Midjourney Negative Prompts: Positively Essential!

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Grab a beer and learn all about Midjourney Negative Prompts. If you’ve ever been overwhelmingly frustrated by unwanted elements in your Midjourney images, this is your go-to guide for taking back control of your images (and your life). Well, maybe not your life. Stop drinking.

We’re going to cover everything from the basics to some neat tricks to get your images just right. So, buy a $15 beer from your local watering hole, sit back, and let’s get into it.

What Are Midjourney Negative Prompts?

So, what exactly is a negative prompt in Midjourney? In simple terms, a negative prompt tells Midjourney what to avoid when creating an image. 

Unlike regular prompts where you specify what you want, negative prompts focus on what you DO NOT want. 

Think of it as giving the AI a list of “hell no’s” to refine the final result. It’s like telling a painter not to use a specific color or object while painting a picture to hang in your trailer. Oh, wait. You use Midjourney for that now? Never mind.

How to Add Negative Prompts

Use the –no Parameter

One straightforward way to add negative prompts in Midjourney is by using the –no parameter. This is where you get to be clear about what you don’t want in your image.

Example: If you want a Detroit ghetto scene without people, you’d type:

Detroit ghetto at midnight, terrifying, crime, garbage everywhere, fires blazing  –no people

Accurate!  Who needs people when you have garbage? Easy, right?

Use a Negative Prompt Weight

WARNING: As of June 2024, prompt weights do NOT work with Midjourney v6.

For those who want to get a bit more technical, let’s talk about Midjourney’s negative prompt weights. This method allows you to adjust the importance of certain elements in your image by giving them a negative weight.

1. Basic Concept

In Midjourney, prompt weights tweak the significance of elements in your prompt. Positive weights emphasize an element, while negative weights minimize or eliminate it.

Syntax: Use the “::” syntax to set weights. A standard weight is “1”. For example, “dog::1 lake::1” treats both elements equally.

Example:

A dog::1 in the lake::1 –v 5.2

2. Increasing Importance

Want a more important dog? To make an element more prominent, assign it a higher weight.

Example:

A dog::2 in the lake::1

This makes the dog twice as important as the lake.

3. Decreasing Importance (Negative Weight)

Conversely, to downplay or remove an element, assign it a negative weight. But you saw this coming, right?

Example:

A dog::1 in the lake::-.5 –v 5.2

This tells Midjourney to reduce or remove the dog from the image. A negative weight effectively minimizes the element’s presence. By assigning it a value of -0.5, we removed the element completely.

Common Use Cases for Midjourney Negative Prompts

Negative prompts are not just for nit-pickers and annoying perfectionists. They serve several practical purposes that you’ll run into eventually:

1. Remove Colors

What would a pool scene look like without the color green? Let’s find out.

Example:

Game scene design, game art, poolside, Sunny, 2D overlooking, Party, swimming circle, Yellow duck, Sun chair, –no color green –ar 9:16 –personalize x5nu9ps –stylize 250

And just like that, Midjourney gives you what you want without using any shade of the color green.

2. Control Composition

Exclude specific features to get the composition you want.

Example:

Boxer dog wearing a sombrero in Mexico in the early morning, pinhole lens –no cactus –personalize x5nu9ps –stylize 0

This ensures our canine doesn’t accidentally get poked.

3. Create The Impossible!

It’s not possible to drive a car through the mud without getting your ride dirty. Until now.

Example:

Close-up of the front-end headlights of an electric coupe concept car driving through the mud. The headlight is large and simple with no shading. There is a thin LED strip above it that forms into its edges. Black paint and a satin body color. the car has a shark nose section at the front. The lights have three white light signatures. The camera angle shows about half the height of the vehicle. The background behind should be dark to make the lighting stand out more. –no mud on car –personalize x5nu9ps –stylize 0

Now you get a cool mud splash effect without mud on the car. Perfect.

Tips & Tricks for Negative Prompts

To master negative prompts, here are some neat tips:

1. First, Try Normal Prompting

Always describe exactly what you want before jumping into negative prompts.

Example:

green rainbow over a city

is better than

rainbow over a city –no red

2. Start with ONE Negative Term

Begin with one negative term to understand its effect. This helps you see how Midjourney responds before adding more complexity.

3. Add Synonyms and Specifics Gradually

Expand your negative prompts to cover similar unwanted elements to cast a blanket of things you don’t like.

Example:

close-up luxury fashion photo of a homeless man –no shoes, sandals, flip flops

if the homeless man still appears with footwear.

4. Avoid Conflicting Negative Prompts

Ensure your negative prompts don’t contradict your main description.

Example: Avoid things like…

Homeless man drinking in a park –no people

or

Sports stadium crowd booing –no seats

Wrapping Up

I hope you’re happy now that you’ve learned all about Midjourney Negative Prompts. From the basic definitions to advanced techniques, you’re now equipped to take control of your AI-generated images and your life. 

Remember, the key is to experiment and find what works best for you. Negative prompts are a powerful tool in your creative arsenal, giving you the precision to craft images closer to your vision.

Be sure to check out our variety of awesome Midjourney prompts, and apply what you learned here.

If you found this guide useful, please do us a big favor and share it with your local armed National Guard, police department, firing squad, or other large organization that has a lot of people.

Until next time, remember to run the prompts and prompt the planet.