How To Use Midjourney

Getting Started (5 minutes)

Go to midjourney.com and sign up for an account.
You can now use Midjourney directly on the website - no Discord required anymore.
In the creation interface, type a description of the image you want in the prompt box. Be specific: "a golden retriever wearing a raincoat, walking in a puddle, watercolor style" works way better than "dog picture."
Hit Generate. In about 60 seconds, you get 4 image variations.
Click any image to upscale it, create new variations, or download it.

Copy these and swap out the brackets. The --ar at the end controls the shape.

Product photo: "Professional product photo of [item], on a clean white background, soft studio lighting, 8K, commercial quality --ar 4:3"
Blog header: "A warm illustration of [scene], flat design, modern colors, minimal style, suitable for a blog header --ar 16:9"
Social media story: "Bold typographic design with the text '[your text]', vibrant gradient background, modern sans-serif font --ar 9:16"
Portrait: "Professional headshot of a [description] person, natural lighting, shallow depth of field, photographed with 85mm lens --ar 3:4"
Abstract art: "Abstract visualization of [concept], flowing organic shapes, iridescent colors, dark background, ethereal atmosphere --ar 1:1"

Always set your aspect ratio. Add --ar 16:9 for landscape, --ar 9:16 for stories, --ar 1:1 for square. The default is square, which isn't always what you want.
Use style references for brand consistency. Add --sref [image URL] and Midjourney will match that visual style. If you have a look you like, this keeps everything cohesive.
Exclude things with --no. Add --no text to prevent Midjourney from slapping random letters on your image. --no people keeps a scene empty. Very handy.

Text in images. Midjourney still struggles to render readable words. If your graphic needs specific text, generate the image here and add text in Canva or another editor.
Free experimentation. There's no free tier - you need a paid plan (starting at $10/month) to use Midjourney at all. If you want to try AI image generation for free first, DALL-E through ChatGPT is a better starting point.