Introduction
In this article we’ll go over some background on Midjourney as well as best practices on the platform. If you’d like to skip straight to the tutorial click here.
If you just want to see the tools here is a video.
Let’s break down how to create AI blog images with Midjourney.
Why would someone use AI to create Blog Images?
- Speed
- Images appear in 30 seconds. Don’t waste hours searching for the perfect stock photo.
- Cost-Effective
- Stock photos and designers can can add up. It’s unlikely you’ll need more images than Midjourney’s $10/month plan.
- Unique
- Original images not available through traditional stock photo sites.
- Image Sizing
- Perfect size and resolution for your desired platform.
- Cohesive Imagery
- Create a consistent look and feel for your site with AI blog images from Midjourney.
Getting Started
Head on over to https://midjourney.com/home/ and click “Join the Beta”. Midjourney uses Discord to interact with it’s customers and Discord is where you will create and receive your AI blog images in Midjourney. If you don’t have a Discord account, sign up for one first (free).
Midjourney allows users to create 25 free images. From there you have two options: a $10/month plan or a $30/month plan.
Keep reading about settings or just start creating. Here is Midjourney’s Quick Start Guide.
Midjourney Settings Explained
What each /settings button means
Older versions of the Midjourney algorithm:
- MJ version 1 sets the
--v 1suffix - MJ version 2 sets the
--v 2suffix - MJ version 3 doesn’t set any suffix: this is the default value and the current version of our tool
How much stylistic control you want to hand over to Midjourney:
- Style low sets the
--s 1250suffix. If you want even less, set--s 625with/prefer suffixinstead - Style med doesn’t set any suffix: this is the default value
- Style high sets the
--s 5000suffix - Style very high sets the
--s 20000suffix. If you want even more, set--s 60000with/prefer suffixinstead
How much more or less detailed and expensive you want your jobs to be:
- Half quality sets the
--q 0.5suffix. This is less detailed 1/2 as expensive - Base quality doesn’t set any suffix: this is the default value
- High quality sets the
--q 2suffix. This is more detailed and 2x as expensive
Switching between /fast and /relax mode (more info):
- Fast mode is equivalent to using the
/fastcommand - Relax mode is equivalent to using the
/relaxcommand
Upscaling images with or without added detail:
- Regular upscale doesn’t set any suffix: this is the default value
- Light upscale sets the
--uplightsuffix. This causes the U buttons to upscale your image while keeping the original detail mostly intact
Switching between /public and /private mode (more info):
- Public mode is equivalent to using the
/prubliccommand - Private mode is equivalent to using the
/privatecommand
Source: https://midjourney.gitbook.io/docs/user-manual
MJ Version 4
The most recent release from Midjourney and the version we are going to use for this tutorial. Notice how Midjourney’s user-manual fails to mention anything about MJ Version 4? Odd, Right?
To access MJ Version 4 settings message /settings in the Midjourney Discord Server and select “MJ version 4” in the upper right quadrant of the return message. Done.
Features:
- Aspect Ratio of 1:1, 2:3, or 3:2 only
- Improved detail and photo quality realsim
- Insanely life like faces (an issue for other AI models)
- Chaos Prompt (generate randomness to images) –chaos <number between 1-100>
Midjourney Prompts
Check out PromptHero (listed below) for prompt guides with imagery. Here is a great Reddit Post on how to think and operate when using Midjourney.
Start off easy. Creating AI images is a lot like art, you never really know what you are going to get.
Try different words and desired effects for a while. When you’re done playing around, log into Midjourney’s website on your browser. Then search for keywords in the Community Feed and see what is hot, new, or rated as the best work on the platform. Midjourney provides the prompts used for these images so it easy to take what you like.
Let’s redo the top 4 images in the community feed and simply replace the focal character with the word “grandpa”.
Pretty impressive how quickly you can make stunning photos on this platform. And all we did was change one word. Alright, I think you are ready for the tutorial. Here it is 👇.
Tutorial & Tools to Create AI Blog Images with Midjourney:
PromptHero
Start searching for prompts or read their guides for inspiration. PromptHero is the best resource hub for creative prompt design. 25 free credits then $9 bucks a month if you decide to go pro. Requires you to sign up to start.
Lexica.Art
Search for AI text to image prompts. Straight to the point, 100% free, and doesn’t require you to sign up.
Clip Interrogator
Reverse engineer your favorite AI generated image prompts. 100% free and no login required. Thanks Hugging Face! Let’s dig into this one a little more.
The picture in the Clip Interrogator screen shot above is from my blog post Monetizing 1.5 Billion Twitter Handles.
“greedy nerds trying to capture the blue twitter bird under golden gate bridge”
☝️ Midjourney prompt used for the original image
Let’s input the what Clip Interrogator thinks the prompt is, “three blue birds sitting next to each other in front of a bridge, a stock photo, by Chris LaBrooy, featured on dribble, he is holding a smartphone, in – game footage, a huge radar, golden hour photograph, frustration, crt screen, in group photograph, scattered islands, advertising photograph, photograph of san francisco, twitter, toy photo, new pokemon”.
Below are the results. They are surprisingly close to the original image with their own uniques twists. Nice!
Magic Eraser
Now, say we get the almost perfect image but there is something(s) we’d like to remove. Magic Eraser is free with a paid plan. After a few downloads, your image quality will be reduced. No login necessary for the free version.
Remove.BG
Let’s just get rid of the background entirely. Remove.BG is 100% free.
RunwayML Stable Diffusion Inpainting
Don’t have photoshop? Like to add something to the picture? Runway ML allows stable diffusion inpainting. 100% free. Check it out.
Photopea
It’s almost identical to Photoshop. It’s 100% free and works entirely in your browser. There are tons of photoshop / photopea tutorials online. Google is your friend.
Let’s add the three birds with the background removed to the phone in the original bird picture. Simply drag both pictures into your browser, and resize the birds with the background removed. Easy!
Add some text and a Twitter Icon and we have our final product:
Birme
“Bulk Image Resizing Made Easy”. Birme resizes your images to any specific dimensions and crops them proportionately. 100% free and no login required.
Conclusion
Stop going down the stock photo rabbit hole. Feel like an artist and give yourself some much needed time back in your day. Midjourney is a great resource for easily spinning up AI images for your blog.
Alright, that’s a wrap. Let me know what you think of this article. Feel free to email / Twitter DM me anything you made after reading. And if you want more tutorials you can sign up for my newsletter!
