Midjourney Parameter Visual Guide

September 9, 2023

Tory Barber

Midjourny parameter guide infograpphic

What are Midjourney Parameters?

Start your journey to becoming a prompting master, and dive deep into the world of parameters.

Midjourney’s parameters are little functions that can be used at the end of your prompt to manipulate the resulting image.

Midjourney Parameters location diagram

You can change your image’s size, ensure there’s variation between images, control the stylization, or even add a bit of a weirdness factor.

Use the menu below to quickly jump to the parameter of your choice, or scroll through the entire guide.

Quick Links

Aspect Ratio

Chaos

Fast

Image Weight

No

Quality

Relax

Repeat

Stop

Style

Niji

Stylize

Tile

Turbo

Weird

Aspect Ratio

–aspect   –ar

Changes the aspect ratio of the generated photos. By default, generated photos have a 1:1 aspect ratio.

According to Midjourney’s documentation, anything over 2:1 is experimental and may produce unpredictable results, but I never ran into any issues with high ratios.

Midjourney prompt aspect ration parameter

–ar <value>:<value>

4:5

hows more of the subject’s body. Has a vertical orientation. Great for socials or posters.

Midjourney grid of portrait of a dragon with a 4:5 ratio

portrait of a cute dragon –ar 4:5

2:3

Shows more of the subject’s body. Has a vertical orientation. Great for socials or posters.

Midjourney grid of portrait of a dragon with a 3:2 ratio

portrait of a cute dragon –ar 2:3

4:7

Shows more of the subject’s body. Has a vertical orientation. Great for socials or posters.

Midjourney grid of portrait of a dragon with a 4:7 ratio

portrait of a cute dragon –ar 4:7

1:1 (default)

Shows just a headshot of the subject. Great for supporting web images.

Midjourney grid of portrait of a dragon with a 1:1 ratio

portrait of a cute dragon –ar 1:1

5:4

Usually puts the subject in an asymmetrical composition where they are on one-third, and the other two-thirds show an interesting background. Great for hero images.

Midjourney grid of portrait of a dragon with a 5:4 ratio

portrait of a cute dragon –ar 5:4

3:2

Shows a more interesting background. Good for hero images.

Midjourney grid of portrait of a dragon with a 3:2 ratio

portrait of a cute dragon –ar 3:2

7:4

Usually puts the subject in an asymmetrical composition where they are on one-third, and the other two-thirds show an interesting background. Great for hero images.

Midjourney grid of portrait of a dragon with a 7:4 ratio

portrait of a cute dragon –ar 7:4

16:9

Usually puts the subject in an asymmetrical composition where they are on one-third, and the other two-thirds show an interesting background. Great for hero images.

Midjourney grid of portrait of a dragon with a 16:9 ratio

portrait of a cute dragon –ar 16:9

Chaos

–chaos

Determines the variation between all your options. Higher values create more unexpected results. Adding the Chaos parameter could make the image ignore style cues in your prompt.

Midjourney chaos prompt parameter example

–chaos <number 0-100>

Low (10)

The prompts is followed much more closely but there isn’t much variation between options. Even the colour palettes are similar.

Midjourney low chaos example

a cute dragon flying through the clouds –chaos 10

Medium (50)

A little closer to the prompt, but still not quite what was asked for. There is definite variation, look at the difference between all those compositionS! However, small things like colours are similar.

Midjourney medium chaos example

a cute dragon flying through the clouds –chaos 50

High (100)

Every one of the options is a COMPLETELY different style and not many of them follow the basics of my prompt. Most of them aren’t even dragons!

Midjourney high chaos example

a cute dragon flying through the clouds –chaos 100

Fast

–fast

This overrides your current settings and runs this prompt on Fast Mode.

Depending on your subscription, you only get a certain amount of Fast Time per month so you’ll likely want to turn it off on default and then turn it on depending on the job.

Midjourney fast prompt parameter example

–fast

Image Weight

–iw

This parameter only matters if you’ve uploaded a reference image.

It designates how important the image is compared to the text prompt.

Higher Values (greater than 1) put more weight on the image, while lower values (lower than 1) put more weight on the text prompt. By default, image weight is set to 1.

Midjourney image weight prompt parameter example

–iw <number 0-2>

Reference Image Used in Examples

I’ve used the following Puss in Boots image for all my examples below. See how the image changes based on the image weight parameter value I give it.

Puss in boots image

0

Pulls Puss in Boot’s coloring and big eyes, but ignores the rest of the photo. Puts more weight on the prompt.

Dragon images made by Midjourney and a puss in boots refference.

https://s.mj.run/KwgvjkQ4Fgs a cute dragon –iw 0

1

Copies much of the image from the coloring of the subject to the similar grassy background, to the striping, to the fact that all of these are cats, not dragons.

Midjourney medium chaos example

https://s.mj.run/KwgvjkQ4Fgs a cute dragon –iw 1

2

I don’t find a ton of differences between 1 and 2 personally, but contact me if you’ve had a different experience.

Midjourney high chaos example

https://s.mj.run/KwgvjkQ4Fgs a cute dragon –iw 2

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No

–no

The no parameter—otherwise referred to as negative prompting—allows you to list things you don’t want in your images.

Simply list each item you’d like excluded from the photos with a space in between them after the –no parameter.

Keep in mind, like everything in AI, the no parameter doesn’t work perfectly yet. See in the examples below how you can use a negative prompt and Midjourney might still add the object.

Midjourney no prompt parameter example

–no <value>

Foreword

For the following examples, I use the same prompt for the before and after photos but add a negative prompt of something that was in the first photo to the second. This will show you how the –no parameter works.

No Horns

Before

portrait of a cute dragon

Midjourney grid of a swimming dragon before

After

portrait of a cute dragon –no horns

Midjourney grid of a swimming dragon before with no horns

No Seaweed, No Bubbles

Like everything with AI, the –no parameter doesn’t work 100% of the time.
See how the –no parameter removed the seaweed but missed the bubbles?

Before

cute dragon swimming

Midjourney grid of a swimming dragon before

After

cute dragon swimming –no seaweed bubbles

Midjourney grid of a swimming dragon before with no seaweed

Quality

–quality     –q

The quality parameter defines the amount of rendering time you’d like to spend on generating an image. The lower the number, the less time is spent.

Pro tip

Stopping the generation earlier won’t make your image too blurry and can allow you to stretch your subscription that much more.

Midjourney quality prompt parameter example

–quality <.25 | .5 | 1>

No Horns

–q .25

Dragon playing in the grass images made by Midjourney.

–q .5

Dragon playing in the grass images made by Midjourney.

–q 1

Dragon playing in the grass images made by Midjourney.

Relax

–relax

This parameter overrides your current setting and runs a single job on Relax Mode.

Midjourney relax prompt parameter example

–relax

Repeat

–repeat     –r

The Repeat parameter creates multiple jobs from one prompt. Meaning, Midjourney will run the same prompt as many times as you designate in the parameter. In the example prompt below, Midjourney will run that prompt 5 times.

Midjourney repeat prompt parameter example

–repeat

Stop

–stop

The stop parameter finishes the image generation at the percentage you set in your prompt. So –stop 80 would stop Midjourney from generating the image when it’s 80% done.

The earlier you stop the generation, the more the image looks like it has a gaussian blur.

Pro tip

Since Midjourney subscriptions are based on GPU time, you can stretch out your subscription time by stopping generations early.

Midjourney repeat prompt parameter example

–stop <0-100>

–stop 10

Midjourney Stop Parameter 10

–stop 20

Midjourney Stop Parameter 20

–stop 30

Midjourney Stop Parameter 30

–stop 40

Midjourney Stop Parameter 40

–stop 50

Midjourney Stop Parameter 50

–stop 60

Midjourney Stop Parameter 60

–stop 70

Midjourney Stop Parameter 70

–stop 80

Midjourney Stop Parameter 80

–stop 90

Midjourney Stop Parameter 90

Style

v5.1 & beyond

–style

The Style parameter overrides Midjourney’s own style default. This parameter is helpful for the more experienced creator as it gives you more freedom to generate your own style through your prompt.

Style only has one option in v5.1 and beyond and that is: raw.

Raw removes all of Midjoury’s own sense of style, all its own experiences, and instead focuses on your own prompt.

This can be tempting to just have on all the time, but the truth is Midjourney’s own sense of style is good! It often generates great pictures! Its gone through millions of images and has learned a TON! So prompter’s choice here!

Midjourney Stylize prompt parameter example

–style raw

Before

v 5.2

Midjourney v5.2 style raw generated Cute dragon jumping in autom leaves.

Midjourney v.2 generated Cute dragon jumping in autom leaves

v 5.1

Cute dragon with less interesting backgrounds and less contrast.

Midjourney v5.1 generated Cute dragon jumping in autom leaves

After

v 5.2

Cut simple character drawings. Less detail, and focusing on the basics.

Midjourney v5.2 style raw generated Cute dragon jumping in autom leaves

v 5.1

Even Simplier than 5.2 raw, and one photo-realistic dragon that may haunt my dreams 😬

Midjourney v5.1 style raw generated Cute dragon jumping in autom leaves

Style & Niji

v5 & beyond

–style     –niji

Niji mode is a collaboration between Midjourney and Spellbrush that was made specifically to generate great anime images.

Niji can be turned on in the settings or can be used as a parameter to only use on a case-by-case basis. It can be turned on by typing –niji 5 (5 is the only value accepted by the Niji parameter). However, Niji mode is special because it also has a few of its own –style values.

Original, cute, expensive, and scenic can all be used as values to the –style parameter when Niji mode is turned on. Each has a unique style associated with it. See them below.

Midjourney stylize Niji prompt parameter example

–niji 5     –style <original, cute, expressive, scenic>

Before Style Parameter

No –niji

It looks similar to the other dragons, but the cherry blossoms keyword appears to give characteristics similar to traditional Eastern dragon depictions.

Midjourney Stop Parameter no niji

a cute smiling dragon in a cherry blossom tree

–niji 5

Gives the images various different anime styles, ranging from flat to 3D. Characters are largely cuter than the ones without Niji mode turned on.

Midjourney Stop Parameter niji 5

a cute smiling dragon in a cherry blossom tree –niji 5

With Style Parameter

–style original

Flat illustration, similar to illustration to that of 90s anime.

Midjourney Stop Parameter niji original

a cute smiling dragon in a cherry blossom tree –niji 5 –style original

–style cute

Cute is a great descriptor of this style. This style turns images into adorable creatures and often uses soft pastel color palettes.

Midjourney Stop Parameter niji cute

a cute smiling dragon in a cherry blossom tree –niji 5 –style cute

–style expressive

Cute is a great descriptor of this style. This style turns images into adorable creatures and often uses soft pastel color palettes.

Midjourney Parameter niji expressive

a cute smiling dragon in a cherry blossom tree –niji 5 –style expressive

–style scenic

As the name suggests, the scenic style is great for landscapes!

Midjourney Parameter niji scenic

a cute smiling dragon in a cherry blossom tree –niji 5 –style scenic

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Stylize

–stylize     –s

The Stylize parameter defines how much of Midjourney’s own aesthetic to apply to your images. Midjourney has been trained to produce images with artistic color palettes, compositions, and forms. The higher the value you enter in the parameter, the higher that training is applied to your images.

Stylize can be set in the settings, or overwritten with the parameter. –s 50 is equal to Style Low in settings, 100 is the default styling, 250 is Style High, and 750 is Style Very High.

In my opinion, the images get a bit weirder the higher you get, but to each their own!

Midjourney Stylize prompt parameter example

–stylize <0-1000>

–s 10

Midjourney stylized generated Cute dragon in a field

–s 25

Midjourney stylized generated Cute dragon in a field

–s 50

Midjourney stylized generated Cute dragon in a field

Equal to Style Low in settings

–s 100 (Default)

Midjourney stylized generated Cute dragon in a field

–s 100 (Default)

Midjourney stylized generated Cute dragon in a field

–s 250

Midjourney stylized generated Cute dragon in a field

Equal to Style High in settings

–s 750

Midjourney stylized generated Cute dragon in a field

Equal to Style Very High in settings

–s 1000

Midjourney stylized generated Cute dragon in a field

Tile

–tile

The tile parameter makes seamless patterns out of your prompts.

Midjourney tile prompt parameter example

–tile

–tile

Midjourney tile parameter

a seamless pattern of dragons –tile

Turbo

–turbo

This overrides your current setting and it runs that prompt on Turbo mode.

Midjourney turbo prompt parameter example

–turbo

Weird

–weird     –w

The Weird parameter makes images, well… weird! There’s no other way of saying it.

The higher the value, the less conventional the images will be.

This is a very experimental feature, and it’s possible that it will change over the coming months.

As of right now, the parameter adds quirky elements and compositions to your images. Similar to chaos, the higher value puts less weight on the prompt and more weight on the AI’s training.

Pro tip

If you want to strike a bit more of a balance with pretty images and funky elements, try using –weird and –stylize together. Often using the same value for both parameters works, but experiment until you find your balance.

Midjourney weird prompt parameter example

–w <0-3000>

no –weird

Pretty traditional cute dragons

a cute dragon in candy land made in Midjourney

–w 10

Adds more variation between each of the options

a cute dragon in candy land made in Midjourney

–w 50

The dragons are getting slightly less cute and a little more random.

a cute dragon in candy land made in Midjourney

–s 500

It changes some of the dragons to little girls for some reason??

a cute dragon in candy land made in Midjourney

–s 3,000

Image 4, do I need to say more? That is the face of a doll right before she kills you. And what the HECK is growing out her back??

a cute dragon in candy land made in Midjourney

Equal to Style Very High in settings

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About Me

Hi I’m Tory!I’m a Graphic Designer, Web Developer, and AI OBSESSED artist from good ol’ Canada, eh!I record all the things I learn as I dive deeper into the Generative AI rabbit hole so I can teach people like you!

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