
Imagine being able to create a unique, on-brand image instantly whenever you need one for your marketing—be it a photo, illustration, graphic, or abstract texture. Sounds like magic, right? Well, it’s possible with AI image generation software! Not only is AI Imagery technology incredibly useful for creating pictures for your business, but it can also help you create a library of stock photos to supercharge your marketing efforts.
While AI technology is becoming increasingly more accessible for the average person to use, if you venture into the world of AI image generation without some guidelines and instruction, you may quickly become lost or feel frustrated by the results. To help you avoid these roadblocks, I’ve pulled together some of the top mistakes I see AI users make, along with solutions to help you get the images you need in less time.
Why Use Midjourney to Create AI Imagery?
There are several great AI platforms for image generation, but my favourite is Midjourney. Its impressive ability to create highly detailed and imaginative visuals often surpasses the capabilities of other AI models. While the following tips can apply to any AI scenario, they are tailored to the Midjourney experience.
Mistake #1: Not Including Enough Prompt Ingredients
To get AI to create content, you need to give it clear directions—this is called a text prompt. How you word your prompt plays a big role in the results you get. If your prompt is too vague, the AI will fill in the blanks, and those details might not match what you were envisioning. On the flip side, if you overload your prompt with too many details, it can overwhelm the AI and even cause tools like Midjourney to ignore some of them. Striking the right balance is key!
Solution: The best way to get consistent results and spend less time revising your image is to use a prompt formula with specific ingredients. A formula helps ensure you include the crucial details in a format the AI understands. Here is a simple formula you can use with Midjourney:
Basic Midjourney Formula: Medium + Subject + Action + Location + Prop + Lighting + Facial Expression + Colour
In the example below, the first image was created using a very basic prompt, while the second image is much more specific and on-brand.

Mistake #2: Not Personalizing the Colour Scheme
One of the most frustrating parts of scrolling through stock photo sites is finding an image that’s almost perfect – except the colours don’t match your brand. Sticking to your brand colours helps your audience recognize you, connect with you, and trust you more.
When creating custom AI imagery, specify your colour scheme so the results align with your branding. Using consistent colours across your visuals not only gives your brand a polished, cohesive look but also helps position you as a credible professional.
Solution: Specify your colour scheme directly in your prompt. You can do this by saying “purple and grey aesthetic” or “black and white” in the formula. This tells the AI you want the general theme to follow those colours.

Mistake #3: Not Specifying the Size Ratio
Unless you give Midjourney specific instructions, it will automatically generate a standard square image for you. While this may work great for a static Instagram post, there are so many other places you can use AI stock imagery. Sure, you can manually make an image bigger by panning left or right and up or down once you enlarge or upscale an image, but each time you do so, you’re leaving it up to chance what the AI will fill that space with.
Solution: Add size specifications directly to your prompt to ensure Midjourney generates a picture in the ratio or size you want right from the start. You can choose dimensions based on the platform you need the image for, such as social media profiles, social posts, Zoom backgrounds, and more!

Mistake #4: Not Double-Checking the Details
As incredible as AI can be, it doesn’t always get the details right. Sometimes, the problem is your prompt; sometimes, it’s the context of your request, and sometimes, it is just the software’s limitations. This means that before you use an image generated by Midjourney or any other platform, you must carefully review the details.
If your image contains people, check over the facial features, limbs, hands, and feet. Sometimes AI gets these horribly wrong, and it’s obvious, but sometimes it’s subtle and can give your audience an unsettling feeling even when they don’t spot the reason right away.
Solution: Always review your images before saving them. In Midjourney, if you notice a detail is off or entirely wrong, you can request variations on the image or highlight specific areas you want to change using the Editor feature.
Mistake #5: Not Specifying the Lighting or Time of Day
The lighting in your AI imagery can make a huge difference in the mood and story of your image. However, Midjourney AI will generate the lighting it wants unless you tell it otherwise.
Solution: In your prompt, specify the lighting setting or time of day. Do you want an image of a person backlit by the sun? Do you want to feature a twilight garden or an early morning hiking trail? Adding this detail can give you impressive, customized results.

Mistake #6: Not Adjusting the Style
If you’ve played around with the style function in your prompt to tone down or tone up the creative license Midjourney has, you’re off to a great start. A low stylize value gives you more control over the image, and it will be closer to your prompt, while a high stylize allows Midjourney more control over the image aesthetic and content.
Solution: Set aside time to experiment with Style in Midjourney. You’ll have lots of fun while discovering new ways to create unique images for your projects.
Mistake #7: Not Taking a Course in AI Image Generation
You can learn a lot from the back pages of the Midjourney website, but that takes time and practice. The Midjourney software was created for a wide range of users, so when it comes to using it for stock images, its guidance is not always tailored to your experience.
When you take AI training specifically designed to show entrepreneurs how to create images for their business, you not only save yourself a lot of time and stress, but you gain hands-on practice with expert help at your fingertips.
Solution: Learn How to Use Midjourney with Expert Help
Register for my AI Brand Visuals Academy, and you’ll learn how to avoid all these common AI imagery mistakes and more. I show you step-by-step how to get started with Midjourney, how to craft clear prompts, and how to use many of the features to customize your images for your brand needs.
leave a comment