mid journey woman

42 Prompts for Extremely Photorealistic People in Midjourney

3 Aug, 2023

Since it's release in early 2022, Midjourney has significantly advanced the applications of generative AI for image creation by offering an integrated, user-friendly (and familiar) interface via Discord.

In this guide, we’ll be going over the ways in which we can craft prompts with Midjourney’s latest v5.2 model to generate Extremely Photorealistic People .

We’ll begin by tweaking some Midjourney settings and then we’ll hop right into a basic prompt template you can use for all your generations.

Getting Started

You’re going to want to ensure that you have RAW mode enabled in your Midjourney settings. For these examples, we are using Midjourney’s Standard Subscription and direct messaging the MJ bot in Discord.

To modify your settings, open a conversation with the Midjourney Bot and type /settings . You should see something similar pop up to the below image. Click on RAW Mode.

If you don't want to turn this setting on for all generations, you can add --style raw at the end of every prompt you give Midjourney.

Otherwise, there are plenty of other neat style parameters & preferences you can customize via the /prefer command. More on this in the Tips & Tricks section below.

Prompt Template

Generally, you’ll want to use some sort of structure for crafting your prompt. For this guide, we went with:

If you find a specific detail that works well with what you’re trying to generate, it is typically a good idea to take note of it to experiment further with the image output you’re given. Also - do not hesitate to experiment with the above structure as it is simply a general outline.

Aspect Ratios

Creating the perfect prompt isn't just about describing the subject of the photo.

It's a delicate balance of aspect ratio , camera & lighting , and environment. Each plays a crucial role in setting the mood and directing focus. Below we'll go over various details you'll want to include in your prompts.

Aspect Ratio 4:3

The 4:3 aspect ratio is widely used in photography due to its harmonious balance, offering a pleasing aesthetic that falls between the square format (1:1) and the wide panoramic views (16:9).

It's the default aspect ratio for most digital cameras and smartphones, making it the common choice for both amateur and professional photographers.

Aspect Ratio 16:9

Tthe 16:9 aspect ratio is great for cinematic style shots. It is most commonly used in film and television.

Aspect Ratio 21:9

The 21:9 aspect ratio, also known as ultrawide, offers an even broader field of view than the 16:9, making it ideal for immersive panoramic photography.

Aspect Ratio 1:1

The 1:1 aspect ratio produces a perfectly square image. It is commonly used on Instagram, as it draws focus to the subject by eliminating background details.

Camera Shot Styles

Shooting styles tell a story: close-ups spotlight emotion, medium and upper-body shots add context, while wide and full-body shots capture a subject's entire milieu.

Each delivers a unique narrative layer, from fine details to grand scenes.

Environment and Composition

You'll want to frame environmental elements in your prompts to spotlight your subject. This way, you can guide the viewer's eye and boost visual appeal.

When writing your prompt, including information regarding the overall lighting is crucial as it determines the mood, depth, and texture of the generated scene.

Modern & Vintage Camera Effects

Camera & film effects.

Adding different real-world camera models into your prompts (such as the Nikon FM2, Canon EOS 3, Pentax Spotmatic, or Minolta Maxxum 7), can affect the way your image turns out.

You'll also want to include the type of film used (such as Agfa Vista 200, Kodak Ektar 100, Kodak Tri-X, or Fujifilm Superia 800) in your cameras, as this plays a key role in determining the contrast, grain, and light sensitivity of your outputs.

Using a specific year

The year or date a photo was taken can influence its appearance through the distinct color palettes, grain, resolution, and even subject matter typical of that era, creating a specific aesthetic often associated with that time.

Putting it all together

Let's go over why the next prompt provides a well-rounded description for generating an image:

• it conveys the subjects (five children)
• setting (treehouse in a suburban backyard, summer of 1985)
• mood (laughter and adventure)
• camera perspective (wide shot, full body)
• equipment used (Pentax K1000 with Agfa Vista 200 film)
• aspect ratio (16:9)

This meticulous specification generate a rich image. The aspect ratio captures the wide scene, the film and camera choice result in vivid colors and clear wood grain, and the bright sunlight of the summer enhances the overall mood of playful adventure.

More Examples

Tips & Tricks

You can save specific parameters via the /prefer command to your Midjourney preferences if you find yourself repeatedly using similar styles. You can even name & create a variety of styling commands which can be called at the end of prompts. 

An example of this would be wanting to add a specific camera model style with a specific aspect ratio suffix, as well as raw mode enabled. Here is how you could go about doing this:

We can divide this command up into three parts:

• /prefer option - the command
• set PRv1 - the name chosen for the parameter
• value camera settings: Minolta X-570, Kodak Professional Portra 400 Film, Kiron 75-150mm f/3.8 lens. --ar 16:9 --style raw - the contents of the saved parameters called whenever you use --PRv1 at the end of a prompt

Now, by simply adding --PRv1 at the end of your prompt, you will call the saved settings without having to specify them in your request.

Finally, if you decide you’d like to delete this parameter, you can do so by using the command /prefer option set <PRv1> in Discord.

And there you have it! With plenty of trial and error you can get Midjourney generating a plethora of realistic shots.

There's always a bit of guesswork involved in the image generation process. Midjourney may not be perfect when requesting specific items in your prompts (ex: asking for an image of seven individuals but only generating six). Nonetheless it is very powerful image creation tool.

That's the article! Also check out:

Endless hours and thousands of prompts of experimentation later... I’m happy to release the Midjourney V5 book:

• 94-pages, 200+ prompts, and time saving techniques
• Focus on fantasy and worldbuilding
• Create high quality assets to use in games, concept art, and hobbies

A handbook that helps you improve your SDXL results, fast. Includes:

• Easy step-by-step instructions
• My favorite SDXL ComfyUI workflow
• Recommendations for SDXL models, LoRAs & upscalers
• Realistic and stylized/anime prompt examples

Artist & designer. Based in Montréal.

1 thought on “42 Prompts for Extremely Photorealistic People in Midjourney”

Useful prompts. I really liked the prompts related to lighting. I am definitely going to use these prompts in Midjourney.

Thanks a lot.

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Midjourney V5 vs V6: 10 Portrait Examples That Show the Differences (Before/After)

Example 1 – taiwanese girl.

A great example of what Version 6.0 does better compared to Version 5.2. The second photo processes the prompt way better, as mostly visible by the fact that the second one is incredibly realistic, as asked for in the prompt, while the first photo has more of a cartoonish vibe.

Example 2 – Seventeen-Year-Old Boy

The second photo makes a lot more sense. The hair of the boy is not only closer to what was requested in the prompt ( Ponytail ), but it also makes a lot more sense as the hair of the boy in the first photo is all over the place and, in some cases, not even connected to the head. As the prompt’s author, the second photo also shows what I had in mind as I prompted.

Example 3 – White Hair Boy

The main difference between the first and second results is the color palette. While this may change depending on who looks at the picture, the blue background of the second prompt conveys the intensity of the picture a lot better. The first prompt also has some problems with the hair, while the second one does not have the prompted ‘forest green eyes’ .

Example 4 – Burgundy Red-Uniformed Woman

The first prompt simply disregards many of the requested features ( red lighting, ballet uniform, stile, camera perspective ). While the second prompt also disregards some of the above, it gets the general vibe of the photo better with the red color scheme and the more cartoonish stile.

Example 5 – Young Hunter with Ponytail

Neither picture manages to convey all the prompted features. The second picture, though, looks a lot more realistic and bright, making the overall message easier to receive.

Example 6 – Golden Blond-Haired Girl with Glasses

The first prompt output (v5.2) has a more down-to-earth vibe, but not only doesn’t make a lot of sense regarding the hair, it also does not have the dreamy look aimed for in the prompt.

The second photo is so much more detailed and dreamy, showing beautiful golden lighting without even needing it to be prompted, but it also shows the specified clothing and glasses. The parted lips also give her a perfectly fitting, surprised look, playing with her facial expression much more.

Example 7 – Pretty-Eye-Shaped Girl with Short Nose

Important to mention here is that the photos differ drastically in style, so there is no right or wrong here. Neither picture is perfect; the original one again struggles to show the hair properly, and the picture generated by Version 6 zooms in so much that you can’t even properly see the hair as well and neither shows the proper eye color.

Example 8 – Radiating Silver-Haired Girl

In my opinion the only photo so far that is drastically better in Version 5.2. Also, the only picture on this list that was generated more realistically in Version 5.2 rather than Version 6. In this case, the second version is closer to the prompt, but the original one is more beautiful and seems more emotional, and the most important part of the prompt – the hair – is highlighted a lot more.

Example 9 – Tattooed Young Woman with High Cheekbones

A few mentions needed here is that (1) I had a lot more promising pictures with the second prompt in V6, and (2) it took a lot less work prompting to get a result I was happy with. Also, I noticed that Version 5.2 had immense struggles with tattoos, while Version 6 got it right on the first try. Otherwise, the pictures don’t vary a lot in objective quality.

Example 10 – Green Siren Glowing Eyes

The first prompt gets much of the posture better than the second result. Also, it fits the generally aimed-for vibe more. But the second one holds way more emotion and is way more realistic.

My Opinion on Which Midjourney Version is Better (V6 vs V5)

Midjourney Version 6 makes it way easier to get good results, and it gets realism a lot better. Some problems – hands, hair, teeth – are also seemingly fixed. Sometimes, Version 5.2 gets better results, depending on what you are looking for, but overall Version 6 holds many advantages.

👉 Recommended : How Do You Check Your Midjourney Version and Change the Default Model (V6)?

The Ultimate Guide to MidJourney V5

Midjourney is hands-down my favorite of all the AI text-to-image generating tools out there. The images that it is able to generate always leave me in awe. Despite its increasing popularity over the last few months, the team behind Midjourney hasn’t eased up on improvements.

What Is Midjourney V5?

Midjourney is an AI text-to-image generating tool that uses natural language processing to turn user prompts into images. It launched Midjourney v5 in March 2023 with updates to its responsiveness, image quality, image realism and more. 

Midjourney launched version 5 in March 2023.

The first thing I did when they announced the news was rush over to test V5 out,  and wow, The results are jaw-dropping. Here’s what we’ll cover in this article:

• How to use Midjourney V5.
• What new features are in Midjourney V5.
• How do images generated in V4 and V5 compare.
• What features haven’t been improved in Midjourney V5.
• Midjourney V5 image examples.
• MidJourney’s upcoming plans.

Prompt used:

Let’s jump right in.

How to Use Midjourney V5

There are two ways to start using V5.

You can type /settings , and select MJ Version 5 :

You are then good to go and can start prompting with V5. You can follow the same instructions to switch back to the other versions anytime you like.

Or you can choose to skip the above settings and add — — v 5  to the end of every prompt. If you don’t specify, the current default mode is V4.

More on AI DreamStudio: Stable Diffusion’s AI Art Web App Tool

How Does Midjourney V5 Compare to Midjourney V4?

Midjourney V5 is Midjourney’s second model trained on its AI supercluster, which uses significantly different neural architectures and aesthetic techniques. It’s been in the works for five months. V5 is not the final step, according to the Midjourney team, and it will only progress to something better.

There are a few major new features with V5:

1. Responsiveness to Users’ Inputs and Improved Language Processing

Midjourney V5 is much more unopinionated than V3 and V4. It’s tuned to provide a wide variety of outputs and to be extremely responsive to user input. Its natural language processing has also been improved.

With that said, very short prompts like keywords with commas may not work as well in V5 as in the previous versions. Instead, it’s advised to input longer, more detailed and explicit descriptions about what you want Midjourney to generate.

However, the V5 we see today is a “pro mode” of the model, which means things will be changed and users shouldn't rely on the current model to be exactly the same in the future. The team is currently encouraging the community to try and test things out, and after gathering opinions, they are hoping to have a user-friendly default styling for V5. When that happens, users will still have the option to turn that off and get back to this ‘raw’ mode today as they wish.

2. Much Higher Image Quality

Let’s take a look at this example comparing V4 and V5, prompting with natural language.

With V4, a couple of key descriptions are missing on the images: “sauce all over his face” and “looking greedy”. 

With the improved language processing of V5, all key elements are reflected on the images. I’m actually quite impressed with how ‘greedy’ the boy looks.

Midjourney V5 images are in much higher resolution. The default resolution of V5 is the same as the upscaled images of V4, which is 1024 x 1024 pixels.

The image resolution of V4 before upscaling is 512 x 512 pixels, and higher-resolution images require additional upscaling, which means V5 has a 2x resolution increase.

To put it simply, all V5 images are already upscaled, so if you click “U1/U2/U3/U4” underneath the image, the high-resolution image is available almost instantly, unlike in V4, which usually takes a while to load.

3. More Realistic Images

Midjourney V5 can generate extremely realistic imagery compared to previous Midjourney models. While it’s a lot less artistic than the V4 images, V5 gives users far more control over the final image, as details on the images are highly responsive to what the prompts describe.

Here are three examples comparing the realism of Midjourney V4 and V5 images.

These are some fantastic images but you can tell they’re more ‘artistic/ painting’ like.

I’d believe you if you told me these are real photos of a woman from India.

Very cool images, but you can still tell they’re not super realistic.

The level of realism is amazing here.

Looks decent, other than the broken fork and the sunny side-up egg with some random yellow stuff on it. But you still can’t use it for a restaurant menu.

I’m officially hungry now. This could be used on a restaurant menu, look at that realism. It even comes with a pinch of pepper on that egg.

3 . More Stylistic Range

Midjourney V5 doesn’t lose the ‘imaginary’ and ‘artistic’ artwork characteristics seen in V4. With the ‘stylize’ parameter and the corresponding descriptions in your prompts, V5 gets even better with the details while still giving you the ‘artistic’ vibe.

A little something about the ‘stylize’ parameter:

• By adding — — stylize  or — — style  at the end of the prompts, it allows you to change the strength of Midjourney’s default styling.
• You can use the value 0 to 1000 (default is 100). For example, — — stylize 250 .
• If you set the value to 0 you may have worse images, but you can gain more fine-grained control.

Let’s take a look at the following two examples testing out different stylistic ranges in V5.

Example One

You can tell with the value 0, the images are a bit less detailed.

Look at those details and complexity with value 1,000.

Example Two

4. Improved ‘Remix’ Feature

‘Remix’ is a feature where you can upload two images to MidJourney and have them mixed together.

How to do it:

• First, upload two images.
• Copy both of their image links.
• Paste them both together in the prompt and enjoy the result

In V4, this feature doesn’t necessarily always do a good job other than giving you a good laugh. In V5, this feature has been improved. Let’s check out this example.

I uploaded a headshot image (below) and the image of a tiger lying in snow from this CNN article . 

This is what V4 gave me with the remix feature:

Well, at least it gives me a good laugh.

This is what V5 gave me with the remix feature:

Surprisingly decent.  Which one do you prefer?

5 . Broader Aspect Ratio Options

In Midjourney V5, there is no limit on the aspect ratio. You can go as far as 30:1 or 1:50, if you like. With this unlimited aspect ratio feature, your creation can go even wilder. Take a look:

6. Image Weight is Back

This feature was one of the favorites of many in V3, with it being gone in V4, it is now coming back in V5.

By typing — — iw  with the ratio of 0.5/1/2  at the end of the prompts, when you generate new images based on your image reference, you can now control exactly how much influence your image reference should have on the overall prompt. The higher the — — iw values, the more impact your image reference will have on the finished job.

With this feature, you can play around with the image weight to generate an image based on your unique preference. Let’s check out how the different image weight ratios can affect your images.

Here is the image reference I use:

If you don’t specify the image weight, then the weight of your image reference: your prompt would be 1:1.

With image weight “0.5”, it almost doesn’t reference the image that I uploaded.

With image weight “2”, the prompt “As The Dark Knight ‘’ is not even reflected on the image outcome.

7. Tile Parameter is Back

The tile parameter allows users to create seamless patterns and textures. A “tiled” background image is a small-sized image that is designed to be able to repeat seamlessly both horizontally and vertically.

It was a popular feature in Midjourney V3, and it can be particularly useful for certain features like making desktop wallpaper, print on demand, and also in the gaming industry, as they need all sorts of different textures to skin different models in the game. V4 didn’t carry this feature, but V5 has brought it back.

To apply the tile parameter, simply put — — tile  at the end of your prompt. Let’s check out this example.

This is the tiled image that is totally seamless based on the above image that was generated with the tile parameter:

What Features Haven’t Been Improved in Midjourney?

Overall, I’m very happy with the image quality and additional features that V5 provides, but there are still some existing issues that haven’t been improved.

1. Words in Images

If you want to generate images that include words that make sense that’s still impossible with Midjourney.

2. Strange hands

For some reason, hands and teeth are two those things that have been hard for Midjourney to get right. Too little or too many fingers and teeth is pretty common with the images generated.

While I noticed the teeth part had improved dramatically with V5, the hands are still weird in some images. I’m not complaining though, I like to think it’s just Midjourney trying to make us laugh.

3. Can’t get all the details right from the prompts

To be fair, V5 has improved a lot on understanding prompts with natural languages, but still, I experimented with different prompt variations and MidJourney was still not able to catch all the details. It gets frustrating sometimes, but I’m sure it will be improved over time.

The poor lady is stuck inside the billboard.

Midjourney V5 Prompt and Image Examples

Below are a few examples of prompts I used to generate images in Midjourney V5 and the results.

More on AI 6 Ways Image Generators Can Help Marketers

Future Midjourney Plans

During one of the recent “office hours” on Discord, community calls with the team, the company revealed a few upcoming plans that are pretty exciting:

• They are open to releasing an API for MidJourney. Think about all the doors that will open itself to.
• They are planning to release a V6 within the next 2 months. 

MidJourney V5 is certainly a massive step forward with so many new and improved features. The announcement of them planning to release a V6 in the upcoming few months is something I truly look forward to.

Some people may wonder, are we going to have to adjust what we’ve learned so far with every single new version of Midjourney? Well, possibly.

However, the language that we learned doesn’t get lost but just expands. All of the prompting skills and techniques are still applicable in the older versions while learning new skills is always fun, don’t you think?

In this fast-moving AI world , once you stop learning, you’re falling behind. Let’s keep on learning together.

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Great Companies Need Great People. That's Where We Come In.

To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories .

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Chris Stokel-Walker

Midjourney Magazine Is Here—and It’s Soulless

Midjourney Magazine has landed. The publication, a collection of thousands of AI-generated images as well as "interviews with Midjourney community members," dropped its second issue this past week.

It's a $4, 114-page coffee-table-style periodical filled with luscious, outlandish images and little else. There’s an eight-page interview, conducted by a human, with Bob Bonniol, a creative designer who has taken to using Midjourney to help iterate ideas. The Q&A aside, the title has very few of its own ideas at all.

The rest is just pages upon pages of large images of varying quality in varying genres, which are roughly grouped together based on theme and captioned with the prompt used to generate them, the human who gave that prompt, and the date they queried Midjourney, the generative AI platform from which its content is taken. (Midjourney is also the name of the company behind the tool, and the publisher of Midjourney .)

A profile photograph of a pensive female cyborg, all glossy, reflective metal skin, looking demurely down out of frame, sits on the same spread as what can only be described as a rejected character design for a Warhammer 40,000 figurine. The thing that seems to unite them in theme is “not human” and “a little disconcerting.”

Sometimes the themes slip. While the spread on pages 78 and 79 hangs together well, with an image of a woman in a yellow hat titled “in the style of fan ho, andy Goldsworthy, alex prager, anna atkins, franco fontana, Rosalyn drelxer ::1 umbrellas ::-0.02 styled by alan lee ::-0.48” sitting alongside “don’t look at the eloquent red circle, surreal, glistening highlights –ar2:3 –s 33” (which features a woman looking at a blood-red moon), others don’t do so well. Three cats wearing bathrobes doing tai chi in a bonsai-filled courtyard sit on the page opposite an image of a man walking on the Big Apple’s sidewalk that wouldn’t look out of place on Humans of New York.

It is enormously impressive to flick through. But when you start to look for more it falls flat. “It looks like a standard glossy magazine, with nice pictures and a simple layout,” says Michelle Pegg, cofounder of Curate Creative, a UK-based creative agency, “but as a magazine is a vehicle for stories and expression, and connecting with the reader, I feel it goes no further than the set of glossy pics.”

And I agree. In part this could be sour grapes: I work in an industry that has historically relied on being able to sell magazines as a luxury product, one carefully curated for you. They’re so expensive because, as advertising revenues that subsidized many titles have disappeared, publishers have been loath to scrimp on standards. Photo editors cost money. Designers, too. Journalists and editors and fact-checkers don’t come cheap.

But AI does—at least it does when its huge computing costs are subsidized by venture capital or the beneficence of Big Tech firms, as has happened so far with the rise of generative AI.

Reece Rogers

David Gilbert

Scott Gilbertson

Andy Greenberg

Yet the things that cost money are the things that give magazines their quality. The ability to see something you hadn’t expected is what separates printed products from the internet. It’s why those who love magazines do so fiercely. And it’s why I’m conflicted by Midjourney Magazine . I want to like it. But it’s soulless.

Pegg explains the problem well, comparing it to the “alt text on a website image.” Her main problem with the magazine echoes the fear many have with AI writ large. “The big thing missing in the magazine is the human connection,” she says. “No stories, no obvious reason behind the images that I want to know more about, no reason for that style.”

She says that the magazine has “no depth, just pretty enough pictures.” And she has qualms—as many do with AI-generated images—about the extent to which the work skirts on the right side of copyright laws.

One photo, on page 11, shows the results of a prompt asking for a 1940s-style photograph of a woman looking like Judy Garland, which almost exactly matches her facial features, suggesting the underlying model has been trained on images of the Hollywood icon.

“How will we know if what’s produced isn’t plagiarizing an artist’s work as it draws from what’s already out there?” Pegg asks. It’s an issue that Midjourney is reckoning with right now—it’s currently facing a class-action lawsuit over alleged copyright infringement. Midjourney claims in its defense that none of the plaintiffs in the case can point to their art being used as training data.

The magazine’s tagline ends with the claim it is “expanding the imaginative powers of the human species.” That’s something Pegg doesn’t necessarily dispute—some people will feel that way, she’s sure—but she does admit it doesn’t feel that way for her. “My first question on anything is always, why? What’s behind this? What’s the story?”

That’s not a question AI feels well equipped to answer—at least not yet.

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55 of The Coolest and Most Complex Midjourney V6 Prompts

Midjourney V6 just came out and it's already become my favorite AI image generator . It's a perfect mix of nuance and creativity — something that understands every single word of your prompt and perfectly captures it in an image.

But, as they say: a sword is only as good as the man who wields it.

Without the proper prompt, V6 is just another run-of-the-mill AI image generator. So that's why I've collected my favorite prompts for the new Midjourney version so far. I will give you a sneak peek into how creative it can be with the right string of words. Let's get into it

The Best Midjourney V6 Prompts

Midjourney V5.2 had this quirky habit of always giving people these super smooth faces like they just stepped out of a skincare ad — no scars or blemishes in sight. You could spot it from a mile away. But hey, good news! With V6, you can actually get some real character in those portraits.

Here are a couple of prompts for you to try out:

[Subject] plants, postmodern photography, elegant figures, orange and green, art nouveau fashion, closeup

portrait of a [Subject] , glamour street medium format photography, next-door looks, depth of field camerawork

low-angle photo of a [Subject] , cinematic shot, overcast weather

kodak disposable camera selfie photo of a [Subject] , analog

[Subject] portrait photography, smooth light, real photography, wolfgang tillmans

[Subject] sports action photography, pickleball , kinetic movement, slight motion blur

[Subject] photo-realistic, leica m6, 50mm f/1.8 lens

closeup portrait photo from below of a [Subject] in [Setting] during winter

[Subject + Clothing] in the style of mamiya rb67, shige's visual aesthetic style, dark brown and light beige, tumblewave, oshare kei, brooding mood

Panoramic seaside, real photo style, [Subject] detailed face, ethereal background, light blue & white, floating white silk, epic masterpiece

Landscapes was one thing Midjourney V5.2 was good at, but looking back, it just looked a bit too polished. No rough edges, no natural chaos. V6 takes an already capable model and improves upon it by adding a touch of realism to landscape photos.

Here are a couple of prompts that captures the essence of nature:

[Subject] real photography by daniel kordan, panoramic shot, dutch landscapes, epic

[Subject] real photography, eerie, ultra wide angle, [Color] hues, inspired by vilhelm hammershoi

[Subject] landscape, with peaks and terraced fields, beautiful scenery, 32K ultra wide shot

a portrait of [Place] by iwan baan, street

[Subject] wide angle shot, minimalist photography, fujifilm pro 800z, clear skies, ethereal background

Other Realism Examples

a hyperrealistic slice of [Subject] white background, isolated

food photography, [Subject] macro shot, [Subject Focus] black background

view from above [Subject] real photography, professional food photography, vivid colors

product photography, [Subject] soft pallette, magical realism, whimsical and dreamy

commercial photography, [Subject] wood, high contrast, cinematic lighting

[Subject] overcast light, as photographed by andreas gursky

[Subject + Subject Action] golden hour, wildlife photography

a macro shot of [Subject] in natural light

a micro shot of a [Subject] pastel gradient, intricate patterns, dark background, extreme closeup

Architecture and Interior Design

Midjourney V5.2 was, and still is, a great tool architecture and interior design. V6 is proof that you can always improve even if you're good enough with improvements on nuance and authenticity of real spaces. The updated version offers a more genuine portrayal of architectural and interior design elements. For example:

exterior of [Subject] nature, modern asian architecture, inspired by thomas struth photography

exterior shot of a [Subject] black and white accents, simple elegance, bright day, modern architecture

[Subject] housewarming inside the house, chic interior design, photography by julius shulman, dusk lighting

interior, [Subject Location] cottagecore, a young woman tending the plants, wide angle shot

architectural digest image of open spaces, mies van der rohe, [POV] minimalist interior design, light brown and light amber, Canon EOS 90D

[Subject] hollywood regency architecture

Digital Art

Technically, all Midjourney art is digital art . However, if you're looking for art that actually looks digitally made, here are a few prompts to keep in mind:

[Subject] linocut print, distraught, spiraling into madness, shigeo fukuda, surreal interstellar background, indigo

[Subject] flat vector illustration, muted colors, clean background

[Subject] rpg, realistic cartoon style, detailed lines on edges

[Subject] gta loading screen, grand theft auto 5

detailed pixel art, [Subject] liminal, exterior shot

an animated picture with an image of [Subject] in the style of bill watterson, light crimson and violet, whimsical cats, concept art, caninecore, disney animation, pseudo-realistic

[Subject] in a dvd screen grab of Dragon Ball Z, drawn by Akira Toriyama, animated by Toei animation studio, 1985 Japanese anime

[Subject] in pop art style with red and gold background, god rays, peter bagge, striped arrangements, animated gifs, grant morrison

[Subject] at the beach, cool summer breeze, in the style of hayao miyazaki

mixed-media scrap fabric and acrylic collage of [Subject] chaos, marcel duchamp

in the style of 1980s animated series, [Subject]

Midjourney has always been one of my favorite AI image generators for logos. With their new text generation capabilities, you can now create logos with your company name directly. Here are a couple examples:

a logo for a [Purpose] with the word [Shop Name] below the logo, in the style of paul rand, clean background, minimalist

a clean logo for a [Purpose] with the word [Shop or Company Name] below the logo, line art of a [Subject] no fill, intricate

a clean logo for a [Purpose] with the word [Shop or Company Name] below the logo, fauvism inspired

a simple minimal logo of [Subject] with the word [Shop or Company Name] below the logo, in the style of ukiyo-e, japanese, minimalism

Storyboarding and Concept Art

If you're looking for film stills, character designs, and concept art, I've got you. The following are some of the best Midjourney V6 prompts for storytelling:

high quality photography of [Subject] backlighting, natural pale light, film camera, by Rinko Kawauchi, HDR

film still, white angle shot of [Subject] sci-fi movie, by christopher nolan, celestial bodies

Wong Kar-wai film, Shanghai 1995, [Subject] radiant colors, vibrantcolorism

cinematic film still, [Subject] live-action concept art, in the style of marvel cinematic universe

animation still, [Subject] [Subject Gender] character design, high fantasy, [Setting] background

character design, [Subject] [Additional Subject Descriptors, i.e. age, hair color, clothing, unique characteristics] unreal engine

[Subject] celestial bodies, dreamscape, closeup, character concept design

[Subject] animated comics, in the style of hayao miyazaki, animated gifs, emphasis on detail, naoko takeuchi, strong lines

Parting Words

I've always thought that the best and most ethical way to use Midjourney isn't to make money but to give non-artistic people a chance not just to ideate but also to create .

Midjourney will keep improving; soon, you won't have to resort to complex prompts to get what you want. So, scroll up and take a look at each of them once again. I guarantee that next year, if you stumble upon this article in January 2025, you'll look back and realize how much it's grown since then.

So here are my parting thoughts for now: above all else, remember that these prompts are just a starting point. The true brilliance of Midjourney V6 lies in what you make of them. Get creative, experiment, and push the boundaries. Oh, and of course, have fun!

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AI image generator Midjourney blocks porn by banning words about the human reproductive system

Midjourney says it’s a temporary measure to stop people from using its system to create shocking or gory images.

• Melissa Heikkilä archive page

The popular AI image generator Midjourney bans a wide range of words about the human reproductive system from being used as prompts, MIT Technology Review has discovered. 

If someone types “placenta,” “fallopian tubes,” “mammary glands,” “sperm,” “uterine,” “urethra,” “cervix,” “hymen,” or “vulva” into Midjourney, the system flags the word as a banned prompt and doesn’t let it be used. Sometimes, users who tried one of these prompts are blocked for a limited time for trying to generate banned content. Other words relating to human biology, such as “liver” and “kidney,” are allowed. 

Midjourney’s founder, David Holz, says it’s banning these words as a stopgap measure to prevent people from generating shocking or gory  content while the company “improves things on the AI side.” Holz says moderators watch how words are being used and what kinds of images are being generated, and adjust the bans periodically. The firm has a community guidelines page that lists the type of content it blocks in this way, including sexual imagery, gore, and even the 🍑 emoji, which is often used as a symbol for the buttocks.

AI models such as Midjourney, DALL-E 2, and Stable Diffusion are trained on billions of images that have been scraped from the internet. Research by a team at the University of Washington has found that such models learn biases that sexually objectify women, which are then reflected in the images they produce. The massive size of the data set makes it almost impossible to remove unwanted images, such as those of a sexual or violent nature, or those that could produce biased outcomes. The more often something appears in the data set, the stronger the connection the AI model makes, which means it is more likely to appear in images the model generates.  

Midjourney’s word bans are a piecemeal attempt to address this problem. Some terms relating to the male reproductive system, such as “sperm” and “testicles,” are blocked too, but the list of banned words seems to skew predominantly female. 

The prompt ban was first spotted by Julia Rockwell, a clinical data analyst at Datafy Clinical, and her friend Madeline Keenen, a cell biologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Rockwell used Midjourney to try to generate a fun image of the placenta for Keenen, who studies them. To her surprise, Rockwell found that using “placenta” as a prompt was banned. She then started experimenting with other words related to the human reproductive system, and found the same.

However, the pair also showed how it's possible to work around these bans to create sexualized images by using different spellings of words, or other euphemisms for sexual or gory content. 

In findings they shared with MIT Technology Review, they found that the prompt “gynaecological exam”—using the British spelling—generated some deeply creepy images: one of two naked women in a doctor’s office, and another of a bald three-limbed person cutting up their own stomach. 

Midjourney’s crude banning of prompts relating to reproductive biology highlights how tricky it is to moderate content around generative AI systems. It also demonstrates how the tendency for AI systems to sexualize women extends all the way to their internal organs, says Rockwell. 

It doesn’t have to be like this. OpenAI and Stability.AI have managed to filter out unwanted outputs and prompts, so when you type the same words into their image-making systems—DALL-E 2 and Stable Diffusion, respectively—they produce very different images. The prompt “gynecology exam” yielded images of a person holding an invented medical device for DALL-E 2, and two distorted masked women with rubber gloves and lab coats on Stable Diffusion. Both systems also allowed the prompt “placenta,” and produced biologically inaccurate images of fleshy organs in response. 

A spokesperson for Stability.AI said their latest model has a filter that blocks unsafe and inappropriate content from users, and has a tool that detects nudity and other inappropriate images and returns a blurred image. The company uses a combination of keywords, image recognition and other techniques to moderate the images its AI system generates. OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment. 

But tools to filter out unwanted AI-generated images are still deeply imperfect. Because AI developers and researchers don’t know how to systemically audit and improve their models yet, they “hotfix” them with blanket bans like the ones Midjourney has introduced, says Marzyeh Ghassemi, an assistant professor at MIT who studies applying machine learning to health.

It’s unclear why references to gynecological exams or the placenta, an organ that develops during pregnancy and provides oxygen and nutrients to a baby, would generate gory or sexually explicit content. But it likely has something to do with the associations the model has made between images in its data set, according to Irene Chen, a researcher at Microsoft Research, who studies machine learning for equitable health care. 

“Much more work needs to be done to understand what harmful associations models might be learning, because if we work with human data, we are going to learn biases,” says Ghassemi. 

There are many approaches tech companies could take to address this issue besides banning words altogether. For example, Ghassemi says, certain prompts—such as ones relating to human biology—could be allowed in particular contexts but banned in others. 

“Placenta” could be allowed if the string of words in the prompt signaled that the user was trying to generate an image of the organ for educational or research purposes. But if the prompt was used in a context where someone tried to generate sexual content or gore, it could be banned. 

However crude, though, Midjourney’s censoring has been done with the right intentions.

“These guardrails are there to protect women and minorities from having disturbing content generated about them and used against them,” says Ghassemi.

Artificial intelligence

Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. but nobody knows exactly why..

And that's a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models.

• Will Douglas Heaven archive page

OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora

The firm is sharing Sora with a small group of safety testers but the rest of us will have to wait to learn more.

Google DeepMind’s new generative model makes Super Mario–like games from scratch

Genie learns how to control games by watching hours and hours of video. It could help train next-gen robots too.

Responsible technology use in the AI age

AI presents distinct social and ethical challenges, but its sudden rise presents a singular opportunity for responsible adoption.

• MIT Technology Review Insights archive page

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Midjourney Prompts Guide, Examples & Settings

Midjourney (MJ) is among the world’s leading AI image generators, able to create photo-realistic images and detailed artworks. Plug your prompt into the Midjourney Discord channel, and Midjourney will turn out four high-quality images in under 60 seconds.

But how does Midjourney work? And how do you craft first-rate prompts that produce the best Midjourney images possible? Scroll down to learn more about Midjourney, from the different MJ models to prompt parameters and much more.

A quick note before we dive in: Midjourney is perfect for having fun, brainstorming, or even sparking ideas for your next mood board. While it’s great for personal use, if you’ve got a project or commissioned work in the pipeline, it’s always best to work with professional artists and creatives who can bring your vision to life!

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Table of Contents

Midjourney Prompts Guide

Midjourney prompts examples.

Midjourney can be pretty daunting at first glance, but after a couple of hours playing around, you’ll be creating amazing images in no time. Here’s a look at Midjourney’s basic usage and how to craft high-quality Midjourney prompts.

The Basics of Midjourney

Here’s a quick run-down of some of Midjourney’s basic functionality so you hit the ground running:

• After signing up for an account, join the Midjourney Discord
• Consider DMing the Midjourney Bot so you can keep track of your images — otherwise they’ll get lost in a sea of prompts!
• Type “/imagine” in a message to the Midjourney Bot followed by a prompt to generate a grid of images
• Type “/settings” in a message to the Midjourney Bot and press “enter” to adjust the Midjourney model, quality, style, and mode
• Once Midjourney generates a grid of four images, you can click “U 1-4” or “V 1-4” to upscale or make variations of a specific image
• Toggle “Remix mode” in “/settings” to update your prompts before generating variations

Midjourney Models

Midjourney has nine models currently:

MJ versions 1-5

• Niji version 4
• Niji version 5
• MJ Test Photo

With MJ versions 1-5, the higher the version number, the higher the quality of the images in almost every conceivable way. MJ version 5 is the fastest and has the largest stylistic scope, with improved resolutions and dynamic range.

All five versions of Midjourney are still usable, but you’ll get the best results using versions 4 and 5. Newer versions produce more realistic images with detailed backgrounds and greater color usage.

MJ V5 is better at the finer details, including realistic hands with the correct number of fingers — something Midjourney has struggled with in the past!

Midjourney test models

MJ Test and MJ Test Photo were released prior to MJ V4. MJ Test essentially aims to combine aesthetics and coherence, creating images that look more like pieces of art than real-to-life images.

“MJ Test Photo” is basically the same as “MJ Test” but focuses on making photo-realistic images. Both test models generate fewer images (1 or 2 images per prompt) than MJ versions 1-5. Since it’s a test model, MJ Test Photo has more trouble following specific details in prompts. (We’re speaking from experience — we encountered this issue while researching for this post.)

Niji versions

Niji version 4 and Niji version 5 are explicitly geared toward anime and illustrative designs. Like the original MJ models, Niji version 5 makes more detailed and imaginative images to almost every extent.

Useful Commands for Midjourney

Here are some useful commands and their functions when writing Midjourney prompts. You can find a full command list here .

Generates an image based on a text prompt

Changes Midjourney’s image-generating speed to fast

Adjusts Midjourney’s settings

/prefer suffix

Add specific suffixes to future prompts

Toggles Remix mode

Adding Parameters as Prompt Suffixes for Midjourney

Adding suffixes to your prompts is a UI that allows you to set parameters like seeds, versions, quality, stylistic ranges, and more. Adding prompt suffixes are essential for producing the exact image you want in the way you want it.

To quickly add suffixes without entering “/settings,” you can type “/prefer suffix” to automatically add a suffix command to the end of your prompts. There are various parameters you set using the “/prefer suffix” command. A few of the most useful parameters include:

• Aspect ratio (“–ar”)
• Quality (“–q <.25, .5, 1, or 2>”)
• Seed (“–seed”)
• Stylize (“–s <number>)
• Version (“–v <1, 2, 3, 4, or 5>”)

For example, you can type “/prefer suffix –v 5 –q 1” to adjust future prompts to use MJ version 5 and set the default quality, 1. Or, type “/prefer suffix –ar 16:9” to adjust the aspect ratio of an image from the default 1:1. Different Midjourney models have different maximum aspect ratios — Midjourney version 5 allows you to use any aspect ratio.

These are just a few of Midjourney’s suffix parameters. You can find a full list here .

Seed Parameters

Out of all Midjourney’s parameters, seeds are the most complex, yet among the most useful.

In Midjourney, you’ll receive different images whenever you enter a prompt, even if your prompt is exactly the same. This feature isn’t ideal if you’re trying to build upon an already-generated visual style. This is where setting the seed parameter is helpful.

For every Job, Midjourney assigns a random number. You can add a seed number to the end of prompts by adding the suffix “–seed”.

By using the same seed, you reproduce similar images, using the same field of “visual noise” as the initial image. Midjourney describes this “noise” as a visual starting point similar to television static. This function allows you to build on prompts with the same early visuals used in the initial image grid.

The “–seed” parameter applies random visual building blocks from across all four images in the initial seeded grid. The “–sameseed” parameter instead applies a specific starting visual noise to produce four very similar images. The “–sameseed” parameter is incompatible with MJ V5 and MJ V4.

How to find a Midjourney image’s seed number

You can find the seed number of a Job by reacting with a ✉️ emoji to a specific Job. The Midjourney Bot will DM you with the job and seed of your chosen image.

To get the seed of an old image, use the Job ID, type “/show job_id” command and paste the Job ID. You can react to the revived Job again with the ✉️ emoji to get the seed.

Remix mode lets you modify prompts for the upcoming output. It’s extremely useful for image variations, as otherwise you can’t modify your prompt and you may totally lose that unique output.

Toggle “Remix mode” in “/settings” to add details to your prompts when making variations of images. Or, simply type “/remix” to turn Remix mode on or off.

Multi-prompts in Midjourney

Using multi-prompts is one of the best methods of getting precisely what you want from an image. Multi-prompts allow you to separate your prompts into several different concepts, which Midjourney will consider individually.

By adding “::” to your prompt, Midjourney will consider each idea separately. For example, if you type “/imagine cheese:: cake” rather than “/imagine cheesecake,” you’ll get a set of results that look like cheese in the shape of a cake instead of a literal cheesecake.

You can also add prompt weights to your multi-prompts. If you type “/imagine cheese::2 cake” as a prompt, Midjourney will make the word “cheese” twice as important as the word “cake.” The result is an image that resembles cheese far more than cake.

Negative prompt weights remove unwanted elements from images and can be added by typing “::-.5” after the component you want to remove or lessen. Negative weight prompts work similarly to the “–no” parameter, which removes unwanted aspects from an image.

Tips for Writing High-quality Midjourney Prompts

Crafting high-quality Midjourney prompts is a skill that you’ll perfect over time. You’ll want to add as much detail as you can to your prompt and know exactly how to lay it out to get the results you want from Midjourney. Check out the Midjourney community showcase for inspiration when writing prompts.

To make detailed prompts, you’ll want to give Midjourney style directions, such as the artistic technique, the camera angle, and lighting. And, of course, the more detail you provide about what you want from your image, the better it’ll turn out. Multi-prompts and prompt weights will help you separate ideas and emphasize specific ideas.

• Useful details to add to your Midjourney prompts include:
• Adjectives (delicious, graceful, filthy, beautiful)
• Artistic style (surreal, cartoonish, isometric)
• Inspiration (Studio Ghibli, Andy Warhol, Trey Ratcliff)
• Camera angle (wide-angle shot, aerial view, close-up)
• Lighting (frontal, backlighting, bright::1, dim::-0.5)
• Sensory details (smells, sights, sounds)

Using ChatGPT to Generate Midjourney Prompts

Try using ChatGPT to generate Midjourney prompts if you’re struggling for inspiration. Ask ChatGPT to act as a Midjourney prompt generator and provide ChatGPT with a basic prompt and any specific details and styles you want to include. ChatGPT will write a more detailed description for Midjourney, which you can use as a basis for your next prompt.

Below is an example of a prompt you can send ChatGPT to generate Midjourney prompts:

“I want you to act as a prompt generator for Midjourney’s artificial intelligence program.

Your job is to provide detailed and creative descriptions that will inspire unique and interesting images from the AI. Keep in mind that the Al is capable of understanding a wide range of language and can interpret abstract concepts, so feel free to be as imaginative and descriptive as possible.

For example, you could describe a scene from a futuristic city, or a surreal landscape filled with strange creatures. The more detailed and imaginative your description, the more interesting the resulting image will be.

Here is your first prompt: <Insert Prompt>”

Here’s several examples and use cases of Midjourney prompts in different visual styles for extra inspiration for making your own Midjourney masterpieces.

Portraits in Midjourney

Midjourney version 5 can produce photo-realistic images with highly detailed prompts. Include specifics like what the person should wear, the setting, the camera angle, and even which film and camera to use. Add an “ar–” suffix to change the aspect ratio to change the image’s height and width.

Surrealism in Midjourney

This image particularly favors the work of artist Roger Dean with an pleasing color palette. The prompt writer used the chaos (“–c”) parameter to devise a grid of four images with more varied and unusual compositions, which is ideal for abstract artworks.

Isometric or Rolling Backgrounds in Midjourney

Specifying their preferred aspect ratio and style has helped this user produce some unique, colorful cartoon isometric cityscapes. Many people using similar prompts have been able to turn these into rolling backgrounds for animations.

Landscape photography in Midjourney

This use case is just one example of the beautiful landscapes Midjourney can produce. Using Josh Adamski and Elizabeth Gadd as inspiration with a stock photo style illustrates how adept Midjourney version 5 is at constructing HD images.

Illustrations in Midjourney

Midjourney is capable of creating unique and captivating illustrations. The highly detailed prompts can be used to generate inspiration for a wide range of characters, places, and objects.

Cyberpunk art in Midjourney

By setting highly specific photography details including light sensitivity and shutter speed, this user has developed a prompt for a high-realism cyberpunk street performance.

Remember: Midjourney is constantly evolving, so ensure you check Midjourney announcements in Discord for all the latest updates and changes!

That’s all for this Midjourney prompt guide. Let us know in the comments below if you’ve written any Midjounrney prompts you’re particularly proud of!

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• Art Library

30+ Midjourney Prompts for Beautiful Woman [Tutorial]

Posted by Hikapo on Jun 09, 2023

Women are the most beautiful beings in the world, and Midjourney has no problems creating them. We will go over the Midjourney prompts for beautiful woman here to give you ideas to create yours.

• 1.1 Using ChatGPT for Generating Beautiful Woman Descriptions
• 2 Midjourney Beautiful Women Prompt Image Examples
• 3.1 What is Midjourney?
• 3.2 Is Midjourney Free?
• 3.3 Can I use Midjourney without Discord?

Prompt Structure for Beautiful Woman

When it comes to making simple prompts and produce amazing results, you just have to follow this general guideline:

/imagine [insert subject or description], [art style], [photography style], [lighting], [aspect ratio]

Avoid using too many words to clutter the AI with unnecessary stuff. Midjourney will ignore anything past 60 words from what I experienced from V4 onwards.

The image changes a bit based on additional prompts and you want to try out different styles to see what works for you.

Here are a few examples:

/imagine pencil sketch of a female CEO, inspired by Martin Whatson, street art

/imagine shy woman looking out the window, digital photography, ultra detailed, taken by canon, f/1.8, high quality, dim lighting –ar 16:9

/imagine the african queen of ghana, vaporwave fashion, vector image

/imagine portrait of catwoman, stained glass style, symmetrical, muted colors, sticker

/imagine a female kpop star on a stage concert, exhilarating atmosphere, flashing lights, award winning photography, high resolution –ar 2:3

Read also : Midjourney Prompts for Anime Characters

Using ChatGPT for Generating Beautiful Woman Descriptions

If you find yourself running out of vocabulary to describe something you want, you can ask Chat GPT to help you out. Here is a simple prompt to give you additional words to use:

Create a table with 5 rows that gives info on the beautiful women, descriptions of the women’s features, location and settings, lighting

Here is what Chat GPT provided:

Another very useful prompt to use is to make Chat GPT the “expert” in being a Midjourney Prompt Engineer.

Here is a long prompt thanks to AI for Success   ( YouTube video for instructions):

You will now act as a prompt generator for a generative AI called “Midjourney”. Midjourney AI generates images based on given prompts.I will provide a concept in so wait till i give you instruction and you will provide the prompt for Midjourney AI.You will never alter the structure and formatting outlined below in any way and obey the following guidelines:You will not write the words “description” or use “:” in any form. You will write each prompt in one line without using return. Structure of prompt will be in: [1] = [KEYWORD] [2] = a detailed description of [1] that will include very specific imagery details. [3] = with a detailed description describing the environment of the scene. [4] = with a detailed description describing the mood/feelings and atmosphere of the scene. [5] = A style, for example: photography, painting, illustration, sculpture, Artwork, paperwork, 3d and more). [6] = A description of how [5] will be realized. (e.g. Photography (e.g. Macro, Fisheye Style, Portrait) with camera model and appropriate camera settings, Painting with detailed descriptions about the materials and working material used, rendering with engine settings, a digital Illustration, a woodburn art (and everything else that could be defined as an output type) [7] = Parameters details as given below Note don’t use , when using parameter options and use all important parameter options which is required to generate image. Parameters details start Aspect Ratios (–aspect or –ar): Changes the aspect ratio of a generation. –aspect 5:4: Common frame and print ratio. –aspect 4:3: Common in television and photography. –aspect 3:2: Common in print photography. –aspect 16:9: Common in widescreen television and video. –aspect 2:1: Common in panoramic photography. –aspect 7:4: Close to HD TV screens and smartphone screens. –aspect 9:16: Common in vertical videos and smartphone screens. –aspect 1:2: Common in portrait-oriented photography. Chaos (–chaos <number>): Changes how varied the results will be. Higher values produce more unusual and unexpected generations. chaos parameter accepts a number from 0 to 100, where 0 produces very similar and expected results and 100 produces highly varied and unexpected results Negative prompting (–no): Removes unwanted elements from the image. Quality (–quality or –q <.25, .5, 1, or 2>): Controls the rendering quality of the image. Default is 1. Seed (–seed <integer between 0-4294967295>): Specifies a seed number to generate the initial image grids. Using the same seed number and prompt will produce similar ending images. Stop (–stop <integer between 10-100>): Finishes a job partway through the process. Stopping a job at an earlier percentage can create blurrier, less detailed results. Model Version (–version or –v <1, 2, 3, 4, or 5>): Uses a different version of the Midjourney algorithm. The current algorithm (V4) is the default setting. Stylize (–stylize <number> or –s <number>): Influences how strongly Midjourney’s default aesthetic style is applied to jobs. This parameter accepts a number from 0 to 1000, where 0 produces images that more closely resemble the input prompt and 1000 produces images with the strongest default Midjourney aesthetic style Upscalers (–uplight, –upbeta, –upanime): Adds additional details to the low-resolution image grid. Multiple upscale models are available. Image Weight (–iw): Sets the image prompt weight relative to text weight. Default value is 0.25. Parameters details End* Use aspect ratio which fits best for the image as per your understanding. If [5] looks best in a Japanese art style use, “–niji”. Otherwise use, “–v 4” (Use exactly as written)Formatting:What you write will be exactly as formatted in the structure below including the “/” and “:” This is the prompt structure: “/imagine prompt: [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6] ,[7]”. Important point to note while writing prompts , Never use / or : between [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6] ,[7] Don’t use [] while generating prompt. The prompts you provide will be in English.Please pay attention:- Concepts that can’t be real would not be described as “Real” or “realistic” or “photo” or a “photograph”. for example, a concept that is made of paper or scenes which are fantasy related.- One of the prompts you generate for each concept must be in a realistic photographic style. you should also choose a lens type and size for it. Don’t choose an artist for the realistic photography prompts.- Separate the different prompts with two new lines. I will provide you keyword and you will generate 3 different prompts in vbnet code cell so i can copy and paste. Are you ready ?

What this prompt does is it gives you different descriptions that you can use if you need more ideas. Here are some examples given when I used the subject “beautiful arab girl in the desert”.

/imagine A beautiful Arab girl gracefully stands in the vast desert, her flowing ebony hair catching the golden rays of the scorching sun. The shimmering sand dunes stretch endlessly, forming rippling patterns under her bare feet. The scene radiates warmth and resilience, reflecting the girl’s inner strength and captivating charm. The desert breeze whispers secrets, carrying the fragrance of desert blooms across the arid landscape.

You can then use the first few sentences to alter it to another style.

/imagine A beautiful Arab girl gracefully stands in the vast desert, her flowing ebony hair catching the golden rays of the scorching sun. Studio Photography, taken by Canon, hyper realistic, 8k, high definition –ar 16:9

Now we get an up close and personal view of it. Here is another example:

/imagine a beautiful cartoon woman with vibrant, flowing hair sits on a whimsical park bench. Her sparkling eyes convey a sense of joy and contentment. The park is a vibrant oasis, adorned with colorful flowers and lush greenery. The atmosphere is filled with the gentle chirping of birds and the laughter of children playing nearby. Soft sunlight bathes the scene, casting a warm and inviting glow on the woman as she enjoys a peaceful moment of serenity.

Let’s take the first sentence and alter it to another style.

/imagine a beautiful cartoon woman with vibrant, flowing hair sits on a whimsical park bench. pixel art style, vaperwave colors, ultra detailed, wall decal

Now we have a sticker like image for decorations if you wish.

Here is another one:

/imagine a graceful woman dressed in exquisite Victorian fashion glides across the grand ballroom floor. Her opulent gown, adorned with intricate lace and shimmering jewels, twirls elegantly with each step. The ballroom is a vision of splendor, with high ceilings, sparkling chandeliers, and ornate decorations. The air is filled with the enchanting melodies of a live orchestra, creating a romantic ambiance. Soft candlelight casts a warm, golden glow, illuminating the woman’s delicate movements as she gracefully dances with her partner, lost in the timeless elegance of the moment.

With the idea, we now alter it a bit for a portrait view with a different style.

/imagine portrait of a graceful woman, dressed in exquisite Victorian fashion, award winning photography, 8k, taken by canon, high resolution

Midjourney Beautiful Women Prompt Image Examples

/imagine smiling mexican girl in a chiapaneca dress, colored pencil style, by Artgerm –ar 2:3

/imagine beautiful blonde Polish woman with flowers, symmetrical, traditional polish art, beautiful illustration, highly detailed, geometric, fluid patterns, passionate, graceful

/imagine asian woman dressed in tang dynasty clothing in NYC, double exposure photography, studio lighting, high resolution –ar 2:3

/imagine girls night out in a rave party taking a selfie, crowded place, highly realistic, professional photography, taken by nikon, 8k, high resolution –ar 16:9

/imagine a beautiful cherokee shaman woman in a dark misty and wet blue fantasy jungle, blushed face, defiant attitude, centered, she has beautiful thin face features, oil painting style –ar 5:4

/imagine a thai woman dressed in Chut Thai, the outfit is complete with delicate gold jewelry, including a shimmering headdress and ornate accessories –ar 2:3

/imagine elegant Aeris from Final Fantasy in Midgar, beautiful night skies, vast landscape, windy, highly detailed –niji

/imagine comic book cover of a female super heroine, cave painting style, inspired by Marjane Satrapi –ar 2:3

/imagine a beautiful woman with long brown hair, mixed race latin and african, pastel colors, cute, playful, Marker Style, trending on artstation, by Ross Tran

/imagine Highly detailed illustration of stunning cyborg woman, slender frame, grey color, blueprint style, anatomical drawing

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The Eclipse Chaser

As millions of americans prepare to see a total solar eclipse, a retired astrophysicist known as “mr. eclipse,” discusses the celestial phenomenon..

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email [email protected] with any questions.

Can you hear — Fred, can you hear me?

[DISTORTED SPEECH]:

The internet is a little wonky.

OK. Well, [DISTORTED SPEECH]: Arizona. So the internet speed here isn’t really fast.

I think we’re going to call — yeah, I think we’re going to call you back on a — for the first time in a really long time — a landline.

[PHONE RINGING]

Hey, Fred, it’s Michael Barbaro.

You can hear me OK?

I can hear you.

Perfect. So, Fred, where exactly am I reaching you?

I’m in Portal, Arizona, in a little community called Arizona Sky Village. And it’s a very rural community. So our internet and phone lines are not very good. And the nearest grocery store is 60 miles away.

Wow. And why would you choose to live in such a remote place with such bad internet?

Because the sky is dark. It’s like the sky was a hundred years ago before cities encroached on all of the country. I guess you’d call it an astronomy development. Mainly, amateur astronomers who have built homes here far from city lights for the express purpose of studying the sky.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

So it’s literally a community where once the sun goes down, it’s pitch black. And some, perhaps all of you, are stargazing?

Yes, exactly.

Well, I think I’m beginning to understand why you might have the nickname that you do. Can you just tell our listeners what that nickname is?

My nickname is Mr. Eclipse.

From “The New York Times,” I’m Michael Barbaro. This is “The Daily.” Today’s total solar eclipse will be watched by millions of people across North America, none of them as closely as Fred Espenak, a longtime NASA scientist who’s devoted his entire life to studying, chasing, and popularizing the wonder that is an eclipse.

It’s Monday, April 8.

Fred, help me understand how you become Mr. Eclipse, how you go from being Fred to this seemingly very hard-earned nickname of Mr. Eclipse.

Well, I was visiting my grandparents at their summer home. And it was a partial eclipse of the sun back in the early 1960s. And I was a 10 - or 12-year-old kid. I got my parents to get me a small telescope. And I watched some of the partial phases. And it was really interesting.

And I started reading about eclipses. And I found out that as interesting as a partial eclipse is, a total eclipse is far more interesting. The moon is only 1/400 the diameter of the sun. It’s tiny compared to the sun. But it’s 400 times closer to the Earth. So it’s just this incredible coincidence that the moon and sun appear to be the same size in the sky. And once in a while, the moon passes directly between the Earth and the sun. And you’re plunged into this very strange midday twilight.

But they’re limited to a very small geographic areas to see a total eclipse. And this little book I was studying had a map of the world, showing upcoming paths of total solar eclipses. And I realized that one was passing through North America about 600 miles from where I lived. And that eclipse was in 1970.

And I was reading about this in 1963, 1964. And I made a promise to myself that I was going to get to that eclipse in 1970 to see it because I thought it was a one chance in a lifetime to see a total eclipse of the sun.

So just to be very clear, you see a partial eclipse, and you immediately think to yourself, that was fine. But I need the real thing. I need a full eclipse. And you happen to find out, around this time, that a real eclipse is coming but in seven years.

Right. I mean, there were other eclipses between that time and seven years in the future. But they were in other parts of the world. And I couldn’t buy an airplane ticket and fly to Europe or Australia.

And by 1970, I’d been waiting for this. And by this point, I had just gotten a driver’s license. And I convinced my parents to let me drive the car 600 miles to get down into the path of totality to see this great event.

Wow. Wait, from where to where?

From Staten Island, New York, down to a little town in North Carolina.

How did you convince your parents to let you do that? I mean, that’s —

Well, I had seven years to work on it.

[LAUGHS]: Right.

And I was just a nerdy kid. I didn’t get into trouble. I was interested in science. I was out in the woods, studying frogs and wildlife and stuff. So this was just a natural progression of the type of things I would normally do.

Right. OK. So I wonder if you can describe this journey you end up taking from Staten Island. How does the trip unfold as you’re headed on this 600 mile?

So, I think, on March 6, 1970, it was a Friday. My friend and I left to drive to the eclipse path. We probably got on the road probably at 5:00 AM because it was going to be a very long day.

And we’ve got a detailed map in the car, which I’ve plotted the eclipse path on. And we’re just trying to get far enough south to get into the path of the eclipse, which for us is easternmost Virginia or Eastern North Carolina. And I drive and drive and drive all day long. Very long day.

We get down to North Carolina right about maybe 6:00 PM. And we just see this little town in North Carolina that we’re driving through. And it happens to have a convenient motel right in the center of the path. And that was good enough. Got a room available. And we check in. And that’s where we’re going to watch the eclipse from.

And the next morning was eclipse day. It was a bright, crisp, sunny morning. There weren’t any clouds at all in the sky. And I was amazed that outside the back of the motel, in this grassy field, there were dozens and dozens of people with telescopes out there, specifically there for the eclipse that morning.

We were really excited about this. We set up our — my telescope. And we had another camera set up to watch it. And we walked around and marveled at some of the other people and their telescopes and discussed the eclipse with them. And the eclipse started probably around noon or 1:00 in the afternoon.

Describe the actual event itself, the eclipse. How did it begin?

Well, all solar eclipses begin as a partial eclipse. And the sun is gradually covered by the moon as the moon takes larger and larger pieces out of the sun, as it slowly crawls across the sun’s surface. And you don’t really notice much going on with a naked eye.

It’s really only in the last 10 minutes or so that you start to notice changes in the environment because now enough of the sun has been covered, upwards of maybe 90 percent of the sun. And you start to notice the temperature falling. There’s a chill in the air.

Also, since so much of the sun is covered, the daylight starts to take on an anemic quality. It’s weak. The sun is still too bright to look at. But the surroundings, the environment is not as bright as it was a half hour earlier.

You start to notice animals reacting to the dwindling sunlight. They start acting like it’s sunset. And they start performing some of their evening rituals, like birds roosting, perhaps calling their evening songs. And plants start closing up and the dropping sunlight. And then the dropping temperatures.

And there’s an acceleration now of all these effects. The temperature drop, the drop in the sunlight, it starts happening faster and faster and getting darker and darker. And maybe about a minute before the total eclipse began, we noticed strange patterns on the ground beneath us, on the grassy field that we were on — these ripples racing across the field. And these are something called shadow bands.

They look a lot like the rippling patterns that you would see on the bottom of a swimming pool, bands of light and dark, and moving very quickly across the ground. The sky is — it’s a dark blue. And it’s getting darker rapidly in this dwindling sunlight. And you go from daylight to twilight in just 10 or 20 seconds. It’s almost like someone has the hand on the rheostat and turns the house lights down in the theater.

You just see the light just go right down.

And the sky gets dark enough that the corona, the outer atmosphere of the sun, starts emerging from the background sky. This ring or halo of gas that surrounds the sun, and it’s visible around the moon, which is in silhouette against the sun. And along one edge of the moon is this bright bead of sunlight because that’s the last remaining piece of the sun before it becomes total.

And this is the diamond ring effect because you’ve got the ring of the corona and this dazzling jewel along one edge of it. You only get to see this for 10 or 15 seconds — it’s very fleeting — before the moon completely covers the sun’s disk. And totality begins. Suddenly, you’re in this twilight of the moon’s shadow.

And you look around the horizon. And you’re seeing the colors of sunrise or sunset 360 degrees around the horizon because you’re looking out the edge of the moon’s shadow. And looking back up into the sky, the sun is gone now. And you see this black disk of the moon in silhouette surrounded by the sun’s corona.

Maybe this says more about my nature than anything else, but what you’re describing, a little bit, feels like the end of the world.

Well, I think, when you see this all transpire, you can easily understand how people thought this was the end of the world because it seems far outside of the realms of nature. It seems supernatural. So you can see how people panicked that didn’t understand what was going on.

That was not your reaction?

No. I think it’s a sense of belonging — belonging to this incredible universe, both belonging and a humbleness that how minuscule we are. And yet we’re a part of this fantastic cosmic wheel of motion in the solar system. You almost get a three-dimensional sense of the motions of the Earth and the moon around the sun when you see this clockwork displayed right in front of you, this mechanics of the eclipse taking place.

It almost lifts you up off the planet, and you can look back down at the solar system and see how it’s all put together. And you’ve only got to, in that case — in that particular eclipse, it was only 2 and 1/2 minutes to look at this.

Wow. It’s kind of a clock in your head, saying, you don’t have much of this.

You don’t have much of it. And it almost seems like time stops.

And at the same time, all of a sudden, the eclipse is over. Those 2 minutes just raced by. And it’s over. All of a sudden, the diamond ring forms again on the opposite side of the moon, as the sun starts to become uncovered at the end of totality. And the diamond ring appears. It grows incredibly bright in just a few seconds. And you can’t look at it anymore. It’s too bright. You’ve got to put your filters back on and cover your telescope with a solar filter so it doesn’t get damaged. And you’re trembling because of this event.

Everybody was cheering and shouting and yelling. I mean, you would have thought you were at a sports game, and the home team just scored a touchdown. Just everybody screaming at the top of their lungs. And I immediately started thinking that this can’t be a once in a lifetime experience. I’ve got to see this again.

We’ll be right back.

OK. So, Fred, it’s the early 1970s. And you are not Mr. Eclipse yet. You’re just a kid who felt something very big when you watched an eclipse. So how did you end up becoming the premier authority that you now are on eclipses?

Well, after that 1970 eclipse, I started looking into upcoming solar eclipses so I could get a chance to see the sun’s corona again. And the next total eclipse was in Eastern Canada in July of 1972. And I started thinking about that eclipse. And by then, I was going to be in college.

And I started planning because that one was still something I could drive to. It was 1,200 miles instead of 600 miles.

So the summer of 1972 rolls around. And I drove up to the eclipse in Quebec to see totality and was unfortunately clouded out of the eclipse. I saw some of the partial phases. But clouds moved in and obscured the sun for that view of the sun’s corona.

You were robbed.

I was robbed. And I realized, well, I’ve got to expand my outlook on what’s an acceptable distance to travel to see a total eclipse because the next total eclipse then, in 1973, was through the Sahara Desert in Northern Africa. So I traveled to the Sahara desert for the eclipse, where we had decent weather, not perfect but decent weather. And we got to see totality there.

You saw totality in the desert?

In the desert. In the Sahara Desert. After that, it was just trying to get to every total eclipse I possibly could get to.

At this point, you’re clearly starting to become an eclipse chaser. And I don’t even know if such a thing existed at that moment.

Yeah. I don’t know if it was called that then, but certainly, yeah.

And if you’ll permit me a question that might seem maybe dopey to someone in your field, after you’ve seen one or two or three of these, do they start to blend in together and become a little bit the same?

Not at all. Each one is distinctly different. The sun itself is dramatically different. The sun’s corona is different at each eclipse because the corona is a product of the sun’s magnetic field. And that magnetic field is changing every day. So the details, the fine structure in the sun’s corona is always different. So every eclipse is dramatically different. The appearance of the sun’s corona.

Right. If you look at one Renoir, it’s not the same as the next one. You’re describing the corona of each eclipse as its own work of art, basically.

Exactly. Yeah.

So as you’re chasing these eclipses around the world, what is the place of an eclipse in your day-to-day academic studies and, soon enough, your professional work?

So I went to grad school at University of Toledo and did some work at Kitt Peak National Observatory, learning the ins and outs of photometric photometry — that is, measuring the brightness of stars. And eventually, this led to a job opening at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

And I got interested in the idea of predicting eclipses and started studying the mathematics of how to do this. And I took it over unofficially and started publishing these technical maps and details. And we published about a dozen books through NASA on upcoming eclipses. People would just write me a letter and say they wanted a copy of the eclipse bulletin for such and such an eclipse. And I would stuff it in an envelope and mail it to them.

So you take it upon yourself to make sure that everyone is going to know when the next eclipse is coming?

And no doubt, during this period, you keep going to each and every eclipse. And I wonder which of them stand out to you.

Well, I’ve seen total eclipses from Australia, from Africa, from the Altiplanos in Bolivia, from the ice sheet on the coast of Antarctica, and even from Northern China, on the edge of the Gobi Desert. But one of the most notable eclipses for me was I traveled to India to see a 41-second eclipse, which was very short. And besides seeing a great eclipse in India, I also met my future wife there. She was on the same trip.

I have to hear that story.

Well, she had been trying to see a total eclipse for about 25 years.

She tried to see the 1970 eclipse. But her friends who were going to drive down from Pennsylvania down to North Carolina talked her out of it at the 11th hour.

They talked her out of seeing the same eclipse that was your first total eclipse that was so important to you?

Yes. And they talked her out of it because from Pennsylvania, they were going to have maybe a 90 percent eclipse. They didn’t know any better. They thought that was good enough. And she regretted that decision.

So then she said, OK, well, I’ve got to get to the next total eclipse, which was in Quebec in 1972, the same one that was my second eclipse. And we were probably within five miles of each other in Quebec. And we were both clouded out. Then she was married. She was raising kids. She got busy with domestic life for 20 years. She became a widow.

So now, 1995, there’s this 41-second eclipse in India that is very difficult to get to. It’s halfway around the world. But she’s still itching to see a total eclipse. And we joined the same expedition, a travel group, of 30 eclipse chasers and end up in India for the eclipse. And we have fantastic weather. It’s perfect.

She was in tears after totality. She had been waiting so long to see it. And we struck up a friendship on that trip. By the time the 1998 eclipse was taking place in the Caribbean, at that point, we were together. That was our first eclipse to observe as a couple. I think our wedding cake had a big eclipse on the top of the cake.

[LAUGHS]: Perfect.

We made a music CD for the wedding that we played during the reception. And of course, all the music on the CD had sun and moon themes to it.

Nothing I can say, a total eclipse of the heart

Of course, we had “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” It was a must-have.

Had to. Had to.

It strikes me, Fred, that eclipses are such an organizing principle in your life. Your life seems to literally orbit around them. When you were a kid, you started planning for them years in advance. This work becomes central to your career. It’s how you meet your wife.

And you said, when I asked you, about each eclipse that they’re all different. And obviously, you’re different at each eclipse because time has passed. Your life has changed. And it just feels like your life is being lived in a kind of ongoing conversation with this phenomenon of the sun and the moon overlapping.

Well, the eclipses are like benchmarks that I can use to figure out what else was going on in my life during these times, because I remember the dates of every single eclipse I’ve been to. And if I see a photograph of the solar corona shot during any particular eclipse, I know what eclipse that was. I can recognize the pattern of the corona like a fingerprint.

That’s amazing.

And I the year of the eclipse. It reminds me of when Pat and I got married and between which eclipse we were getting married and had to plan our wedding so it didn’t interfere with any kind of eclipse trips.

And they just serve as benchmarks or markers for the rest of my life of when various eclipses take place. So they’re easy for marking the passage of time.

So we are, of course, talking to you a few days before this year’s eclipse, which I cannot fathom you missing. So where are you planning to watch this total eclipse?

Pat and I are leaving for Mazatlán, Mexico, actually tomorrow. And we’ve got about 80 people joining us down in Mazatlán for this eclipse in our tour group.

And for you, of course, this year’s eclipse is just the latest in a very long line of eclipses. But I think, for the rest of us — and here, I’m thinking about myself — this is really going to be my first total eclipse, at least that I can remember. And for my two little kids, it’s absolutely going to be their first.

And given the hard-earned wisdom that you’ve accumulated in all your decades of chasing eclipses around the world, I wonder if you can give us just a little bit of advice for how to best live inside this very brief window of a total solar eclipse, to make sure, not to be cliche, but that we make it count.

Well, I think one mistake that people tend to make is getting preoccupied with recording everything in their lives, what they had for lunch, what they had for dinner. And seeing the eclipse is something that you want to witness firsthand. Try to be present in seeing the eclipse in the moment of it. So don’t get preoccupied with recording every instant of it.

Sit back and try to take in the entire experience because those several minutes pass by so rapidly. But you’ll replay them in your mind over and over and over again. And you don’t want technology getting between you and that experience. And remember to take your eclipse glasses off when totality begins. Note how dark it gets during totality.

Take the glasses off because?

Well, the glasses protect your eyes from the sun’s bright disk. But when totality begins, the sun’s bright disk is gone. So if you use your solar eclipse glasses to try to look at the corona, you won’t see anything. You’ll just see blackness. You’ve got to remove the eclipse glasses in order to see the corona. And it’s completely safe.

And it’s an incredible sight to behold. But during totality, you just want to look around without the glasses on. And take in the sights. Take in the horizon, 360 degrees, surrounding you with these twilight colors and sunset colors.

You’ll easily be able to see Jupiter and Venus shining on either side of the sun during totality. And look at the details in the sun’s corona, fine, wispy textures, and any possible red prominences hugging against the moon’s disk during totality.

And let’s say it’s now the moment of totality, and you, Mr. Eclipse, can whisper one thing into someone’s ear as they’re watching. What would you say to them?

Enjoy. Just take it all in.

Well, Fred, thank you very much. We really appreciate it.

No, thank you. I hope everybody has some clear sky.

After today, the next total solar eclipse to be visible from the continental United States will occur 20 years from now, in 2044. In other words, you might as well watch today’s.

Here’s what else you need to know today. Israel has fired two officers in connection with the deadly airstrike on aid workers from the World Central Kitchen who were killed last week while delivering food to civilians in Gaza. In a report released on Friday, Israel blamed their deaths on a string of errors made by the military. The airstrike, Israel said, was based on insufficient and incorrect evidence that a passenger traveling with the workers was armed.

Meanwhile, Israel said it withdrew a division of ground troops from Southern Gaza on Sunday, leaving no soldiers actively patrolling the area. The move raises questions about Israel’s strategy as the war drags into its sixth month. In particular, it casts doubt on Israel’s plans to invade Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, an invasion that the United States has asked Israel not to carry out for fear of large-scale civilian casualties.

Today’s episode was produced by Alex Stern and Sydney Harper, with help from Will Reid and Jessica Cheung. It was edited by Devon Taylor; fact-checked by Susan Lee; contains original music by Dan Powell, Marion Lozano, Elisheba Ittoop, and Corey Schreppel; and sound design by Elisheba Ittoop and Dan Powell. It was engineered by Chris Wood. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Anthony Wallace.

[THEME MUSIC]

That’s it for “The Daily.” I’m Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.

• April 9, 2024   •   30:48 How Tesla Planted the Seeds for Its Own Potential Downfall
• April 8, 2024   •   30:28 The Eclipse Chaser
• April 7, 2024 The Sunday Read: ‘What Deathbed Visions Teach Us About Living’
• April 5, 2024   •   29:11 An Engineering Experiment to Cool the Earth
• April 4, 2024   •   32:37 Israel’s Deadly Airstrike on the World Central Kitchen
• April 3, 2024   •   27:42 The Accidental Tax Cutter in Chief
• April 2, 2024   •   29:32 Kids Are Missing School at an Alarming Rate
• April 1, 2024   •   36:14 Ronna McDaniel, TV News and the Trump Problem
• March 29, 2024   •   48:42 Hamas Took Her, and Still Has Her Husband
• March 28, 2024   •   33:40 The Newest Tech Start-Up Billionaire? Donald Trump.
• March 27, 2024   •   28:06 Democrats’ Plan to Save the Republican House Speaker
• March 26, 2024   •   29:13 The United States vs. the iPhone

Hosted by Michael Barbaro

Produced by Sydney Harper and Alex Stern

With Will Reid and Jessica Cheung

Edited by Devon Taylor

Original music by Dan Powell ,  Marion Lozano ,  Elisheba Ittoop and Corey Schreppel

Sound Design by Elisheba Ittoop and Dan Powell

Engineered by Chris Wood

Listen and follow The Daily Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music

Today, millions of Americans will have the opportunity to see a rare total solar eclipse.

Fred Espenak, a retired astrophysicist known as Mr. Eclipse, was so blown away by an eclipse he saw as a teenager that he dedicated his life to traveling the world and seeing as many as he could.

Mr. Espenak discusses the eclipses that have punctuated and defined the most important moments in his life, and explains why these celestial phenomena are such a wonder to experience.

On today’s episode

Fred Espenak, a.k.a. “Mr. Eclipse,” a former NASA astrophysicist and lifelong eclipse chaser.

Background reading

A total solar eclipse is coming. Here’s what you need to know.

Millions of people making plans to be in the path of the solar eclipse on Monday are expecting an awe-inspiring. What is that feeling?

The eclipse that ended a war and shook the gods forever.

There are a lot of ways to listen to The Daily. Here’s how.

We aim to make transcripts available the next workday after an episode’s publication. You can find them at the top of the page.

Fact-checking by Susan Lee .

Special thanks to Anthony Wallace.

The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Sydney Harper, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, John Ketchum, Nina Feldman, Will Reid, Carlos Prieto, Ben Calhoun, Susan Lee, Lexie Diao, Mary Wilson, Alex Stern, Dan Farrell, Sophia Lanman, Shannon Lin, Diane Wong, Devon Taylor, Alyssa Moxley, Summer Thomad, Olivia Natt, Daniel Ramirez and Brendan Klinkenberg.

Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Paula Szuchman, Lisa Tobin, Larissa Anderson, Julia Simon, Sofia Milan, Mahima Chablani, Elizabeth Davis-Moorer, Jeffrey Miranda, Renan Borelli, Maddy Masiello, Isabella Anderson and Nina Lassam.

Corey Schreppel leads the technical team that supports all Times audio shows, including “The Daily,” “Hard Fork,” “The Run-Up,” and “Modern Love.” More about Corey Schreppel

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Film 'Jeong-sun' follows digital sex crime victim's journey to healing

T here have been several movies involving digital sex crimes. But only a few, if any, unfold from a middle-aged woman’s perspective, overcoming the trauma of the crime as a victim, like the upcoming film “Jeong-sun.”

The film drama, which is set to hit local theaters on April 17, revolves around an ordinary woman, named Jeong-sun (Kim Kum-soon). Working at a packing line at a food factory, she has been living a simple, modest life alone after raising her daughter, Yoo-jin (Yoonkeum Sun-ah), as a single mom.

One day, a new worker, Yeong-su (Cho Hyun-woo), joins the factory, leading them to develop a secret workplace relationship. Her romance quickly turns into a nightmare when he shares with other workers a video of Jeong-sun singing to him in her underwear. The video ends up spreading through the community.

“The film captures a part of Jeong-sun’s life. She, who raised her daughter alone, meets a new love, Yeong-su, but her life turns upside down when he leaks a private video he filmed of her. I tried to capture the gap and conflict between Jeong-sun, who suffered digital sexual violence, and her daughter Yoo-jin,” the director explained at a press conference for the film, held at CGV in Yongsan District, Seoul, Thursday.

Filmmaker Jeong Ji-hye’s directorial debut film has won eight awards globally, including the Grand Prize at the 23rd Jeonju International Film Festival and the Grand Jury Prize and Best Actress at the 17th Rome Film Fest in 2022. It has also been invited to a total of 19 international film festivals, including the BFI London Film Festival and the San Sebastian Film Festival. Jeonju International Film Festival said the film "captures the destructive force of cyber-exposure and shaming, and as such should touch a nerve with domestic audiences," while the BFI London Film Festival introduced the film, saying that it tackles the "rarely explored theme of digital sexual assault on middle-aged women."

The director shared that she came up with the story from her personal experiences working with middle-aged women and coming across digital sex crimes.

“In the past, I worked part-time at a food factory like Jeong-sun. Spending time with middle-aged female co-workers, I got to hear about the life experiences they had been through. Although we are both women, they come from a different generation and their lives inspired me to make a film with a middle-aged woman as the protagonist,” she said.

“Then later, I happened to get involved in a script about digital sex crimes by chance. Doing research, I was able to grasp the suffering the victims go through to some extent."

Jeong added she hopes the film will bring hope to the victims of the crimes and change the way society looks at them.

“Because it’s digital, many might think that digital sex crimes only affect young people. However, I felt there might be individuals who are marginalized from such biases. As I was writing the script, I wanted people to realize there are those who experience situations similar to Jeong-sun and intended the film to urge (the audience) to see the issue from a mature perspective."

Kim portrays subtle but complex emotions as her character tries to overcome an enormous tragedy in her life.

“The film does a good job depicting a series of events that a middle-aged woman faces after an incident and how she navigates through it,” the actor said.

“(Digital sex crimes) can also happen to any middle-aged woman. I felt fortunate to have received such a precious script. I worked with the director to create the characters as we discussed."

The film will hit local theaters on April 17.

Israel-Gaza latest: US captures guns and ammunition 'destined for Houthis' - and sends them to Ukraine

Emmanuel Macron, the French president, and leaders of Egypt and Jordan have jointly called for an immediate ceasefire. It comes after Hamas rejected Israel's latest ceasefire proposal, despite reports suggesting talks had been progressing well.

Tuesday 9 April 2024 15:18, UK

• Israel-Hamas war

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• US captures guns and ammunition 'destined for Houthis' - and sends it to Ukraine
• Macron and leaders of Egypt and Jordan call for immediate ceasefire
• Hamas rejects ceasefire proposal from 'stubborn' Israel
• Netanyahu warns 'there is a date' for Rafah ground offensive
• Michael Clarke analysis: Netanyahu caught in a bind as he needs to attack Rafah to stay in power  
• Live reporting by Bhvishya Patel and (earlier)  Emily Mee

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has doubled down on his pledge to go forward with his invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza. 

Speaking from a military base, Mr Netanyahu said: "We will complete the elimination of the Hamas battalions, including in Rafah. There is no force in the world that will stop us."

He said there were "many forces" trying to stop the Rafah offensive - a reference to other nations demanding that Israel does not go ahead - "but it will not help, because this enemy, after what it has done, will not do it again, it will cease to exist". 

Mr Netanyahu said yesterday that a date had been set for the Rafah operation, but he did not specify when. 

We've just been hearing from defence and security analyst Professor Michael Clarke , who is explaining why the Israeli government appears to be going in circles when it comes to the planned offensive on Rafah. 

Contradictory statements have been coming from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet, and Professor Clarke says there is a "structural reason" for this. 

Mr Netanyahu has three cabinets - a war cabinet, security cabinet and general cabinet - and "hops between all three, basically saying what he needs to keep all three happy". 

Those causing the most problems for the Israeli prime minister are Itamar Ben-Gvir, his national security minister, and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich. 

Between them they control about 13 votes in Israel's Knesset, which is made up of 120 seats. 

Professor Clarke says this is "enough to bring Netanyahu down", and both men have threatened they will bring down his government unless he attacks Rafah. 

At the same time, Israel's allies and the rest of the world are saying it cannot invade Rafah. 

Therefore Mr Netanyahu is announcing he will go ahead with the offensive, but he won't say when. 

The prime minister is "trying all the time to get to the end of the day and still be in power", Professor Clarke says. 

He's also facing domestic pressure from the general public, who fear the conflict in Gaza "could turn out to be a very existential war for them". 

Mr Netanyahu is deeply unpopular among Israelis and 100,000 people have been turning up on the streets to protest, Mr Netanyahu says. 

Professor Clarke says that if Israel went to the polls now, Mr Netanyahu would "lose catastrophically" and he would also "be back in front of the court on corruption charges".

Staying in power is "keeping him out of the courts and, some would say, keeping him out of prison", Professor Clarke adds. 

The US government has transferred thousands of guns and rounds of ammunition to Ukraine after seizing them from ships apparently bound for Yemen. 

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said it seized the weapons late last year as they were being transported from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to Yemen's Houthi rebels. 

Some 5,000 AK-47s, machine guns, sniper rifles, RPG-7s and more than 500,000 rounds of ammunition were discovered. 

CENTCOM said they have now been transferred to Ukraine to help it defend against Russia's invasion. 

"Iran's support for armed groups threatens international and regional security, our forces, diplomatic personnel, and citizens in the region, as well as those of our partners." it said. 

"We will continue to do whatever we can to shed light on and stop Iran's destabilizing activities."

Palestinians chase a convoy of aid trucks driving into Gaza from the Rafah crossing, as people struggle to feed their families. 

Aid was also airdropped into the Palestinian enclave this morning. 

There have been reports of fatal fights in Gaza as desperate and hungry Palestinians try to get hold of airdropped supplies. 

Last month, the Red Crescent said five people were shot dead in one day during aid distribution in northern Gaza. 

Other deaths have been reported through stabbings, drownings and stampedes. 

Hundreds of bodies have been recovered from around Gaza's largest hospital after Israeli forces withdrew from the area last week, the enclave's Civil Defence organisation has said. 

"We have recovered 381 bodies from al Shifa and the surrounding area since the withdrawal of the Israeli military," said spokesperson Mahmoud Basal. 

Mr Basal told CNN the total did not include people buried in the grounds of the hospital.

He said workers are still trying to recover buried bodies at al Shifa, and information suggests there are "dozens" of corpses under dirt and sand. 

A mission led by the World Health Organisation is currently in the vicinity of the hospital. 

German officials are at the International Court of Justice today, where it has been accused of facilitating genocide or war crimes in its support for Israel. 

The case was brought by Nicaragua, which has called on the World Court to order Germany to halt arms sales to Israel and resume funding of UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA. 

Germany has been one of Israel's strongest allies and also one of its biggest arms suppliers, sending €326.5m in military equipment and weapons in 2023. 

Berlin has denied it is aiding genocide, and is making its defence today. 

"Germany is doing its utmost to live up to its responsibility vis-a-vis both the Israeli and the Palestinian people," said Tania von Uslar-Gleichen, legal adviser for the German foreign ministry.

She said Israel's security was a priority for Germany because of the history of the Nazi decimation of Jews during the Holocaust. 

"Germany has learned from its past, a past thatincludes the responsibility for one of the most horrific crimesin human history, the Shoah," she said, using the Hebrew word.

Ms von Uslar-Gleichen said Nicaragua's case was rushed and based on flimsy evidence.

Three world leaders have written a joint op-ed calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. 

French President Emmanuel Macron, King Abdullah II of Jordan and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el Sissi made the joint statement in the Washington Post. 

They said the war "must end now" and that the two-state solution was needed to bring peace to the Middle East. 

The two-state solution would see an independent Palestinian state established alongside the existing one of Israel - giving both peoples their own territory.

The leaders pointed to a resolution from the UN Security Council calling for a ceasefire, and said this should be immediately and unconditionally implemented. 

They also warned of the "dangerous" consequences of an Israeli offensive on Rafah, which they said would "only bring more death and suffering". 

Israel has responded angrily to Turkey's decision to impose restrictions on the export of some products to Israel. 

Turkey has "unilaterally violated" trade agreements with its decision, Israel's foreign minister said. 

Israel Katz said Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, "is again sacrificing the economic interests of the people of Turkey in order to support Hamas, and we will respond in kind". 

He added that Israel would respond with its own trade restrictions on products coming from Turkey. 

The IDF has said it killed a militant who took part in the 7 October attacks in an airstrike. 

Israel's military also struck several sites belonging to Palestinian militant groups across Gaza. 

These included buildings, rocket launch positions and other infrastructure, the IDF said. 

Yesterday, Israel said it had killed a Hezbollah field commander while carrying out strikes in southern Lebanon. 

Israeli fighter jets hit the village of al Sultaniyah and killed Ali Ahmed Hassin of Hezbollah's elite Radwan units, the Israeli military and two Lebanese security sources said.

By  Alex Crawford , special correspondent

The grinding misery in Yemen just got worse. Yet while their own suffering goes on in virtual silence, hundreds of thousands still protest in towns across the country about the Israeli bombing in Gaza.

Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the world, has found itself thrust into the centre of the war on Gaza.

As if that wasn't unlikely enough, the Houthi militants who control the bulk of the Yemeni population through a combination of force, fear and extensive outside help from Iran, are now being viewed by many as heroes.

The Houthi actions in wreaking havoc on global shipping routes in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden have seen them surge in popularity at home and gain unexpected influence and cachet abroad.

So, when I interviewed one of the group's inner circle, the cousin of the Houthi leader, Mohammed al Houthi, in Yemen this week, he was all smiles.

Read my full report here ...

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