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How to Use Midjourney Negative Prompts + Alternative Ways

Have you ever tried generating images in midjourney only to have an item you don’t want continuing to appear?

By learning how to use a Midjourney negative prompt, you can remove unwanted elements and features from your generated images.

In this crash course to Midjourney negative prompts, I’ll teach you everything you need to know, fast!

Let’s get straight into the juicy stuff.


What is a Midjourney Negative Prompt?

Midjourney Negative Prompts

A Midjourney negative prompt is a technique used in AI-generated images to exclude certain elements or styles from the final image.

By taking advantage of negative prompt features, you’ll be able to guide the AI to avoid unwanted features, giving you more control.

Negative prompting is an important lever to pull for achieving more precise and desired results in the final image, particularly when fine-tuning details or avoiding specific characteristics.

If you want to make the best Midjourney images possible, negative prompting might just be for you.

How to Use Midjourney Negative Prompts

There are 2 methods to using negative prompts in Midjourney: using the –no parameter, and negative weights.

Personally, I think the –no parameter is much easier to use.

Let’s take a closer look at each method.

The –no Parameter

The syntax for the negative prompt in Midjourney is:

–no [followed by the items or features you want to removed]

Take this prompt for example:

Imperfect silhouette outline pencil hand sketch of a pretty girl on white paper background with graphite stroke shading

This prompt generated images like this:

Midjourney pencil sketch image example

Notice the pencils and hands in all the images?

Well, I don’t want those!

This is the perfect scenario to use a Midjourney negative prompt.

Simply add –no pencil, pencils, hand, hands to the prompt and we get this:

Imperfect silhouette outline pencil hand sketch of a pretty girl on white paper background with graphite stroke shading --no pencil, pencils, hand, hands
Midjourney pencil sketch image example using negative prompt

The negative prompt did its job, no more pencils or hands!

Negative Weights

Adding a double colon (::) to your text prompts indicates to the Midjourney AI that it should consider each part of the prompt separately.

You can also assign weights to each part of your prompt to increase the presence of a specific feature or remove it entirely.

Take the prompt Ice Cream for example. In the images below, one had a 90% weight on the word Ice, the other had a 90% weight on the word Cream.

Ice Cream prompt weight example

Notice how one set of images is basically ice while the other is all cream?

Now, all we need to do is add a negative weight!

Ice Cream negative prompt weight example

Success! Notice the negative weight removed the features completely?

An Alternative to Negative Prompts: Vary Region

The Vary Region function in Midjourney is a powerful generative fill/remove feature that enables you to add, remove, and modify objects and features in your image generation.

Imagine you’ve created an image you’re really happy with, but there’s a feature you want to remove. Instead of generating the image again and using negative prompts, you can simply use Vary Region to remove the object.

To get started, create images as you normally would in Midjourney with a text prompt. I’ll use the pencil sketch as an example again.

To use Vary Region, click the image you want to remove an object from, then click Vary Region.

Vary Region feature location in the Midjourney Alpha web app

Click the rectangle or lasso icon the highlight the area you want to modify.

Lasso feature location in Midjourney Alpha vary region feature

Now type in your new prompt, this can be tricky to get your head around.

Don’t type something like remove pencil.

Instead, type what you want to see instead of the pencil.

My Very Region prompt text was: white paper background with graphite stroke shading

Notice I prompted what I wanted to see instead of the pencil.

Midjourney Vary Region example - removing an unwanted pencil from the image.

Success!

The pencil is gone and I was able to keep my original image!

5 Examples of Effective Negative Prompting

Here’s 5 more examples to show you how to effectively use negative prompts to create better images in Midjourney.

1. Excluding Specific Items

Original Prompt: A beautiful landscape with mountains, a river, and native animals grazing in the meadow

A beautiful landscape with mountains, a river, and native animals grazing in the meadow

Undesired Element: Trees

Negative Prompt: A beautiful landscape with mountains, a river, and native animals grazing in the meadow –no tree, trees

A beautiful landscape with mountains, a river, and native animals grazing in the meadow --no tree, trees

Explanation: By adding –no trees, we ensure that the generated image will not include any trees.

2. Removing Specific Colors

Original Prompt: A vibrant cityscape at night with colorful neon lights

A vibrant cityscape at night with colorful neon lights

Undesired Element: Pink lights

Negative Prompt: A vibrant cityscape at night with colorful neon lights –no pink

A vibrant cityscape at night with colorful neon lights --no pink

Explanation: The –no pink parameter will exclude any pink lights or shades, focusing on other colors in the cityscape.

3. Avoiding Certain Objects

Original Prompt: A cozy living room with a fireplace, a couch, and a coffee table and shelf

A cozy living room with a fireplace, a couch, and a coffee table and shelf

Undesired Element: Books

Negative Prompt: A cozy living room with a fireplace, a couch, and a coffee table with books –no books

A cozy living room with a fireplace, a couch, and a coffee table and shelf --no books

Explanation: This prompt removes books from the image, keeping the rest of the living room elements intact.

4. Removing Specific Styles

Original Prompt: A futuristic car design with sleek lines and a shiny metallic finish

A futuristic car design with sleek lines and a shiny metallic finish

Undesired Element: Shiny metallic finish

Negative Prompt: [A futuristic car design with sleek lines] ::9 and a [shiny metallic finish] ::-1

[A futuristic car design with sleek lines] --9 and a [shiny metallic finish] ---1

Explanation: By using –no metallic, the generated car design avoids a metallic finish, showing a more matte appearance.

5. Negative Weights for Complex Prompts

Original Prompt: A delicious plate of sushi

A delicious plate of sushi

Undesired Element: Salmon

Negative Prompt: [A delicious plate of sushi]::9 salmon:: -1

[A delicious plate of sushi] --9 salmon ---1

Explanation: Assigning a negative weight :: -1 to “salmon” will reduce or completely remove it from the generated image.


Wrapping Up

Today I showed you 2 methods to use Midjourney negative prompts.

The –no parameter is a simple and effective way to quickly remove unwanted elements and specific objects from your images.

Negative prompt weights are another great way to remove unwanted objects from your images.

Alternatively, if you have generated an image you really like but it has an unfortunate attribute you’d like to remove, take advantage of the Vary Region feature!

Negative prompts are sure to come in handy whether you’re designing landscapes, portraits, or business logos in Midjourney!

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