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Blend Real Photos With AI Backdrops 🤯
Turn ordinary photos into head-turning visuals
Want to stand out from competitors? Boost CTRs? Turn heads with a striking professional headshot?
We’ve got you covered. 👇
💡 Step-by-Step Guide
Blend Real Photos With AI Backdrops
By seamlessly combining photos of real people with Midjourney-generated backgrounds, you can create distinct visuals that command attention, drive engagement, and strengthen your brand presence—without pricey photo shoots.
Use Cases
Custom portraits, professional headshots, & business cards
YouTube thumbnails
Employee training materials (e.g., images of real employees in AI-generated scenarios)
Team directories
Album & podcast cover art
Holiday greeting cards
Custom gifts & prints (e.g., posters, T-shirts, & framed art)
Steps
Step 1: Login to Midjourney & select the ‘Create’ tab
Step 2: Upload your photo by dragging it into the prompt box
Step 3: Click the person icon on your uploaded image to set the image as a character reference, which will to guide Midjourney to focus on the person in the photo’s features (e.g., face, hair, & clothing)
Step 4: In the prompt bar, describe the background you want (e.g., ‘cinematic neon cyberpunk city’ or ‘elegant business office with warm lighting’)
💡 Pro tip: For optimal results, use background descriptions that complement your subject in terms of lighting (e.g., if your subject is illuminated by warm, golden light from the left, use this language in your prompt).
Need help finding the right descriptive words to use? Just pop the image into ChatGPT and ask it to ‘describe the image’s lighting using language suitable for a Midjourney prompt’.
Optional Step: Character weight (‘--cw’) controls how closely the generated image should match your reference character’s features—with options ranging from ‘--cw 0’ to ‘--cw 100’:
Add ‘--cw 0’ to your prompt to keep facial features intact while allowing Midjourney to adjust hairstyle and clothing
By default, character weight is set to ‘--cw 100’, so specifying a character weight in your prompt is unnecessary if you want the character’s face, hairstyle, and clothing all replicated
💡 Pro tip: Make your image pop against the background with the ‘--stop’ parameter, which determines how much focus is on the subject versus the background.
The stop parameter is particularly useful for portrait-style visuals where you don’t want the background to distract from the subject. We recommend ‘--stop 70’, but your options range from 10 to 100.
Step 5: Add an ‘--ar’ parameter to your prompt to specify the aspect ratio that meets your projects’ requirements (e.g., ‘--ar: 16:9’ for widescreen projects like presentations or ‘--ar 9:16’ for vertical formats such as Instagram stories)
Step 6: Click ‘Generate’
Step 7: Download your favorite of the 4 generated images
✨ Prompts To Try
“Business professional wearing a stylish blazer in a high-rise office with city skyline view. Background: modern office with sleek design. Warm, golden-hour lighting. --cw 0 --stop 70 --ar 16:9”
“A cozy portrait of a person enjoying coffee in a warm, inviting café. Background: wooden tables, hanging Edison bulbs, soft autumn tones. Soft lighting. --cw 65 --stop 40 --ar 3:4”
“A majestic fantasy warriot standing atop a cliffside castle, wind flowing through their ornate cape. Background: a dramatic sunset sky, distant mountains. Epic lighting, cinematic composition, fantasy realism. --cw 90 --stop 20 --ar 2:3”
💡 Pro tip: Need help writing or optimizing your Midjourney prompts? Just ask the Midjourney — MJ Prompt Generator (V6) GPT.
⏭️ What’s Next
We’ll see you next Tuesday with another step-by-step guide. Got a suggestion for what we should cover next? Reply to this email with your idea!
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💫 Level Up
Become a Midjourney Master
Our comprehensive, 24-lesson Midjourney Mastery course guides you from beginner setup to advanced artistry, equipping you with the skills to produce stunning AI-generated images, including:
Personalizing your settings to reflect your unique aesthetic
Using image prompts, blending, & style references
Applying composition, lighting, & style to elevate images
Upscaling images, controlling quality, & managing parameters
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