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S02|L12 - midjourney pt3 - make ai image with reference prompts

Links
Notes
Review - Using Reference Images in Midjourney
Transcript

Notes

you want to create a lot of images to create a lot of takes

midjourney discord

import

upload image into the chat
click on it
right click on popup
get image address

using

paste the address into prompt /imagine
then add the rest of the prompt
midjourney will use the image as a reference guide

image weight

-iw [0-3]
specifies that the reference is to be maximized
default is 1
maximum is 3

other purpose

you can use the reference as way to determine the pose

Review - Using Reference Images in Midjourney

Summary

This lesson explains how to use reference images in Midjourney to get closer to the image you want faster.

Reference images help Midjourney understand:

pose
composition
structure
style direction
what should or should not appear

Core Idea

Reference images reduce wasted generations.

Instead of relying only on text prompts, you give Midjourney a visual example.

This helps it skip many wrong outputs.

Why Reference Images Help

Text prompts can be vague.

Example:

minimalist black line art of a sunflower top down on a white background

Problem: Midjourney may still add:

stems
leaves
extra angles
details you did not want

A reference image can show:

only petals
no stem
no leaves
top-down composition

Basic Reference Image Workflow `[0/5]`

upload reference image into Midjourney / Discord
open the uploaded image
right-click and copy image address
start a new /imagine prompt
paste image URL before the text prompt

Example Prompt

[image URL] minimalist black line art of a sunflower top down on a white background

Important Point

Midjourney does not simply copy the reference image.

It uses the image as guidance while also following your text prompt.

So the result is influenced by:

the uploaded image
the written prompt
Midjourney’s own generation process

Flower Example

Without reference image:

many outputs had stems
many outputs had leaves
several images were not close enough

With reference image:

outputs stayed closer to the petal-only flower
no unwanted stems
no unwanted leaves
fewer wasted generations

Using Internet Images as References

A reference image can be:

something you generated earlier
a public domain image
a product/design reference
an image found online

Warning: Use reference images carefully.

Do not copy protected artwork directly. Use them for structure, style direction, or composition, not pixel-copying.

Corgi Example

The tutorial uses a corgi image as a pose/style reference.

Goal: Create a new corgi image in a specific artist/style direction while keeping the pose closer to the reference.

Image Weight

Image weight controls how strongly Midjourney follows the reference image.

Format:

--iw 2

In the tutorial:

--iw 2 was used
this was the maximum image weight in that Midjourney version

Image Weight Effect

With High Image Weight

Midjourney prioritizes the reference image.

Result:

closer pose
closer structure
closer overall composition
less reinterpretation

Without Image Weight

Midjourney uses the reference more loosely.

Result:

more influence from the written style prompt
more freedom
less resemblance to the reference image
more reinterpretation

Example With Image Weight

[image URL] corgi character by [artist name] --iw 2

Example Without Image Weight

[image URL] corgi character by [artist name]

Practical Difference

With --iw 2:

“make something close to this image, but in this style”

Without image weight:

“use this image as loose inspiration, but interpret it more freely”

When To Use High Image Weight

Use high image weight when you care about:

pose
shape
layout
composition
specific object arrangement

When To Avoid High Image Weight

Avoid or lower image weight when you want:

more creative interpretation
stronger style transformation
more variation
less dependence on the original image

Reference Image Checklist `[0/6]`

choose image close to desired structure
upload image
copy image address
paste image URL into prompt
add clear text instruction
decide whether to use image weight

Key Insight

Reference images are especially useful when words are not enough.

They help Midjourney understand what you mean visually.

Bottom Line

Use reference images when you already have:

a pose you like
a composition you like
a style direction you like
a previous generation that is close but not perfect

Then use text prompts and image weight to guide Midjourney toward the final result.

Transcript

00:00
Okay. In this video, we are gonna talk about how

00:03
you can use reference images

00:06
to help you

00:08
quickly generate the images

00:10
that you want.

00:12
So reference images allow MidJourney

00:15
to skip a lot of,

00:17
the process

00:18
of,

00:19
creating images that don't match what you want because it

00:22
can use a reference

00:23
to help better create,

00:25
what you are looking for. So let me show you

00:27
an example of this. So I've got 2 reference images

00:31
here that I'm gonna be using as part of this

00:32
tutorial video.

00:34
Let's start out with this flower. So,

00:38
if we come here remember how earlier

00:42
we generated a bunch of minimalist

00:45
flowers.

00:47
And,

00:48
these were fine,

00:49
but they weren't quite, you know, what these ones here

00:53
looked like. Well, I've actually,

00:56
prior to this already done a lot

00:58
of generations of this. And I was able to create

01:02
a flower which was much more closer through doing through

01:05
repeating this a lot of times because that is really

01:07
what you wanna use my journey to do. You wanna

01:09
create images a lot of times. For these tutorial videos,

01:12
I only do it a couple of times.

01:15
But really, I should be doing it a lot of

01:16
different times to get a lot of different takes.

01:19
And so,

01:20
I did that for this and I got something much

01:23
closer to what I wanted.

01:25
And so,

01:26
so I got I made this through Midjourney but let's

01:28
say for example that you found this on the Internet,

01:30
you could save this.

01:31
And then what we do

01:34
is we're gonna upload it

01:37
to MidJourney.

01:39
Come and drag it in.

01:41
Click enter.

01:45
Now it has been uploaded.

01:47
So what we can do is we can click on

01:49
it

01:51
and then,

01:52
we can right click it and we can copy image

01:55
address.

01:56
And now we can go imagine

02:00
and we can paste in

02:03
the code for it.

02:05
And then we can come in and type in what

02:07
we want.

02:08
So minimalist

02:11
black line art of

02:14
a sunflower

02:15
top down on a white

02:18
background.

02:22
So now what it's doing

02:24
is it's using this

02:26
image that I uploaded

02:28
as a reference

02:30
while also

02:32
applying

02:34
my prompt request.

02:36
So,

02:38
it's not just generating different versions of this. It is

02:41
taking,

02:43
the prompt text that I gave it, but it's using

02:45
this image as a reference guide.

02:49
And we're gonna see

02:51
why that is very helpful in a minute once it

02:56
has finished,

02:57
using it

02:58
and once it has generated for us the images.

03:03
And you'll see why this can save you

03:06
a lot of time.

03:19
Almost there.

03:22
Okay.

03:23
Here is why it's so helpful.

03:25
So

03:27
you look at this

03:29
because the reference image that I gave for it through

03:32
that I had generated by doing a lot of different

03:34
generations on the journey, but again, you know, if I

03:37
found this on the internet. So this here,

03:41
it's a sun you come here.

03:44
There are no there is no stem.

03:46
There are no leaves. There's just, you know, the petals.

03:50
I managed to generate something similar to that here with

03:53
Midjourney.

03:54
Now

03:55
and I saved it.

03:57
And so you come back here. When I did it

04:00
before, when I was generating these before, a lot of

04:02
these had,

04:03
you know, had the stems, it had the leaves.

04:06
And so we were essentially kind of, you could say,

04:09
wasting time by not wasting time because it's still good

04:11
to do it, but you have to generate lots of

04:13
images. But it was frustrating because a lot of the

04:16
images we were getting were not what we wanted because

04:18
even though it was on a top down, it was

04:19
including the leads and it was including the stem. But

04:22
by adding in a reference image that doesn't have those

04:26
for my journey

04:28
to use as a reference, then it didn't generate those

04:31
for me. And instead it generated

04:34
versions of it that matched,

04:37
what I wanted so much more closely.

04:40
And so that

04:41
is how you can use reference images

04:44
to save you a lot of time.

04:46
You can also use reference images in another very fun

04:50
way too.

04:52
So

04:53
let's come and take our next image.

04:55
So this is another image that I generated earlier using

04:59
Midjourney.

05:01
A cookie. What would you expect?

05:03
Anything less from me. Absolutely

05:06
love dogs. Adore cookies.

05:10
So we now have this cookie.

05:12
We can use this as a reference

05:15
to help us get

05:17
the

05:19
type of cookie that we want, but in a particular

05:21
style.

05:22
So I've uploaded this version of a Corgi and it's

05:24
in this particular pose.

05:26
Now remember earlier,

05:27
we generated Corgis,

05:29
using Elsa,

05:31
or

05:32
I don't know if I pronounced her name right. I'm

05:34
sorry if I didn't.

05:36
And we got

05:37
what a cute little 1 with a little hat.

05:40
We got them in different poses.

05:42
We didn't specify to be fair what pose we wanted

05:44
it in. So we just got a bunch of different

05:47
poses. Well,

05:49
what we're gonna do,

05:51
click this, right click it,

05:53
copy image address,

05:57
imagine

06:01
character

06:02
by

06:13
and

06:14
we're gonna add in something else.

06:18
Image, weight,

06:19
and we're gonna do

06:21
2.

06:25
So

06:27
what we have done

06:28
is we have asked

06:30
Midjourney

06:32
to,

06:34
draw us,

06:36
a picture

06:41
using this cookie as a reference guide,

06:45
And we've asked it to do it in

06:48
the style

06:50
of,

06:51
this incredible artist.

06:54
And we've also given it an image weight of 2,

06:57
which is the maximum that you can give it right

06:59
now on the journey version 5. It could change in

07:02
different versions.

07:03
But the image weight is

07:06
us saying that we want it to look as closer

07:09
to this

07:10
as possible.

07:11
If we'd given it a lower image weight of 1

07:13
you don't have to give it an image weight, by

07:15
the way, and we'll we'll do it again without giving

07:16
it an image weight. But by giving it an image

07:19
weight,

07:20
of 2, it means then that,

07:23
Midjourney is prioritizing

07:25
making it

07:26
as close to the reference image as possible.

07:29
And so this is what we've been able to achieve.

07:32
Now, let's

07:34
come

07:35
and we'll do this again. We'll copy this.

07:38
This, by the way, is just

07:40
MidJourney,

07:41
has

07:42
URL shortened it,

07:44
which is fine. We can use the URL shortened version

07:47
of it.

07:51
And we're not gonna add an image weight.

07:56
So it's using our reference image again.

08:03
And,

08:05
this time it's got free rein

08:07
to,

08:09
use this image, but create its own,

08:12
pictures

08:13
based upon

08:15
her art style.

08:17
And you'll see that we'll get,

08:19
different results again.

08:25
Loading.

08:35
And they're gonna be quite different

08:37
and I'll explain why they're quite different.

08:41
You can already see that they're very different.

08:47
And we're almost there.

08:55
Okay. So very, very different.

09:00
This is what we got by not giving it an

09:02
image weight,

09:03
And

09:04
this is what we got by doing it.

09:07
As you can see, this is much, much closer

09:10
to our original image than this 1 here. This 1

09:14
here

09:15
takes our original image but redoes it quite substantially.

09:20
And it adds a lot more of the artist

09:23
and how she would have interpreted it,

09:28
than, this 1 here, where this 1 here takes the

09:31
image and

09:32
makes a version of it that's inspired

09:35
by her, whereas this 1 here takes more of her

09:38
art and then uses the image.

09:41
But,

09:42
but rather than you know, that's what I mean. Like,

09:44
this is focused more on the artist herself. This 1

09:47
here is focused more on the image

09:49
itself.

09:51
And so,

09:53
if you want to just see what the artist themselves

09:57
would create, then you don't have to add in an

09:59
image weight and you can do this.

10:01
Or you can do this here and you can add

10:04
in the image weight and get a very different image.

10:08
As you can see, it can save you a lot

10:10
of time because you can imagine

10:12
that if you found a pose that you like

10:16
that by adding in a reference image, then you're gonna

10:18
save a lot of time

10:20
by skipping the generation process

10:23
of,

10:25
of having to, like, find

10:27
to get images that match that pose.

10:30
You can just tell MidJourney the pose that you already

10:34
like.

10:35
So, yes,

10:37
in this video series, we're also gonna discuss how to

10:39
save these images. That's not something that I've discussed, but

10:42
it's very, very important because once you've got your image,

10:45
you then need to save it. So,

10:48
that

10:50
is the next video that I'm going to create. Whether

10:52
that's the next video you watch in the series or

10:54
not, I'm not sure. But either way, I hope that

10:57
you enjoy it and I will see you on the

10:59
next video.

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