MidJourney Prompts For Ultra-Realistic Images

Matt Wolfe
28 Feb 202312:26

TLDRThis video explains how to create ultra-realistic images using MidJourney, inspired by a Reddit user's technique. The host experiments with various prompts, adjusting elements like camera settings, lighting, and lens effects to achieve photorealistic results. Techniques such as using a 35mm lens and F 1.8 aperture help generate a shallow depth of field, while prompts like 'Polaroid' add a nostalgic effect. The video explores the use of National Geographic-style photography and emphasizes how small adjustments in prompts can lead to highly realistic AI-generated images.

Takeaways

  • 📸 MidJourney can generate ultra-realistic images, as highlighted by a Reddit thread that inspired this video.
  • 🖼️ By using detailed prompts, users can create images that resemble real-life photographs, especially with specific camera-related details.
  • 💡 The Reddit user 'Archie 7' shared a prompt for creating a photorealistic image of an Indian village woman, which became the basis for experimentation.
  • 🔍 Removing unnecessary keywords in the prompts still produced realistic results, showing that simplified prompts can work just as effectively.
  • 📷 Using terms like '35mm lens,' 'F1.8,' 'accent lighting,' and 'global illumination' adds camera effects that enhance image realism.
  • 🎨 Adding 'Polaroid' to prompts creates images that look like traditional Polaroid photographs, complete with a vintage feel.
  • 🏞️ Camera and lens specifications in prompts help achieve realistic landscape photos, which could be mistaken for real travel pictures.
  • 🦁 Using 'National Geographic' in prompts alongside animal, shot direction, and time of day generates stunning, realistic wildlife photography.
  • 🐧 Experimenting with different animals, shot angles, and lighting conditions can produce varied results, all with high levels of realism.
  • 🤖 Combining people, specific times of day, and realistic settings can still produce photorealistic images, though human faces may sometimes appear less realistic.

Q & A

  • What inspired the creation of ultra-realistic images in MidJourney?

    -The video was inspired by a Reddit thread where a user, Archie 7, shared a prompt that resulted in highly realistic images, which looked like real photographs.

  • What is the key feature of the prompt used to create ultra-realistic images?

    -The prompt includes details such as 'portrait of an Indian village woman in forest in Himachal Pradesh,' 'clear facial features,' 'cinematic 35mm lens,' 'F 1.8,' 'accent lighting,' 'global illumination,' and certain upscaling options.

  • How does the 35mm lens and F 1.8 settings contribute to the realism of the images?

    -The 35mm lens gives a wider angle, simulating the effect of being close to the subject, while the F 1.8 setting creates a shallow depth of field, where the subject is in focus and the background is blurred, adding to the realistic feel.

  • What adjustments can be made to the prompt to create different effects?

    -Users can adjust the subject of the prompt (e.g., a young American boy instead of an Indian woman), change lens settings, or add lighting effects to customize the realism of the image.

  • How does adding the word 'Polaroid' in the prompt change the image outcome?

    -Adding 'Polaroid' to the prompt makes the generated images resemble traditional Polaroid photos, giving them an ultra-realistic vintage look, with characteristics like aged effects.

  • What role does lighting play in making images realistic in MidJourney?

    -Lighting effects like 'accent lighting' and 'global illumination' help to simulate real-world shadows and highlights, adding depth and enhancing realism in facial features and overall image composition.

  • What effect did the 'National Geographic' prompt have on the generated images?

    -Using the 'National Geographic' prompt helped create ultra-realistic animal images, mimicking professional photography with realistic lighting and perspective.

  • What is a useful technique for improving realism in landscape photography using MidJourney?

    -By incorporating camera details like '35mm lens,' 'F-22,' and 'wide-angle lens,' along with aspect ratio adjustments (16:9), users can create highly realistic landscape images that could pass as real photographs.

  • How can time of day and shot direction affect the realism of an image?

    -By specifying time of day (e.g., 'golden hour') and shot direction (e.g., 'from below, side view'), users can create natural lighting effects, shadows, and perspectives that mimic real-world photography.

  • What additional tools or resources does the video creator suggest exploring for AI-generated images?

    -The creator recommends checking out resources like Archie 7’s Reddit thread, Linus’s National Geographic prompts, and the Maximize YouTube channel for tips on generating realistic images. Additionally, they suggest exploring futuretools.io for curated AI tools.

Outlines

00:00

📸 Exploring Ultra-Realistic Images in MidJourney

In this segment, the speaker introduces the concept of creating ultra-realistic images using MidJourney, inspired by a Reddit thread. The speaker showcases examples of realistic images generated in MidJourney, expressing amazement at their photorealism. The video promises to explore similar results by experimenting with the same prompts used by a Reddit user named Archie 7. The speaker walks through the process of joining MidJourney via Discord, highlighting the 25 free images users can generate before upgrading to a paid plan.

05:01

🔍 Breaking Down the MidJourney Prompts

The speaker dissects the MidJourney prompt that created the ultra-realistic images, starting with a portrait of an Indian village woman in a forest. They discuss photography elements used in the prompt, such as a 35mm lens and F1.8 aperture, explaining how these settings influence depth of field and lighting in the final image. The speaker tries variations of the prompt, changing the subject to a young American boy leaning against a brick wall. Although the results are slightly less realistic, the speaker highlights how realistic details can still be achieved through careful prompt adjustments.

10:02

🎉 Testing the Polaroid Effect in MidJourney

In this section, the speaker tests a technique from the Maximize YouTube channel, where adding 'Polaroid' to the prompt can simulate the look of a vintage Polaroid photo. They test this with an image of two girls at a birthday party and achieve a realistic, slightly aged Polaroid effect. The speaker further experiments with a 1970s dad leaning against a Corvette, showing how prompt details can evoke a strong sense of time and setting. The speaker reflects on the realism in the generated images and how MidJourney captures a Polaroid-style aesthetic.

🏞️ Enhancing Landscape Photography with Camera Details

Here, the speaker explains how adding specific camera details to MidJourney prompts can enhance landscape photography realism. They generate images of snow-covered mountains using a wide-angle 35mm lens, F22 aperture, and a 16:9 aspect ratio. The speaker marvels at the photo-realism, noting that these landscapes could pass as real travel photography. They then introduce a technique from a friend, Linus, who uses National Geographic-style prompts to create ultra-realistic wildlife photos. The combination of shot direction, lighting, and film type in the prompt leads to professional-looking results.

🦁 Creating National Geographic-Style Animal Photography

The speaker demonstrates Linus's National Geographic prompt technique, applying it to generate stunning wildlife images of lions and other animals. The speaker explains the formula, which includes specifying the animal, shot direction, time of day, and camera details like film type, to achieve a National Geographic-style photo. They further experiment with penguins and hippos, tweaking the prompt to achieve different lighting and perspectives, demonstrating the flexibility of the technique. The results continue to impress with their realistic, professional look.

👦 Blending Techniques for Realistic Human Photography

In the final section, the speaker combines Linus's National Geographic technique with earlier methods to generate realistic human photography. They test this by creating an image of a young boy on a graffiti-covered street corner, incorporating time of day and National Geographic elements. While not all the results are perfect, the speaker is particularly impressed with one of the images, noting the realistic depiction of the boy's back and the detailed background. The speaker concludes by expressing amazement at MidJourney's ability to create photorealistic images and invites viewers to share their successful prompts.

🌟 Final Thoughts and Resources for MidJourney Prompts

The video concludes with the speaker sharing additional resources, including links to Reddit threads and YouTube videos that explore creating realistic images with MidJourney. They encourage viewers to experiment with their own prompts and share them in the comments. The speaker also promotes their AI tools curation website, futuretools.io, where they feature new AI tools daily. They invite viewers to subscribe to a weekly newsletter summarizing the best AI tools and news, rounding off with a reminder to like and subscribe for more content.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡MidJourney

MidJourney is an AI-based image generation tool used to create highly realistic images. In the video, it is discussed as a platform capable of producing photorealistic visuals by inputting specific prompts. The speaker explains how to leverage MidJourney to generate images that resemble real-life photographs.

💡Ultra-realistic images

Ultra-realistic images are AI-generated visuals that closely mimic real-life photographs in detail and quality. The video focuses on how to achieve this effect using MidJourney through careful prompt manipulation, camera settings, and lighting techniques.

💡Prompt

A prompt in AI image generation refers to the textual description or instructions provided to the system (MidJourney in this case) to create specific images. The video demonstrates how prompts, including details like 'portrait of an Indian village woman' or 'young American boy,' can influence the type and quality of the images produced.

💡Cinematic 35mm lens

A 35mm lens is a widely used camera lens known for its versatility and ability to capture natural, lifelike images with a wide-angle view. In the video, this term is used within prompts to generate images that have a cinematic feel, with the subject appearing sharp while the background is out of focus.

💡F 1.8 aperture

F 1.8 refers to a wide aperture setting on a camera that allows more light to hit the sensor, resulting in a shallow depth of field. In the video, this setting helps create images where the subject is in sharp focus while the background is blurred, enhancing the photorealistic quality.

💡Global illumination

Global illumination is a lighting technique used in rendering images to simulate realistic light behavior, such as how light reflects and diffuses across a scene. In the video, it is mentioned as a part of the prompt to add realism to the AI-generated images, making them look more natural and believable.

💡Uplight

Uplight refers to the technique of lighting from below, often used to enhance the subject's features or add drama to the scene. In MidJourney, this can be part of the prompt to guide the AI in how it should apply lighting to the generated image, contributing to its realism.

💡National Geographic photography

National Geographic photography is a style known for its high-quality, realistic portrayal of nature and wildlife. In the video, the speaker shows how including 'National Geographic' in the prompt results in images that resemble professional wildlife photography, enhancing the authenticity of the generated visuals.

💡Shallow depth of field

Shallow depth of field is a photography technique where only a small portion of the image (usually the subject) is in focus, while the background is blurred. This effect is highlighted in the video as a way to make AI-generated images appear more photorealistic, especially when using apertures like F 1.8.

💡Polaroid effect

The Polaroid effect refers to generating images that mimic the look of old Polaroid photographs. The video shows how adding 'Polaroid' to the MidJourney prompt results in images with characteristics such as square dimensions and an aged, nostalgic look, often associated with instant Polaroid photos.

Highlights

The video is about creating ultra-realistic images using MidJourney, inspired by a Reddit thread.

The Reddit user Archie7 shared a prompt for generating realistic images in MidJourney, which led to impressive results.

Archie7 experimented with shorter prompts, achieving similar high-quality results with simpler inputs.

The original prompt described 'a portrait of an Indian village woman in forest in Himachal Pradesh' with detailed camera specifications.

Adding camera details like '35 millimeter lens, F 1.8' and lighting effects like 'accent lighting and global illumination' enhances realism.

Using a shallow depth of field (F 1.8) focuses on the subject while blurring the background, creating a realistic photographic effect.

The speaker shows the results of using a modified prompt with a 'young American boy leaning against a brick wall,' emphasizing prompt flexibility.

Including keywords like 'Polaroid' in prompts can make MidJourney generate images that resemble traditional Polaroid photos.

Combining MidJourney with specific camera settings allows for ultra-realistic landscape photography as well.

Adding 'National Geographic' and specific film types to prompts can result in highly realistic animal photos, resembling those seen in National Geographic.

The method involves using the animal type, shot direction, pose, time of day, and film type for creating National Geographic-style images.

A prompt example for animals: 'lions from below, side view, golden hour, National Geographic, shot on Agfa Vista,' yielding realistic results.

Switching animal types, like penguins or hippos, while keeping the other parameters, also produces highly realistic images.

Mixing techniques, like combining human subjects with the National Geographic prompt style, can yield varied results.

The video encourages viewers to experiment with their own prompts and share successful ones for further exploration.

The speaker references several resources, including the original Reddit thread and a YouTube video for additional MidJourney tips.