How to Generate Multiple Subjects in Midjourney V6 (Alpha)

The highly anticipated Midjourney V6 dropped as an early Christmas present last month, and just like that, it felt like the entire AI image generating community came alive overnight. Myself included, if I’m being honest. But now that the holidays are over, I’ve had some time to play around with V6 and relearn many of my prompting habits and explore more of what Midjourney has to offer.

If you’ve spent some time on Midjourney V5, you must have already experienced the frustrating process it was to consistently or accurately prompt two or more subjects in one image. Sometimes it was downright impossible. V6 has completely changed that. Now you can prompt two or more distinct subjects without too much of an issue, going as far as to assign them specific details, clothing, appearance, etc. This is a game changer.

In my previous article, I introduced some of the new features and capabilities of V6 Alpha at launch. Now I will go a little deeper into the multiple subject prompting techniques and examples.

To get started, be sure you have turned on V6 from your --settings dropdown, or simply add the --v 6.0 parameter at the end of your prompts.

A New Way of Prompting

There are a few notable changes in the way the V6 model understands prompts vs what we’ve all grown accustomed to in V5. I think the most important being that V6 uses natural language and each prompt can now be long and detailed in a way it wasn’t possible before.

Key Points taken from clarinet’s post on Midjourney’s Discord server:

Strive to write in simple sentences of English that have good spelling and punctuation
V6 is capable of understanding nuances of punctuation and grammar
V6 occasionally understands some natural language negatives like “no”
You can specify colors, positions and other details, but do not relay too much on pronouns.
You can prompt for more than one subject with details
You don’t have to worry about the number of words, as much as the amount of detail in your prompt
You can add text to your image by using quotation marks

So with all of this in mind, let’s experiment.

Roller Coaster V6 — Two different best friends riding in the front car of a roller coaster. The friend on the right is a young woman with ginger hair wearing a blue tank top. The friend on the left is a young black woman with dreads wearing a yellow sundress. It is a bright summer day. Cinematic photography. –ar 3:2 –v 6.0 –style raw

Generating Multiple Subjects

While V6 doesn’t require special prompting, Midjourney has suggested a starter template that should help you figure out the ins and outs of achieving multiple subjects in one image. Essentially, you will want your prompts to look like this:

Prompt: [archetypal scene] [call-back details] [setting or background details] [vibe or aesthetic]

Here are the four main parts of your prompt:

1. Archetypal Scene

Start your prompt by using generic or archetypal terms in the first sentence. Best practice is to keep it to one straight forward sentence with just enough detail to make sense in the context of your intended result. For example:

Prompt: Two lovers posing for a photographer. --ar 3:2 --v 6.0 --style raw

As you can see, a generic prompt leaves the interpretation completely up to Midjourney. However, it’s worth noting that by describing the subjects as “lovers,” Midjourney was able to understand the context of their relationship vs simply saying “two people” which may have placed some distance between them and resulted in a completely different vibe.

2. Call-Back Details

Next, let’s start adding the details. The key here is to repeat the nouns you used to set up your scene. In this example, my subject are “lovers,” so I will repeat that to clarify each subject making note of their placement in the image, their ethnicity, appearance, etc. Again, use simple, straight forward language for the best results.

Prompt: Two lovers posing for a photographer. The lover on the left is an alternative caucasian man with cropped red hair and light eyes wearing a black crew shirt. The lover on the right is a latina woman with long silver hair wearing a black dress. --ar 3:2 --v 6.0 --style raw

It missed specified eye color on the man, but I could have rerolled or tried a Creative Upscale to fix that. Otherwise, all the other details specified are there without Midjourney getting confused and blending details across subjects, which was fairly common with V5.

3. Setting or Backdrop Details

The next part of your prompt is the setting, or any additional background details you’d like to see in your image. Be as specific as you can with your vision. If the prompt breaks and Midjourney gets confused, then roll back some of the detail until you’re happy with the result.

Prompt: Two lovers posing for a photographer. The lover on the left is an alternative caucasian man with cropped red hair and light eyes wearing a black crew shirt. The lover on the right is a latina woman with long silver hair wearing a black dress. They are on a Williamsburg Bridge with New York City in the background. --ar 3:2 --v 6.0 --style raw

Ok, so there might be some questionable geography here, but that’s to be expected. But otherwise, I’m super happy with this result, right down to the overall color and aesthetic of the image. It reminds me of how I would edit one of my own shots, particularly for a fall aesthetic.

4. Vibe or Aesthetic

Finally, add anything else you’d like in terms of the style, vibe or aesthetic of your image. This is where you can reference a photography or art style, particular artist or photographer, time period, movie title if you’re going for a specific look or overall vibe. This can be as long as you’d like, and again you can always roll it back if the prompt breaks and it isn’t working.

Prompt: Two lovers posing for a photographer. The lover on the left is an alternative caucasian man with cropped red hair and light eyes wearing a black crew shirt. The lover on the right is a latina woman with long silver hair wearing a black dress. They are on a Williamsburg Bridge with New York City in the background. Vintage 1980’s photography. --ar 3:2 --v 6.0 --style raw

Let us take a moment to appreciate the contextual understanding Midjourney has. Admittedly, I tested several tail end vibes, references, photographic styles etc. I almost used a black and white but figured that wasn’t good enough an example to show how that last bit of the prompt can really shake things up. Vintage 80’s does it. Not only is the photographic quality reminiscent of 80’s film cameras, the subject’s appearance changed completely to best represent the time period.

Additional Examples

Because one example is not nearly enough, and I honestly could prompt for days once I get into the groove of it, let’s put it all together with several more examples using the above template. While this guide is specifically for multiple subjects, you can definitely use the template as a general prompting guide for pretty much anything.

Viking battle v6 — Cinematic photography of a Viking battle scene. The Viking on the left is a shield maiden with long blonde hair, light blue eyes, dark khol makeup and a fierce expression. The Viking on the right is a robust man with flowing dark hair and beard. The battle is taking place in a beautiful landscape in Norway in the winter. --ar 3:2 --v 6.0 --style raw

Images like this make me wish V6 already had the Zoom and Pan features, but they are coming, potentially as early as next week. I for one, am super excited for that.

NYE V6 — Three friends celebrating New Years Eve at a luxury hotel bar. The friend in front is a man wearing a black suit and he is opening a champagne bottle. The friend behind him on the right is a cheerful young woman with vibrant pink hair wearing a high sheen silver dress. The friend behind him on the left is a cheerful young woman with black hair wearing a short red cocktail dress. The bar is luxurious and filled with other people, twinkling lights, soft reflections. --ar 3:2 --v 6.0 --style raw

Side view of four cats crossing the street. The cat on the right is skinny and black. The two cats in the middle are fluffy and white. The cat on the left is chubby and red. Photograph in the style of the Beatles’ Abbey Road album cover. --ar 3:2 --v 6.0 --style raw --s 250

Three legs is clearly V6’s stylistic choice for this image. Vary Region, we need you.

High fashion V6 — High fashion photography of two models being lifted by red balloons. The model on the right is an Asian woman with long black hair wearing a haute couture dress. The model in front is a Black woman wearing a red formal dress. Dramatic and atmospheric, dreamscape. Photographed in the style of Annie Leibovitz. --ar 3:2 --v 6.0 --style raw

This isn’t quite what I had in mind, but a pretty interesting result all the same.

soldiers v6 — Cinematic photography of a post-apocalyptic battle scene with two soldiers running toward the camera. The soldier on the left is a well built man with dark cropped hair and dark blue eyes wearing a black futuristic uniform and carrying a rifle. The soldier on the right is a short and wiry woman with blonde hair and fierce eyes wearing a black hooded jacket. There are collapsed buildings in the background, the air is hazy and lit with the glow of nearby fires. There is ash and dust particles in the air. Futuristic and dystopian vibe, intense moody and atmospheric. As if photographed by Robert Cappa. --ar 3:2 --v 6.0 --style raw

This is actually a pretty good example of how a long prompt works out pretty nicely. It’s definitely longer than any prompt I’ve used in V5.2, and while I wish more of it was in focus, I gotta say I’m impressed with the adherence to the prompt.

Tea cup V6 — Product photography of an antique tea cup and flower vase on a wooden table. The tea cup is in front and it is blue and white with delicate gold details. The vase is ornate and filled with fresh red roses. There is an old open book in the background. Soft difused lighting, dust particles, cozy atmosphere. --ar 3:2 --v 6.0 --style raw

I really like how this one came out, from colors to composition. The details got blended a little with the vase color and pattern being similar but I should have been more specific with its description.

Two friends sitting on the edge of a mountain watching the sunset. The friend on the left is wearing a red jacket and black hat. The friend on the right has black hair and is wearing a yellow jacket. Their dark green tent and hiking gear is near them. Golden hour, sweeping landscape. --ar 3:2 --v 6.0 --style raw

coffee shop v6 — A man and woman sitting at a Parisian coffee shop in the 1950’s. The woman has wavy blonde hair, and is wearing a stylish dress and hat. The man has dark hair, clean shaven is wearing a dark suit and smoking a cigarette. There are espresso cups on the table, and pigeons flying in the background. Vintage black and white photography shot on Leica iiic --ar 3:2 --v 6.0 *--style raw*

Things got a little weird with the birds being inside the coffee shop at first, and I realized my original mistake: I did not specify that the pigeons were flying outside. Her hand is also a little janky, which Creative Upscale didn’t quite fix but I thought the original was more in line with what I had set out to do.

Indy V6 — Two archeologists walking into a lost Egyptian tomb for the first time. The archeologist in front is a handsome young man wearing a brown leather jacket and fedora, and carrying a torch. The archeologist in the back is an older man wearing glasses and white linen shirt. Mysterious and atmospheric, dust particles, amber lighting in the style of Indiana Jones. --ar 3:2 --v 6.0 --style raw

It’s interesting to note that V6 very much understood the assignment. Although the likeness isn’t exactly on the nose for Harrison Ford, it’s pretty damn close without the need to input a reference image.

Map V6 — Vintage maritime illustration of a spyglass and compass on an antique map. The spyglass is made of wood with gold inlay. The compass is open. Illustration reminiscent of old exploration maps. --ar 3:2 --v 6.0

Midjourney V6 didn’t quite nail the illustrative prompt here, but that’s in part my fault. V6 leans heavily toward more realistic and photographic styles, so it might be beneficial (at least for now) to reference a particular style or artist.

I hope this guide has been helpful! Stay tuned for new guides as Midjourney V6 updates continue to drop.