Indie App Devs #11
Weekly tips for indie app developers.
Hello! 👋
Teodora, owner of Designerants and App Growth Academy, is back with another piece. 🔥
AI Prompts for Realistic Images to Use in Your Marketing Materials and App Store Screenshots
A prompt is the text you write to guide an AI when generating images.
To create unique styles that convert, you need to learn how to use Midjourney.
The hardest part of image generation is maintaining a consistent style.
I’ve spent thousands of hours refining prompts for Midjourney to create my own styles that stand out in the App Store. Let’s dive in.
Prompt Structure: Description + Style
I like to divide prompts into two parts.
The first part describes the actual image you want, and the second part defines the style.
You want to keep them as separate as possible so you can later copy, paste, and reproduce a similar style.
Description example: exercise, gym, sweat, sweating, drenched, drenched in sweat, water, face, woman, eyes, people
Here we try to describe the image we want as thoroughly as possible from an image description perspective.
Midjourney is less capable than other engines like ChatGPT when it comes to understanding complex tenses. You need to keep it simple and write short descriptions of what you want the tool to create. The more specific you are, the less room there is for unwanted elements, because Midjourney will try to fill in any gaps.
The second part of the prompt contains the repeatable style. You want to include these style elements so you can continue using and refining them.
cartoon 3D Pixar style, background with neon explosions --ar 54:85 --stylize 250 --v 5.2
With this simple method, you can build unique and consistent styles.
Join them, and you will have a fully constructed prompt:
exercise, gym, sweat, sweating, drenched, drenched in sweat, water, face, woman, eyes, people, cartoon 3D Pixar style, background with neon explosions --ar 54:85 -- stylize 250 --v 5.2
You must iterate
Another key part of generating images is using “variations.” You will almost NEVER get a great result on the first try.
On Midjourney, each prompt generates four images, which is especially useful because you can create more variations from the result you like.
If you don’t like any of the four, simply rerun the prompt. Most of the time the prompt is fine, it just needs more iterations.
Pick the winner and keep generating until you like something.
Usually it takes me from 5 to 10 iterations to have a good final image.
Now, let’s see real examples.
Style 1: Extreme close-up face
Midjourney prompt:
Image #1 - closeup shot of a handsome man that is 34 years old, he is wearing sunglasses, he has a seductive expression, he is texting on an iPhone, keep the consistency of action, expression, clothing, shape and appearance of the photos, 3d character from Disney Pixar, super detail, blender, soft lighting, ip, blind box, cinematic edge lighting, romantic scenes. Background light is soft pink and soft orange with a gradient. Light soft pink and soft orange. --ar 3:4 --stylize 150 --v 6
Midjourney prompt:
Image #2 - closeup shot of a handsome man that is 34 years old, he has a seductive happy expression, he is looking at a TV screen, keep the consistency of action, expression, clothing, shape and appearance of the photos, super detail, blender, soft lighting, ip, blind box, cinematic edge lighting, romantic scenes. Huge blue bright light on his face from a TV screen. Bright light. --ar 80:59 --stylize 150 --v 6
Midjourney prompt:
Image #3 - closeup shot of a pretty woman that is 34 years old, she has a seductive happy expression, she is looking at a TV screen, keep the consistency of action, expression, clothing, shape and appearance of the photos, super detail, blender, soft lighting, ip, blind box, cinematic edge lighting, romantic scenes. Huge blue bright light on his face from a TV screen. Bright light. --ar 57:83 --stylize 150 --v 6
Midjourney prompt:
Image #4 - closeup shot of a pretty woman that is 25 years old, she has a seductive happy expression, keep the consistency of action, expression, clothing, shape and appearance of the photos, super detail, blender, soft lighting, ip, blind box, cinematic edge lighting, romantic scenes. Soft orange and soft black colors --ar 3:4 --stylize 150 --v 6
Midjourney prompt:
Image #5 - caucasian woman sleeping, professional photography, close-up --ar 37:32 --style raw --stylize 750 --v 6.1
Midjourney prompt:
Image #6 - exercise, gym, sweat, sweating, drenched, drenched in sweat, water, face, woman, eyes, people, closeup, expression, close up, lips, smile, model, eye, serious, mouth, look --ar 11:17 --v 6.1
Style 2: Medium close-up face
Midjourney prompt:
Image #1 - motocross rider, professional photography, close-up --ar 3:4 --style raw --stylize 750 --v 6
Midjourney prompt:
Image #2 - closeup shot of a pretty woman that is 20 years old, she has a seductive happy expression, keep the consistency of action, expression, clothing, shape and appearance of the photos, super detail, blender, soft lighting, ip, blind box, cinematic edge lighting, romantic scenes. Soft orange and soft purple colors --ar 17:31 --stylize 150 --v 6
Midjourney prompt:
Image #3 - shot of a handsome spanish man that is 30 years old with blue eyes, he has a seductive expression, keep the consistency of action, expression, summer clothing, shape and appearance of the photos, super detail, blender, soft lighting, ip, blind box, cinematic edge lighting, romantic scenes. --ar 4:7 --stylize 150 --v 6
Midjourney prompt:
Image #4 - newborn baby, professional photography, close-up --ar 3:4 --style raw --stylize 750 --v 6
Midjourney prompt:
Image #5 - realistic closeup shot of a pretty caucasian woman that is 26 years old, she is wearing sunglasses, she has a seductive expression, keep the consistency of action, expression, clothing, shape and appearance of the photos, super detail, blender, soft lighting, ip, blind box, cinematic edge lighting, romantic scenes. Light is neon gradient purple and yellow. 4k resolution, professional camera shot --ar 4:7 --v 6
Midjourney prompt:
Image #1 - closeup shot of a handsome man that is 20 years old, he is studying in front of a laptop, he wears eye-glasses he has a seductive happy expression, keep the consistency of action, expression, clothing, shape and appearance of the photos, super detail, blender, soft lighting, ip, blind box, cinematic edge lighting, romantic scenes. Soft orange and soft black colors --ar 17:31 --stylize 150 --v 6
Midjourney prompt:
Image #2 - handsome caucasian man that is 34 years old, he has a seductive facial expression, he is fit, keep the consistency of action, expression, summer clothing, shape and appearance of the photos, super detail, blender, soft lighting, ip, blind box, cinematic edge lighting, romantic scenes. Light is neon gradient dark pink and orange. --no eyeglasses --ar 3:4 --stylize 150 --v 6
Midjourney prompt:
Image #3 - closeup shot of a handsome man that is 34 years old, he has a seductive expression, he is texting on an iPhone, keep the consistency of action, expression, clothing, shape and appearance of the photos, 3d character from Disney Pixar, super detail, blender, soft lighting, ip, blind box, cinematic edge lighting, romantic scenes. Background light is yellow and soft orange with a gradient. Neon light orange and yellow. --ar 3:4 --stylize 150 --v 6
Midjourney prompt:
Image #4 - closeup shot of a pretty woman that is 27 years old, she is dressed in a nurse costume, she has a seductive expression, keep the consistency of action, expression, clothing, shape and appearance of the photos, super detail, blender, soft lighting, ip, blind box, cinematic edge lighting, romantic scenes. Background light is blue and pink with a gradient. Neon light blue and pink. --ar 3:4 --stylize 150 --v 6
Style 3: Stylized Pixar cartoon
Midjourney prompt:
Image #1 - cool grandpa buying Bitcoin through an app to buy Bitcoin with and iphone, bitcoin logo on the background, orange light, cartoon, pixar, 3d, clash royale --ar 2:3 --v 6
Midjourney prompt:
Image #2 - excited beautiful girl playing a trivia game like the tv show “who wants to be millionaire”, pixar, 3d, clash royale --ar 2:3 --v 5.2
Midjourney prompt:
Image #3 - Youtube thumbnail emoji words guessing game, cartoon, pixar, 3d, clash royale - -ar 2:3 --v 5.2
Midjourney prompt:
Image #4 - Youtube thumbnail with excited Elon Musk, cartoon 3D Pixar style, background with neon explosions --ar 54:85 --stylize 250 --v 5.2
Midjourney prompt:
Image #5 - youtube thumbnail of a handsome man buying cryptocurrency through an app to buy cryptocurrency with and iphone, orange light, cartoon, pixar, 3d, clash royale --no eyeglasses --ar 2:3 --v 6
Midjourney prompt:
Image #6 - cool pretty woman using a finance app on his iphone, cartoon, pixar, 3d, clash royale, blue and orange background, blue light --no eyeglasses --ar 4:7 --v 6
Style 4: Other styles
Midjourney prompt:
Image #1 - a stylized illustration of a character with Bitcoin symbols on their glasses and dressed in a tuxedo. The character seems to represent a suave or mysterious figure associated with Bitcoin, minimalist orange background highlights the figure, and the design suggests a blend of pop culture and digital finance themes --ar 2:3 --v 6.1
Midjourney prompt:
Image #2 - cartoon of Mrs Marple, the detective, dressed with a red coat like a criminal investigator in winter time, style like Asterix --ar 9:16 --v 6.1
Midjourney prompt:
Image #3 - cartoonish 3/4 simple drawing of julius caesar with laurel wreath character portrait --ar 1:2 --v 6.1
Midjourney prompt:
Image #4 - intense F1 racing, overtaking in a sharp turn with high-speed shutter photography capturing its fast movement and dynamic blur effect. The high-tech speed line, the tires raised a lot of dust, racing driver wearing a helmet while driving a racing car. The background features an outdoor racing scene, showcasing bright sunlight and a wide perspective, photo-realistic, soft shadows, no contrast, clean sharp focus, shot on sony a7iv, sigma 24mm f1.4, film grain, natural lighting, professional color grading --ar 9:16 --v 6.1
Want to learn more?
Teodora shares all her App Growth secrets 👉 App Growth Academy.
Don’t forget to check Designerants where she creates screenshots that convert to downloads and revenue in the App Store.
And follow her on X & LinkedIn.