Photorealistic Midjourney prompts

Creating photorealistic images is about making images that look like real photos. AI tools like Midjourney make it easier for artists, designers, and hobbyists to create high-quality, lifelike images.

This article explains how to use Midjourney AI to create realistic images. It covers useful parameters and examples of prompts.

What is a photorealistic image?

A photorealistic image is a digital image that looks like a real photo. It is made using special computer graphics techniques to make things look real.

Key concepts are:

• High level of detail.
• Accurate lighting, realistic shadows, highlights, and reflections based on natural light behavior.
• Proper scaling and viewpoint to ensure objects appear in realistic sizes and angles.
• True-to-life colors that match real environments.
• Textures that look and feel like real materials (e.g., wood grain, skin texture).
• Accurate representation of different materials' physical properties (e.g., transparency, glossiness).
• Depth of Field: use of focus and blur to replicate how cameras capture scenes, enhancing the sense of depth.
• Backgrounds and settings that provide context and enhance realism.
• Blurring effects that simulate the natural motion of moving objects.
• Slightly soft edges to objects, avoiding overly sharp and unrealistic contours.
• Noise or grain to simulate photographic film or digital sensor characteristics.
• Accurate depiction of human and animal features, including anatomy, expressions, and movements.

Keywords

For beginners it could be difficult or even repellent to try to remember all prompt parameters.

The beauty of Midjourney is that it will understand you if you explain what you want.

In a nutshell: just add some key phrases and words to your prompt, for example:

• photorealistic
• photolike
• photostock style
• photography
• photo quality
• photographic clarity
• photo-accurate
• detailed
• high detail
• ultra detail
• detailed landscape
• realistic detail
• fine details
• real lighting
• natural light
• true lighting
• cinematic
• high-fidelity
• crisp
• lifelike
• realistic portrait
• hyper-realistic
• super realistic
• true-to-life
• high resolution
• 4K quality
• sharp focus
• fine textures
• accurate colors
• vivid colors
• realistic shadows
• realistic reflections
• perfectly lit
• natural environment
• macro photography
• depth of field
• bokeh effect
• realism
• real-world scene
• natural appearance
• unretouched
• realistic textures
• authentic look
• realistic proportions
• realistic materials
• high dynamic range
• studio quality
• natural shadows
• vivid realism
• real-life depiction
• natural skin tones
• high contrast
• realistic composition
• realistic rendering
• realistic lighting effects

You can also use some brand names, lens description and other technical parameters, such as:

• Canon photography
• Canon EOS R5 camera
• Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L III USM lens
• Nikon 750D
• Kodak Ektar 100
• Kodak color
• Sony Alpha 7 IV Mirrorless Camera
• Leica M6
• 100mm lens
• F 1.2 aperture setting
• f/2 lens
• 12 mm lens
• ISO 100
• shutter speed of 1/30
• Godox AD200Pro flash
• Sigma Art 35mm f/1.4 lens
• Fujifilm GFX 100S
• Zeiss Otus 55mm f/1.4 lens
• Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III
• Pentax K-1 Mark II
• Hasselblad X1D II 50C
• Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8 lens
• Panasonic Lumix GH5
• Phase One XF IQ4 150MP Camera System
• Samyang 14mm f/2.8 lens
• Rokinon 85mm f/1.4 lens
• Canon Speedlite 600EX II-RT flash
• Nikon SB-5000 Speedlight
• Profoto B10 flash
• Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM lens
• Fuji X-T4
• DJI Ronin-S gimbal
• Manfrotto MT055XPRO3 tripod
• Gitzo GT5563GS tripod
• Peak Design Capture Clip
• Lowepro ProTactic 450 AW II backpack
• B+W 82mm UV Haze MRC 010M filter
• Lee Filters SW150 Mark II filter system

But don't just add every listed keyword yo your prompt. Think of the style, concept and idea of the image. More words doesn't mean better result.

Concept

Next step is to have a clear idea of what you want to create.

Midjourney is smart enough to understand human-like image descriptions, so if you will write a detailed enough prompt it will likely produce what you want.

But there are some possible enhancements, such as use of parameters, which will give you more control over the image generation.

Useful parameters list

Midjourney lets users change how images are made by use of parameters. These changes affect things like quality, size, style, and more. Using these changes well can make images better and better fit you expectations.

Here are some key parameters from the official documentation, with a focus on the latest version of the model:

--v

Specifies the version of the model.

Example: --v 6

--aspect / --ar

Aspect ratio, adjusts the width-to-height ratio of the image. 

Examples: --aspect 16:9 or --ar 16:9 for a widescreen image.

--quality / --q

Determines the rendering quality. Higher values result in better quality but longer processing times.

The default value is 1.

Examples: --quality <.25, .5, or 1> or --q <.25, .5, or 1>

--stylize

Parameter influences how strongly Midjourney's default aesthetic style is applied.

Examples: --stylize 50 or --stylize 750

--no

The No parameter tells the Midjourney Bot what not to include in your image. Accepts multiple words separated with commas.

Example: --no fruit or --no item1, item2, item3, item4

Research and learn

Use Discord search in order to find prompts, which other people have used to create realistic images. Just print keywords from this article (above) to get the results.

Examples

a teacher in modern class room at school looks directly, photolike, bright day light, class room as background, photography, photostock style --v 6.0 --s 750 --ar 3:2

a woman wearing t-shirt and jeans standing on a high dive springboard in an aquatic, realistic, canon photography --v 6.0 --s 250

Aerial view of a corporate people walking. Ultra realistic image. --ar 16:9

Long shot of a 70 year old Japanese man with glasses repairing flowers in the small garden of an American country house in the 1990's --v 6.0 --ar 16:9 --s 250

a beautiful blond woman of 35 yo is packing her holiday bag, elegant and clean, she is smiling, soft light colors, Nikon 750D, interior design, sea on the background, --ar 16:9

A joyful girl holds her portrait in her hands, which depicts her, a portrait in colors, bright light, nature --s 250 --v 6.0

An Italian backyard with table and chair and a plate and coffee. The ambiance is cool surrounded by pine trees. The ambiance is cool, has a coublestone. Shot from a low angle to capture the relaxed yet modern countryside setting. Use a Canon EOS R5 camera with a 100mm lens at F 1.2 aperture setting and ultra-detailed lighting

a still frontal still photography of a tired norwegian family walking up a hillside on a hiking trip in the norwegian mountain landscape looking into the camera, realistic, film grain, photography, bright, vivid, summer --v 6.0 --ar 103:45

Asian, 50 years old luxury woman Set poses for a photo Surrounded by family members, all smile, son, daughter-in-law, teenage grandson and granddaughter, off white minimal home, thailand 1975, photo realistic, cinematic, movie still, Sony Alpha A7 III --ar 16:9 --v 6.0