whether this is an isolated issue or not, but it is rather annoying. There's, there's always some random stuff they throw at you, you know? Always, always some random little piece.

Play from 8:52 8:88 8:52 I just, I, I cannot believe you haven't, this has not happened to you. I don't know. Maybe it has and I haven't even noticed. What is going on? You know what's worse is when you like, when you go to post something, And you're just like rushing through to get something out, and then you realize after you posted it that it's like, Oh, I have like an earring that's floating in space over on the right side that I just didn't catch. It just looks so stupid. You know, like, all the time, you know, it's always like little details like, Oh, I got, I got like a wisp of hair that's not connected to the head that's just like hanging out on the left hand side or the right hand side.

9:00Glitch Hunt: The Gray Distortion Mystery

Play from 9:23 8:88 9:23 And you're like, well, I'm dumb. Hopefully no one else notices that. And then someone in the comments is like, you know, the hair's not connected to the head. Yeah, sorry. I Hey, Hey man. I mean, it's not a paid project, so, you know, like, I mean, that's, that's sort of the thing, Like you and I create a lot of content around some of this stuff. And I, I've run into that same thing where it's just like, You know, when you spend so much time on it to begin with and then you're at the final stage, it's just like, okay, I mean, like there are going to be some imperfections, just part of it.

Play from 9:49 8:88 9:49 I'm not getting paid for this, I'm just trying to show an example of something. Sure, there could be something that's off. Okay, let's move on, right? 100%. And out of the creative, if you have a creative eye too, and that, that, that shit will just bug you, you know, it's like, Oh yeah, I'm not going to care about it. I'm not going to care about it. It's like, I'm, I'm going to be so pissed if someone notices. And then when they call it, I'd be like, God damn it. I hate when you do that. So dude, it's, it always like, you know, it's like inevitably it always happens on stuff that, that ends up being somewhat popular too, where people, you get it, you get a bunch of like comments, you get a bunch of interactions and it's just like, well, I remember my first viral post I had like, 17 typos.

Play from 10:31 88:88 10:31 I put the wrong prompt with the wrong picture. It was like, I just tried to rush it out and it went viral and it was like, Oh, just getting blasted in the comments. Like, did you even check this? I was like, no, it's Saturday. I was just trying to post something. Didn't think it would go viral. So sorry. you know, that's, it's inevitable. It happens all the time. It happens, dude. It happens. I mean, so, so going back to this whole. You know, six, five update, you know, some of the, some of the things that I think we're hoping that does just sort of improve besides just the realism because the realism can only go so far.

Play from 11:03 88:88 11:03 We've already talked about, I guess the way that David and their team is thinking about the realism they know that that road ends. Somewhere in the near future here. So I think it's all about then connecting the other features like you and I have talked about with like 3d with maybe depth control net, which they brought up. that could be a, a big potential game changer too, which add some different. Levels of variability and versatility to existing images and characters. But I think coherence as a whole, Is a big thing.

Play from 11:29 88:88 11:29 It's supposed to improve as well with six, five, and seven now if you've been using Midjourney for a while, you know, that's changed, over the models, Like pretty significantly, I think when it moved to six, five, and seven, Six, I believe, was it six big, very big, it was six, right? Yeah. Because like at one point it was just about kind of putting in some cool tokens and you could still do that. But right, like there was a definite noticeable change with the prompt strategy that you might take on moving forward with v6.

Play from 11:58 88:88 11:58 I guess I'm curious to like, let's get into prompt theory a little bit. You and I both have talked about this a lot. I don't really know how everybody goes about thinking. with their prompts. But I know you and I have a pretty similar and consistent pattern about the things that we try to think about every time that we're creating. We're both, you know, people that go for sort of realism, but the ways that we get there are a little bit different in terms of the style we like. And that's, that's the beauty of photography and just Midjourney is in general, there's so many different styles, but there are some things that really help.

12:00Prompt Theory: The Art of Structured Creativity

Play from 12:31 88:88 12:31 Define you know, your prompt, but also get you better results. What are some of the key things that you're looking for when you're going about prompting maybe even just every time or really almost every time to get that consistency and quality that you're hoping to achieve? I mean, look, you gotta, to me, it's, you gotta have a structure and, you know, it sounds so boring to have a structure and to be like, oh, let's, let's be creative, but let's, let's do it with a structure, but honestly, honestly, it's just like breaking.

Play from 12:57 88:88 12:57 Breaking down what an image is into like requisite component parts. So, you know, you think about what constructs an image, like what are the building blocks of an image? And those are the things you want to control, So the big difference I think was 5. 2. Like what they did was it was like, they sacrificed some coherence to get like better images. So you didn't have like as much control. over the image, but you got like, or over the prompt, but you got fire output. So it was like, Oh, that's what we got to use these big broad tokens to get like these really defined images.

Play from 13:25 88:88 13:25 Then like six came along and it was the coherence jumped so much that people didn't know what to do because if they had just come from V five. Right. It was like, I remember people being like, I think this one's worse. I'm like, I just don't think we understand the level of control that we have. Cause it's really like a blank slate now. Like you can control every little piece of it if you want to, obviously there's some variability, but like knowing that changed my whole. Like strategy theory again, like I went back to what we used to do in V4, which was, all right, I need to put the actual like controls in there almost like subject is X position in the screen is Y, you know, lighting is this so actually put that in the prompts where I'll put subject, you know, colon, this.

Play from 14:07 88:88 14:07 Environment colon this. So I'm trying to make it easier on the damn tool. I don't know. It's a stupid brain, but you know, I'm always trying to like, I honestly start, sometimes I go way too big. I'll be honest. I go way too big on the prompt to start. And then I'm like, okay, that was actually dumb. Cause now I don't know what variable screwed the whole thing up. So sometimes I like to start a little bit, start a little bit smaller, you know start a little bit smaller, really just get like, My subject, my action, my environment, whatever I'm trying to really build the story off of and then add the finer details like the lighting or the different, you know, the color scheme that I'm trying to do, or if I'm trying to do some post production type stuff with hues and contrasts and things like that.

Play from 14:47 88:88 14:47 So, you know, it really depends on what the goal is. And I think it comes down to the creative process to write. This is like a very meta. Conversation, right? most of the time I'm trying to show a lot of comparisons in my work. So it's like, this is what happens if you do this versus this. So it's less about like achieving a final product for myself than it is about showing the different variability within the tool. So, you know, when it comes to like client work you obviously have to nail it. So having a structure there, if you're doing this in professionally, like, you know, having it there and like getting to the end result quicker, like to me, that's where the structure comes in.

Play from 15:16 88:88 15:16 But a lot of words salad there just to say that it kind of is a kind of varies in terms of what the project is that I'm working. I like that. I like that salad. It was a good sound. What about you now? Because I know you're probably different than me. I would agree You know, like we have the same take on a lot of this stuff, but you know, I think you hit on some really key points. One, what are you creating? Because that really determines, the, I would say the length and, and complexity of the prompt. So if you're just creating for fun.

Play from 15:43 88:88 15:43 And not necessarily something super, super specific or for client work or something like that, then I think like shorter prompts are great, you know, shorter prompts can open up some, doors and get you some images that you would have never gotten otherwise. And so I think it's just like a very cool way to think about it, but right, like you also need to think about. whatever you don't list, whatever you don't explicitly tell Midjourney, you're leaving open to interpretation. And that's why I think like there are a few things I always land on and always insert, especially if I, if I'm just talking about photo realism, always, I would say like my core ones are camera angle, the photography type.

16:00The Art of Specificity in Prompting

Play from 16:20 88:88 16:20 And probably lighting or or if there's some sort of shadow, maybe color, you know, but and this is obviously like outside of your subject and action. I mean, of course, like whatever you're seeing is you're going to have that. But I think like in terms of adding some elements that are going to give you. Different results, higher quality results, and you're trying to explicitly give Midjourney direction and which way to go with this. Then like, those are the things that I always tend to lean on pretty heavy.

Play from 16:46 88:88 16:46 And then I do the rest of the work in the parameters, you know, like really test out and experiment using permutations, using stylize, using maybe different aspect ratios, you know, been using a lot of S ref lately. So use a lot of. Combinations with the stylized and the SW values, you know, and, just playing with those things. So I think there are those core things that I always go back to almost no matter what. Definitely. I mean, you know, the, the way I try to tell people about, you know, how Midjourney things, you hit, you said it perfectly with the interpretation part, because, you know, like we said, if we're, if we're breaking this down into requisite components, like the visual building blocks, like they have to be filled in, like there's not going to be an image without light.

Play from 17:26 88:88 17:26 Right. So regardless if you put it in there or not, it's going to be in there. So it has to kind of build the scene. Just like if I said to you, think about a man in a park, you know, you're building the image in your head, the way that you're thinking about it. I'm probably thinking about something different because it's ambiguous, right? So there's no time of day. There's no season. What's he wearing? Where is he? Right. But if you say man in a park in New York city in winter, wearing a fuzzy jacket with a spotlight shining down on him, Like that narrows the focus down.

Play from 17:55 88:88 17:55 And now we're both sort of thinking about the same thing, right? It's how the brain works within midterm, or at least that's my best interpretation. Absolutely. Right. Absolutely. That's, that's why camera angle specifically. Oh man, like it drives me nuts because I think it's almost a necessity to think about with realism because there are just so many images on Midjourney that look exactly the same. You know, we've, we've beat, we've beaten this topic to death off air, but like the symmetry. the frontal camera angle.

Play from 18:22 88:88 18:22 I mean, it's just like, if you don't indicate either of those two, that's what you're getting, you know, like that's what you're probably getting on the majority of your images. And so those look like everybody else and they don't really tell a compelling story unless you've really nailed a lot of the other elements. I'm not saying that you can't use that, right. But that, that seems like that's the default. How do you go above and beyond that? How do you create images that are going to stand out, you know, tell a story cinematically or.

Play from 18:47 88:88 18:47 You know, just as a part of a project, well, you need to be thinking about different perspectives, different angles, right? Like the top down bird's eye view, low angle and then like what those things actually mean from a cinematic standpoint, low angle shooting up sort of shows authority or somebody, you know, that's, you know, sort of like a figure in a scene that we should be respecting or paying attention to versus something that, you know, is maybe high up. bird's eye, which is almost like an establishing shot, showcasing, you know, your environment.

Play from 19:16 88:88 19:16 So like to know those things is so powerful when you're using a tool like Midjourney, I know you've looked into this, but like, I think this has only helped me as a photographer because it, It allows me to keep using that information I learned while I was doing photography and keep honing those skills because I I'm constantly thinking about those things when I'm developing the images and I can tell when I'm being lazy because I'll get a bunch of shots that are just front and center and you know it could be a cool image but it's like That's nothing special.

Play from 19:45 88:88 19:45 Sometimes we just want to go back to 5. 2 when it was easy and you just threw in some words and it was like, bang image, you know, there's like certain things I realized now too, like it has a problem with, with simple tasks sometimes. There's ways to get around it too. So, you know, like I remember trying to prompt a guy drinking a beer bottle and it was like, you know, the bottle would end up like in his eye or like, you know, turn the other way. So I was like, well, how, what happens if we get really detailed?

20:00Eyes, Expressions, and Emotions: The Devil's in the Details

Play from 20:11 88:88 20:11 On this, like I give it no room for interpretation. Like it's, you know, the bottle is in his right hand. It's held parallel or perpendicular to his face lips on bottle. You get, if you get that granular, you get it, you know, same thing. Like if, you know, I remember doing this for this one character. Where I was like trying to do a bunch of different poses for him And that was the best way that I was getting it where I was like, okay What's now he's cradling a baby in his you know in his right arm looking down at the baby smiling So it doesn't leave it because if you just Said, cradling the baby.

Play from 20:42 88:88 20:42 You know, you'd be holding the baby looking right at the camera. 'cause they love, they love to do that. You know, even controlling small things like eyes closed, smiling, frowning, whatever that stuff you, it's like a, it's like a very open canvas. You don't even realize you have the control, but you do. You know, so it's, it's, there's certain love that, right? And I notice this with you, right? Like some of your images, like when we were doing we were doing our room together and just collabing on some stuff. I hadn't even thought to like really go into some of the facial features itself.

Play from 21:09 88:88 21:09 I remember you were just, you know, you had like scar on the left cheek. Things like that, and I was like, oh, that's, that's smart, I didn't even really utilize that canvas, you know, of, of the face as being like the, the actual canvas to go and like manipulate, so, you know, there's there's a lot of things you can do with the eyes, too, like you can say, you know, head forward looking left. You know, things like that. Like you can really do what, you know, the eyebrows, you can make things happen with the mouth. So it's an open canvas that they just think people default to not utilizing it because they don't know that they have that control.

Play from 21:38 88:88 21:38 But if you are listening to this, pause this and rewind that, because this is literally one of the biggest mistakes people are making in Midjourney. They're not focusing on the eyes. To your point, like these, these minute details that drive emotion or make a different an image different than any other image that you're going to see. Eyes. What they're doing with their mouth, their facial expression, again, facial expression, totally underutilized.

Play from 22:05 88:88 22:05 I mean, there are, there are some really cool things that you can do with that. Same, same with posing. Like, I'm not going to pretend like Midjourney's got posing down But like, there are some that you could put in there, you know, in a brief way, like, Dynamic pose or, you know, dance pose or like, and I'm not sure that those are the ones, but I'm just saying you could simplify certain ones and it, and it does pretty good, but other times you're going to have to sort of take your approach that you just mentioned with, with the bottle thing, you need to almost like say, where is the right arm?

Play from 22:34 88:88 22:34 Where is the left arm? Where is the leg? Is the knee bent? You know, like it, you, you do have to get granular if you're trying to Achieve things that you haven't seen before in the tool. You just have to, otherwise it's just a chance you're just taking, you know, you're just pulling sort of the slot machine and hoping that you get it back. Right. But I think that's a great point. Bottles, cigarettes, cigarettes, bubble gum, selfies. That's a good one. Here's the tip. If anyone wants a picture of someone taking a selfie, I don't know if you need it or care, but like, same thing.

Play from 23:03 88:88 23:03 Like if you're taking a selfie, you just have to describe what it looks like to you. So if you were describing it to someone else who'd never heard of what a selfie is. Or how it, how it looks. That's how you want to describe it. So it's a person holding a phone up in the air over their head, you know, or, or at eye level, and they're looking at the, they're looking at the phone and the phone is pointed towards them. Right? So like that's, you're telling it exactly what to do, because right now it might not know what a selfie is.

Play from 23:31 88:88 23:31 I mean, might not be trained on a selfie image, who knows? It can get a selfie image as like a camera angle, taking a picture of somebody else doing that. Really difficult. So 100 percent that's, that's the, this is the sauce. I mean, really of the episode is if you're not thinking about the minute details, you're not going to get them. You're just, it's just, again, it's a, it's a lot of pull. And if you're trying to create something different than other people and believe me, like there are a lot of people creating things that just either don't look good or look all the same.

24:00Composing in Layers & 3D

Play from 24:01 88:88 24:01 This is one of the things that you can do. So if you can't get the image, right, like what's in your head, like you said, Rory, I think one of the, one of the main approaches I take to is if it's something that feels a little bit more complex or I need to provide more detail, I'm trying to create a prompt as if I'm describing to someone that cannot see, I'm pretending like it's an actual machine. And I'm saying. This is what the scene looks like, you know, and those are the only ways that you can really accomplish the specifics.

Play from 24:30 88:88 24:30 And then again, drive uniqueness to the photo. And it's also something you can be super in control of, like, outside of your subject, right? Like, you can control the background. You could put vase in the back, you know, bottom right hand corner. Like, you can say stuff like that. It will work. the other thing I like to think about in terms of how you can build, An image, right? Like everyone thinks images is 2D. It's really 3D, right? Like you can go, there's depth within an image. So if you think about it from three layers, right, you have your foreground, your mid ground and your background.

Play from 24:59 88:88 24:59 Right? So oftentimes, you know, looking at it, a lot of things are in the foreground, like Midjourney puts things in the foreground. You can tell it to put people in the mid ground. So, you know, if you want to have like this layered composition look and you want to have, you know, maybe some like leaves or some bushes in the foreground, and then you have your person in the mid ground, then you have a jungle in the background. You can tell it to do that. It gives you like a nice layered composition. Look, I also layered composition, probably one of my favorite tokens in Midjourney, just in general.

Play from 25:25 88:88 25:25 Oh, never, never played with ours. Yeah, layered composition. It's bang. It looks like it looks like photoshop layers, you know, it's great Well to to be honest, I mean even that foreground mid ground background thing never is talked about that You will if if you even know that and if you use that in a prompt Congratulations, you're one of the one percent because no one talks about that. But that is a hundred percent true If you're creating a scene Something that has multiple things going on, right?

Play from 25:52 88:88 25:52 It's not just a portrait. That is a killer way, right? To set up things because otherwise, again, you're, if you're not explicitly saying that Midjourney can position, those things in different parts of the image, or it just may be there's overlap and there's not like a clear way to define the images. Whereas if you indicate those things, you're getting the depth, you're getting the focus, you're getting the composition, right? So all of those things. Matter a ton a hundred percent, but it's also like, again, then if you are able to, that's why I've been, that's why I break this stuff out, right?

Play from 26:24 88:88 26:24 Like where I'll write foreground, colon, this mid ground, colon that, because in the background too, maybe you don't want, maybe it's not as important to you, so you can be like, you know, jungle blurred in the background. So it doesn't have to focus all its definition on the jungle in the background. It can focus on the foreground and the mid ground, but you still get that effect. So it's, you know, composition is something I like to. Really get into you know, again, from a, just from like it, even the classical standpoint, some of the classic you know, composition styles and techniques, things like that.

Play from 26:55 88:88 26:55 Vertical lines, horizontal lines, leading lines, leading lines was, I feel like there was like a, probably like, I don't know, maybe, maybe it was V five or V 5. 1, where if you just did anything, Yeah. You got leading lines like it was like everything was like a tunnel effect, you know, yeah, it was so much But now I like I kind of miss it because it had that vibe for a while and it was it was cool to you know It's like everyone's like well, what's you didn't even know what's going on, but you had this everything was drawing You know, there was, I think it was 5.

Play from 27:24 88:88 27:24 1, where you remember we were talking about, like, every image has an X in it. You could do whatever you want if you drew an X through the center of the image. You basically just everything was symmetrical. It was, you could fold it like an origami, and it'd be exactly the same. It was that used to bug the hell out of me. So much. So I'm trying to figure out, you know, asymmetrical composition, off balance composition. How can I get this person to not be in the freaking middle? Yes, dude. I mean, that's just the struggle.

Play from 27:50 88:88 27:50 I like, I thought even too, when V6 first dropped, it was doing a really good job of by default, not doing that. And now I feel like that's kind of changed again. If I I've just noticed if I don't do any sort of symmetrical indication, chances are nine out of 10 times, we'll get it right in the middle. You know what I mean? And I think like the other thing too. I just figured this out. I was running into this problem for a long time, but I was trying to pan images to fix that problem.

28:00Camera Angles: Breaking the Symmetry Curse

Play from 28:16 88:88 28:16 And I was, I was panning them after I upscaled them and I kept getting an error. And I was like, is my, is my pan broken? Dude, I could not figure this out for the life of me. And then I just, it just, yesterday it clicked and it was like, Try it without the upscale and it worked, but, but like forever, I was like trying to, I was trying to fix images that had upscaled and, you know, fix that, symmetry in that, way and just couldn't do it. Like it just kept giving me the air. Like it couldn't happen. I was just like, is pan broken?

Play from 28:41 88:88 28:41 No one told me pan was broken, you know, and so it was a wild card. You know what I mean? When pan throws like a wild card, where you like pan left, it'll like throw in a closeup of a face that you did that just could be out of nowhere. Stop it. I love when that happens. But no, I think to your point to like, that is there are just so many of those little things that you need to keep in mind. I would just say to like, if you don't have any sort of photography, Cinematic designer background.

Play from 29:08 88:88 29:08 I wouldn't say that you're at a disadvantage, but I would say that, you know, those people that do have those backgrounds, it flattens the learning curve with this stuff. And so if you're not familiar with things like composition at a high level, like really knowing the different ways that you can set that up, you know, getting into these things like leading lines, motion blur, like all these different camera tricks that you can do with your images, it's worth it. It's worth exploring and learning about what those things are. I'm not saying that you have to spend hours upon hours doing this.

Play from 29:36 88:88 29:36 I think just a really basic understanding of what these things do. Some examples of those, you could just do that in chat, chat, GPT right now, and it'll spit out, you know, probably the basics of what you need to know, but it's a hundred percent worth learning in order to refine your images and get better at what you're doing. hundred percent. look, Midjourney made me learn photography And that's because I liked it, and I was a fan of it, and I've done it in a very amateur capacity, but, you know, I was using drones, I was using GoPros, I wasn't utilizing a professional camera, I never had the cash flow to get a real camera to actually, like, invest in myself becoming a photographer, so, it was something that And, With this being available now, and I can test stuff and then I can learn, and it's like, well, what is a focal length actually do what is it?

Play from 30:22 88:88 30:22 What is an ISO value? What does that even? What is shutter speed? What does this even mean? Like, why is that important? So when you're trying to get cooler effects and you go down the rabbit hole, it's like, Oh, this is cool. Now I know this, you know, like, what, why? What's the difference between a 35 millimeter and a 70 millimeter lens? Like, what does that do? What's the debt? Like, who cares? But now, because I'm trying to get different effects, I'm like, now I would almost be able to, I think. Okay. Kind of look at a camera and be more educated about it because I've had to do it in Midjourney so much do you think that's like a, do you think you take like photography as your base, like skillset and then apply it?

Play from 30:54 88:88 30:54 Is that kind of how, when you started, start like prompting, is that what comes out? I think so. maybe let's go through some of these things really quick that we think would be extremely helpful to, to know. So I think Just knowing the different camera angles Midjourney can handle. Okay. Getting into composition, those things we've talked about, the big three of photography, ISO shutter speed aperture. I don't think ISO is that important strictly because with what ISO does in the photography world is it's just trying to balance the light appropriately.

Play from 31:23 88:88 31:23 meaning if you're in, if you're outside, it's the middle of the day. Noon. There's not a cloud in the sky and the sun's bright, you know, shining bright. That's going to require you to dial down, you know, your, your ISO to a low level in order for your pictures to not get blown out, meaning like all the white or where the light is the brightest, that it's not something that you can control in post processing anymore because it's just gone beyond its capacity.

Play from 31:48 88:88 31:48 ISO. Not so much. Like I've seen people put that in prompts, but just, I don't think that matters because Midjourney is going to get that right. No matter what the two other ones. Yes. Like I think shutter speed. Would be worth knowing. And so, you know, like how do you create sort of like this freeze frame sort of perspective, meaning like if you're, in the sports world and somebody is kicking a soccer ball and you want to catch the moment that the foot's touching the ball, you would use a very high shutter speed for that to capture that exact moment versus a slow shutter speed would show all the motion of the foot and maybe even some motion of the ball.

32:00Photography Crash Course for Midjourney Artists

Play from 32:22 88:88 32:22 So like, maybe that's a good example to think about it. And. Slow shutter speed, I think, is really probably the key part of that because there are so many tricks that come with that motion blur, long exposure with things like traffic where you've probably seen those photos where people are in traffic and they just become light trails because the shutter speed was open for so long, like just stuff like that. So shutter speed, aperture, focal length. You just mentioned that. So like some lenses, right? Well, what's the difference between a.

Play from 32:49 88:88 32:49 24 mm versus a 100 mm lens. Well, 24 is gonna make things very wide open. It's gonna stretch things out. 70 is much tighter or 100 is much tighter and it's probably better for, portrait specifically. It's gonna automatically blur some of that background and create that separation, you know, so things like that, just like those photography basics. I think would definitely be worth knowing. I'm sure I'm missing a few. You helped me out here. What, what comes to mind for you?

Play from 33:15 88:88 33:15 Well, that was, I mean, that's pretty good. The lens, the lenses was the biggest one for me to learn. when I first was doing it, I realized that when I was using 35 millimeter as a general token back in, like, I don't know, V4, that things were just looking way better. And I was like, okay, why, why is that work so well? And you know, it's a pretty generic lens, but it's probably listed in a lot of the training data, right. That they, wherever they got it from. So that was interesting. And then I was like, well, what's the difference between, and you know, super eight, right?

Play from 33:40 88:88 33:40 I'm like, I, you know, I know that from the movies, what does that do? And then I was like, you know, I'm going down the rabbit hole on YouTube, trying to figure out what the difference is. And I was like, oh, that's why these guys use, you know, in the national geographic world, they use those like, you know, Canon. Freaking not, not the actual that, that makes a lot of sense now though, now that I think about it, the, they look like freaking cannons, those lenses that are like six, you know, three feet long. And, you know, to get a shot of a bird in a tree somewhere, but I was like, what does that actually do?

Play from 34:06 88:88 34:06 Why is that different than something that, you know, I obviously can zoom or have like a really good clear shot, but I didn't realize it narrowed the view. Like so tight, but it was really long. That probably confuses a lot of people. That probably confuses a lot of people too, because they're probably thinking, Hey, this dude got this shot of a jaguar up close. No, this dude was like two fields away and had a big ass expensive lens. That's what I happened. Because that was, you know, as you're a kid, you're like, how the hell did this, you know, why are you five feet away from a tiger ripping apart a gazelle?

Play from 34:35 88:88 34:35 Or like a lion ripping apart a gazelle? What are you doing? Like what kind of, what kind of maniac are you? And then you realize, Oh, okay. It's really, these guys are like six miles out and they just got, you know, either these crazy ass lenses. But that was, that was a big one for me. That was the first time when I was like, okay, I can get photo realistic stuff. But then you just started adding, I would start adding stuff. I didn't even know if it made sense. you know, 1. 8 aperture.

Play from 35:00 88:88 35:00 What does that do? Okay. Or, you know, 2. 4 or, you know, why or depth of field like depth of field was a good one. Yeah, I think that was, and this comes back to just like visual. acuity, right? Like knowing how your, your stuff's going to end up with like a purpose in mind. If you blur the background with something like you can use a token like bokeh or however you pronounce it. You know, the goal of that is not to just like be artsy. It blurs the background. So you focus on the subject.

Play from 35:26 88:88 35:26 So it blurs the background. So your eyes go right to the face. That's like the same reason you use leading lines or vertical lines or horizontal lines because they just inevitably draw. Right to whatever you're trying to get people to look at it's like an arrow pointing to the face saying look here So I think that's why you know Some of this stuff is really important because there's a reason why it's been you know Utilize these mediums for a long time. And then, you know, I, I, I know some cinematography.

Play from 35:53 88:88 35:53 I know a lot of the shots. I know like what, you know, kind of what that's about. I know how, you know, color grading and stuff. You're, you're playing with runway and some of the, the gen AI video too, which I think adds another layer to like, not that you can create video at Midjourney right now, but I do think there's probably some unlocks that you've learned using that, that you could then apply to Midjourney, too. Whether it's a different type of shot. for example, establishing shots more of a cinematic thing. You know, in terms of like, that's, that's language that you would hear with production of a movie, but at the same time, like you could use that token inside of Midjourney to pretty much indicate, hey, you're looking for something that's going to tell a story from an entire scene.

36:00Lens Logic: From Wide Angles to Telephoto Tricks

Play from 36:30 88:88 36:30 Right? So have you noticed anything specific that you've carried over just by using tools like runway, for example? I mean, the good thing is there's like cross pollination, right? Like if you've gone down the rabbit hole with a lot of the Midjourney tokens, trying to get different images that you want, you're going to be just fine in runway. You just have to understand with runway, you're working in three dimensional space. So, you know, like when you say like arcing shot or tilting shot or things like that, you know, the camera's going to move.

Play from 36:57 88:88 36:57 So you've got to kind of Got to understand that you can't put a tilting upward shot and have a guy as a high angle, right? Because like if I'm saying that correctly and not screwing this up you know, cause if you want a high angle shot with a tilt, if it's going to tilt up, you know, and you want to still have the character and focus, it's not going to work. You're working within the space that's provided in the image, right? So it's, it's definitely interesting. the crazy stuff you can do, but I think, you know, the Midjourney background, I mean, look, I utilize the same stuff, the same prompt formulas, basically that I'm utilizing in my own head.

Play from 37:28 88:88 37:28 So I think it's all useful because if you haven't tested out cinematic stuff in Midjourney, highly. Recommend that different cinematic cameras. I think that's another one. You know, there's, that's a, that's a debate we could probably also have. I mean, I think it used to make a bigger difference. I'll shut up after I get this point. I did too. Yeah, I think so too. Yeah, no, I'm with you. There was, I mean, there's cameras, right? Everyone was like, cameras don't do anything. I was like, they kind of do do stuff. Cause if you look at the difference between an iPhone camera, if you prompted that and a, you know, Polaroid, it's going to be totally different visual signature.

Play from 37:59 88:88 37:59 So some of these cameras have a very unique signature and they produce a very unique look. And a lot of the times that comes through, you know, if you use a GoPro, it's going to give you a fish angle, sort of super wide lens. I mean, so that's, that's, you know, cameras do work to me. That's, that's a, a part that if you looking for something that you want consistently and have, you know, an idea in mind of how we want it to look.

Play from 38:25 88:88 38:25 If you find a camera that works for you, just keep pumping it. You know, I like to use my Leica M10 just always seems to be the one that I like in terms of the style that it outputs, but that might be. Maybe it has no effect, but I think it's like a little, it's like a little security blankie, you know, it makes you feel comfy when you use it. It's also easy. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. You make a really good point. There are, it does have information on cameras.

Play from 38:53 88:88 38:53 I, if I were to speculate what happens with that, I think some of those unique things like iPhones, GoPros. You know, it's just easier to establish how different those look and they there's probably an easier way to feed the machine and the learning data with those images versus like these film images where it can kind of get there But it's not super consistent and then it kind of blurs the line of oh This one kind of looks like this one a little you know, like because I really think about The training data, how would it know all those different films unless it's in some sort of metadata or it's listed in some sort of meta description or something in the back end and how much of that is actually outlined.

Play from 39:33 88:88 39:33 When you get into film cameras, I just don't know if it's too much. And so, you know, maybe that lack or shallowness of the information that's available makes that inconsistent versus something like a GoPro, where I would imagine it's very easy to collect, the context of this is a GoPro image, you know, so, so I don't know, that's just speculation, but I, I'm guessing that's what it is, you know, because you just got to think about, Hey, how many images has Midjourney bid fed from like a Kodak gold 100, you know, like, I don't know.

40:00Camera Types and Their Unique Signatures

Play from 40:03 88:88 40:03 It's probably not as much as iPhone 15, you know, like it's just not. What's weird is that some of them really work though. So there is, there definitely is data. Like if you use like a Lomo red scale, like it works, it comes out just how it is. There's like a few that really, there must just be like, they must've made it a point because it's too much of a coincidence because I've tested like, I don't know, hundreds of them. Some of them do absolutely nothing, but the black and white ones, they certainly turn out black and white, which I think is the biggest indicator, right?

Play from 40:31 88:88 40:31 Like if I was prompting for a black and white or just without saying black and white. Yep. Yeah. And it comes out and I'm like, okay, so then there had to be some data on it, but for sure that's a great there's some really, you know, there's also like if you go and look on the photography side of things, right to like get some interesting pop, there's like effects and like stupid things that you can do, like things that maybe aren't perfect. Right, like over, like overexposed, underexposed, things like that you know, light leaks, dust, all, if you look up these sort of things where, you know, there's beauty and imperfection, they come out really cool you know, there's a lot of, I'm sure you have a lot of them, or you've probably taken some pictures before that you weren't intending that actually came out really cool.

Play from 41:11 88:88 41:11 Legit, you know, like there's some, there's sometimes you get thrown a bone with that stuff. Yeah. Lens flares like those. Yeah. Like some of those artistic elements like that's, that's another thing worth running through. Maybe ChatGPT or an LLM and just, just seeing what kind of things exist, right? Because there are so many fun ways to create photo realism elements to just with the camera tricks, like multi exposures, one that I've used a lot that I love. It's just so cool. You know, obviously a lot of people are familiar with things like double exposure.

Play from 41:38 88:88 41:38 You mentioned, you know, light leaks, you know, all that stuff is really neat. Again, creates a unique image. I think, you know, really the key about, about this episode specifically is that we're telling you. All the different things that are going to separate just a meh average image from a great one, right? Like you need to put some thought and attention to detail into it, especially if you've got something specific in mind. Otherwise, again, you're just leaving it up to chance. Yeah, I think it's good to know, right?

Play from 42:04 88:88 42:04 If we're going down this, this rabbit hole, right? Like there's some of the things. You've obviously taken from the photo side. I've taken more from the graphic side internally. Like a lot of my stuff comes from Photoshop knowledge, right? So I, I do a lot of things that, from the editing bag, you know, if you're anyone's ever opened up Photoshop or been in the camera, raw settings, like you can toggle all of those essentially within Midjourney. So you want up the saturation. You want to change a hue color, you want to go and, you know, dial up the clarity or desaturate something, you know, you have that capability.

Play from 42:34 88:88 42:34 If you type desaturated image into Midjourney, you're going to have a desaturated image. If you type high saturation, you know, you're going to get that. If you want to type HDR toning. Into it. You're going to get like that super, like how GoPro used to look when everyone used to edit their pictures on, on Instagram, it was like this super suit. Everyone was like, you know, neon orange tan and like, and had like this crazy, you know, the sky was like, so blue was almost like electric, like that's HDR toning. So there's all these little things that you can do within.

Play from 43:00 88:88 43:00 Photoshop that translate also into another good one. I ran this one. I did a piece of content so long ago was I just use the Instagram filter names as, as tokens. And like it came out exactly the same. So yeah. Yeah. Which I Instagram pretty good. Like, see, it's like, if you're looking for those like actual real, real, this looks like it was shot on a phone type thing. Selfie is good for that. Instagram is good for that. Snapchat, like including those in the, in the prompt typically give you like those super, super real results.

Play from 43:30 88:88 43:30 Yeah, amateur photography is a good token too, because it like intentionally messes some things up, which I like. So it's interesting, you know, it'll get light. Well, that's where weird comes into, but also, you know, amateur photography. That's another good thing to talk about. Do you use, do you use basically like a photo style in, in your prompts, majority of the time, like portrait photography, editorial photography, you know, studio photography. Do you use that in basically all of them?

Play from 43:57 88:88 43:57 Almost every time. Yeah. Almost every time. Like if, if I'm not prompting realism, probably not that important, but yeah, I, if, if I'm doing realism, absolutely. A hundred percent. Like I would say close to a hundred percent of the time, just some indication, you know, so it's more of a cinematic look, cinematic, still movie, still something like that. If it's something like portrait photography, I might, think about, I guess, the umbrella underneath portrait photography to like, is this fashion?

44:00Photoshop to Prompts: Translating Editing Skills

Play from 44:23 88:88 44:23 Is this editorial? Is this magazine? Like just some of those other, Subcategories, I would say. But I always try to indicate that and I've seen really good success with Midjourney, sort of taking those cues extremely well to produce the realism, the quality that you're looking for. Right. Because a lot of people have trouble with. The quality still which still is kind of baffling to me But I I think like some of these things that we're talking about if you include a camera angle You're saying photography somewhere in there.

Play from 44:48 88:88 44:48 You're maybe even indicating what type of photography You're probably gonna get pretty good results. Like it's not that complicated. It's not as complicated as it used to be I'll tell you that no used to be way harder, but there was you know, I do like the And sometimes you need a different look, right? Like documentary photography works really well. Yeah, for me. Perfect. Because I like, yeah, that's good. One a little bit, little bit less of if like, that was when I found that if you don't want someone to be looking directly at the camera, most of the time documentary photography is, you know, or jour journalism, photo street, you know, or photo journals.

Play from 45:19 88:88 45:19 Terrific point. Things like that. Terrific point. Yeah. So that was a way to get around like people just looking directly at the camera, make it more candid. 'cause candid works, sometimes it doesn't work all the time. But that one was. The documentary, photojournalism, you know, like, street style, things like that, those were all unlocks when it came out to being like, Okay, I don't have to, this doesn't have to be There's a portrait of everyone. You know, cause I, you get tired of that. You get tired of everyone looking at the camera.

Play from 45:45 88:88 45:45 You want to like tell a story. Everyone's not looking at the camera. Like no one looks at the camera, actually, when you're telling a story. For cinema. I mean, unless you break the third wall, or whatever the hell it's called. That's true, dude. That's so true. Unless it's portrait photography. Right, like that's, that's the idea, but there's, so that's, that to me is like, I never used to use that and now I use it all the time because it's like a blanket category to me that like sets it in the, in that mode.

Play from 46:14 88:88 46:14 It's like, it's like flicking off like a mode. On, on Midjourney, then you can go and like dial back on certain elements or dial up on certain elements. I got an idea for the end of this episode, as we wrap up here, let's talk about one thing specific, like troubleshooting your prompt. You're not getting what you want to get. So maybe I put a camera angle, but it's not giving me the camera angle or you've got lighting. It's not giving you the lighting you want or your subject.

Play from 46:39 88:88 46:39 You know, you want a white guy in his thirties and you're just getting I don't know, not a white guy in his thirties. Like, what do you do in situations like that how do you think about working around that? Because I think a lot of people probably struggle with that as well. Yeah, there's a lot of, I mean, there's a lot of ways to go with that, right? Like, most of the time when I'm looking at the prompt, that itself, Is that the issue? You know, sometimes it's just too hard for majority to comprehend, especially if you have too much complex stuff going on. If it should be relatively easy, then there's something off.

Play from 47:06 88:88 47:06 Like maybe something doesn't counterbalance, right? if you want a low angle shot, but you want like a certain type of shoe. So really you can't get that unless you're shooting from underneath, like underneath someone like under, they'd have to be above you and you'd have to look up at them. Right? So sometimes things like that don't make sense, but we all do it. I mean, I do that stuff all the time, you know, where I'm like, I'm trying to get like blue and green colors. And I type black and white in there.

Play from 47:32 88:88 47:32 It's like, well, why didn't it get better? Blue and green. Oh, because I black and white, or I use a black and white film stock, right? So sometimes you're just confusing the program with things, but that's where the knowledge comes in of understanding these certain things. So again, you could want like these two counterbalancing items that don't make sense with each other. So that's one thing. But also you can save a lot of stuff with image reference and style reference. You know, especially if you want to go on, you know, the type of pose or the type of visual aesthetic, those two help a lot and they can be like a crutch.

48:00Troubleshooting Techniques for Stubborn Prompts

Play from 48:05 88:88 48:05 But a lot of times you can do text, you know, text prompting. It's just either you just didn't give it enough direction. Same thing with like ChatGPT. If you got crappy stuff, a lot of times it just needs to be directed more granular. So do I like to look at it? Do I like to break that stuff out? You know, subject. Position, foreground, midground, background, lighting, you know, because you can do lighting can be broken down into how many different categories, time of day, quality, direction, you can, you can control all of that.

Play from 48:32 88:88 48:32 But again, also, that's another thing. If you're saying, you know, midday sun. And you have like lighting coming in from underneath, like that doesn't make sense because you have light sun coming from the top and like light coming from the bottom, but it doesn't, unless it's reflected off of something that, that counterpoint thing, I think is, is a big one. Because I would, I would say that would probably get pretty over, you know, easily overlooked. I'm sure I've done that before too. Like, that is a really, really good point.

Play from 48:57 88:88 48:57 I didn't even think about that, you know, for, for the other ones, I would say. You know, if I've had trouble too, sometimes I'll repeat a keyword. You can do that, right? Like your, your prop doesn't necessarily need to be. Something that's publicly adorned. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, that's a good point. So, so like if I've, if I'm not getting what, like, sometimes I've seen success just repeating it. Right. Like, and so, I mess with the hierarchy, right.

Play from 49:23 88:88 49:23 Is it, is it in front enough? Because, I still think to some degree. You know, hierarchy plays a role in the prompt, you know, maybe not as much as it used to, but you know, they used to show all those, you know, components when you had discord with shorten, you know, like how much the token weights were, and if you messed with the hierarchy that could affect that, you know, quite drastically. So if you've got something that's very important, move it to the front. So hierarchy be repeated and you brought up image, you know, image reference and image weight.

Play from 49:52 88:88 49:52 I think that's worth becoming a master at. And what I mean by that is. I feel like I'm at this point. So I know you're at this point too, where I know how much basically I need to image weight something to get exactly what I want without overdoing it. You know, like there's, I have a generally good idea. And so what I mean by that is with image weight, You know, you're, you're between zero and three, you've got all these stops that exist within that with the decimal points.

Play from 50:17 88:88 50:17 And so we were just talking about, I think this was on the last episode. We were just talking about, Hey, sometimes an image weight of one now is a little too strong. So you have to dial it back. But if I know I don't want the colors to roll over and I just kind of want to give some information in Midjourney about a pose or a, or a subject, something like that, like I'm probably dialing that down to I don't know, like a 0. 4 to a 0. 6, you know, because it'll carry enough of that weight over without taking too much of the image.

Play from 50:45 88:88 50:45 And so like image weighting is a great thing to become a master at because it adds so much, troubleshooting capability to your workflow. 150. percent. I still feel like image weight gets, or just image referencing in general, gets slept on so much, all the time, all the time, because that's the, that's the other thing, right? when I think about things, I think about them in layers, right? It's just how my brain is wired from working in Photoshop. But like, I remember trying to come up with how to get like this really intricately painted face.

Play from 51:15 88:88 51:15 Like I wanted to put like a really robust pattern on someone's face. I wanted to be painted on there, but I didn't want it to be, I wanted to look like super clean right now. If I want to do that Midjourney to prompt that is really hard. So you can do it. It used to be, you know, a lot harder, but it always comes out like a certain way. If I was going to do that in Photoshop, I would essentially take, you know, the base image of the person I was trying to put it on there. I would then take another layer, which is the actual pattern, and then I would blend those two together, whether that's through a number of different functions.

Play from 51:45 88:88 51:45 But, that was the idea, so when I do it in Midjourney, same theory. I'll create the pattern separately and the person separately, and then, you know, basically layer them together with an image reference. So you can also take that even further. And let's just say I wanted, you know, like this houndstooth pattern, like face paint on someone. But then I also want it to be like a cellophane type of glow or shine. I can then generate a cellophane texture, but those two things as image references, then blend them together with the face is really like.

52:00Advanced Moves: Layering and Image Weighting Mastery

Play from 52:17 88:88 52:17 Interesting composition of pattern, reflective shininess, face, everything. So you can do that all with image weight, then, you know, it's not as easy with style reference because it doesn't work the same way. So it's, you know, going back to that stuff. Thinking layers, you can solve so much more than I think a lot of people think in Midjourney. Like there are just a few use cases right now that. Are, are tough, but besides that, there are workarounds, there's always been workarounds, right?

Play from 52:44 88:88 52:44 Like even with the consistent character, you know, you and I had talked about like, how do you sort of loop around that? Like there was a way to do it. It wasn't great, but you could do it. Right. And like, same with the consistent character, like guys, if you have not seen this, Rory did this just incredible. Walkthrough on consistent character where he did two people and and like Midjourney is not made to do that right now at all Right, so to be able to come up with a workaround for that and then sort of showcase that like that's a possibility There are ways to do it all you just have to know how to get there And so like the only way to really I guess put these things into practice is to try all of them You have to try things to know how to unlock them, right?

Play from 53:26 88:88 53:26 Like Rory will still tell me about some things that I haven't tried before. And I'm like, okay, like I need to play with that. Like, I just don't know. I've never tried that enough to really know how to master that and use it effectively. it's just another key thing that I think comes up quite a bit is like people aren't thinking deep enough about how they could solve the problems within Midjourney where maybe you and I have been forced to kind of do some of those things in some ways too, but we put two character references in as if I was going to go about this and do this, you know, talking through it, I would want to generate one character and then generate a second character separately.

Play from 54:00 88:88 54:00 So you're creating two different characters that you can then reference in one image. Then When I would prompt, right, like I learned this the hard way that it just doesn't work unless you actually separate, like define man on left with whatever description you put, you know, for that character, woman on right with whatever description you put on there. And then oftentimes you do all that and then they blend the faces together. So you know, that's, I'm like, Oh damn it. But really because we have repaint now, right, like the best way to do that when you repaint, this is like the small finer details.

Play from 54:31 88:88 54:31 This is the nerd stuff. When you repaint. Basically it brings up the same prompt. So what do you, like what affects that image, right? Would be like, let's say we're editing the face of the woman in that same prompt. You want to get rid of the man's face. Cause you don't want that to influence it. So you take that image reference out of the prompt. Then you also take anything about the man out of the prompt. So it's just about the woman, just so it can focus its attention on what exactly you're trying to get out of that repaint.

Play from 54:57 88:88 54:57 Enter. And most of the time it works right away. So, something like that works with avatars too, if you're trying to do that for yourself. Like when you're trying to create an avatar using an image reference. Right. And it's like, bang, this doesn't look like me. Okay, cool. Let me just repaint my face. You don't have to do a little hot tip on this one. Don't put a square around the whole head, paint the face itself. So just like the face itself and then repaint it that way. It'll come out way better.

55:00Closing Thoughts: The Road Ahead

Play from 55:23 88:88 55:23 Cause sometimes you put the square and the head turns out like, you know, like radiation or something like it just like expanded like six sizes. So that was that was really cool. really detailed without showing someone how to do it. And I know that probably makes sense to just about no one, but we ripped through a ton in this one. That was a lot on that last half. So we just brain dumped like six months worth of stuff there, but that was good, man. That that's gonna wrap it up today, but Drew, you got anything else?

Play from 55:51 88:88 55:51 I think we, I think we left the people enough to chew on for today. I'm feeling pretty good about that. Pretty solid. But yeah, man, let's let's circle the wagons. Let's get back and get ready for 6. 5. I know it's coming. Maybe, maybe we'll have it. Maybe we'll have it by the next episode. That's gonna be like an emergency podcast. We're gonna have to do, like, live, maybe. Ooh, I like that. Stay tuned for that.