Midjourney for Photographers: Discord vs. Website – Which One Should You Use?
Which Midjourney platform best fits your photography workflow?
As photographers, we're always looking for tools to enhance our creative processes. Midjourney, one of the most popular AI image-generation platforms, has taken the art world by storm with its ability to produce stunning visuals that complement or inspire photographic work.
If you're familiar with AI tools like Photoshop or Topaz Photo AI, you might find Midjourney's workflow a bit unnatural as an editing tool for existing photographs. It’s fun and rewarding, but getting the most from it as a photographer can occasionally seem challenging and overwhelming. Since its inception, Midjourney has been powered by Discord. But now, with a dedicated website in the mix, the question has become whether Discord is still the best option. Based on our experience as photographers, maybe not. Let’s break it down.
Discord: Where Midjourney Began
Discord’s chat-based interface has been the heart of Midjourney since day one.
Key Features:
Prompt Input & Image Generation: Type prompts directly in chat channels and get instant feedback. This interactive process makes experimenting easy.
Community Collaboration: While not everyone participates in community discussions, seeing how others craft prompts and images can be inspiring and educational, especially when you're first learning about prompts.
Advanced Commands: Discord users rely on commands like /imagine to start off a prompt and commands like --ar (aspect ratio), --style, --iw (image weight), etc. to fine-tune outputs. This makes the program a bit more technical but flexible for advanced users.
Reference Images: To use a reference photo (as we always do), you must upload it to Discord or paste a URL to the image. This extra step can feel clunky, especially when working with multiple reference images.
Where Discord Shines:
Creative Exploration: Discord’s collaborative environment is a great place to experiment with abstract or conceptual ideas.
Learning Opportunities: Observing other artists' prompts and outputs can give you ideas to refine your own creative process.
The Midjourney Website: A Simpler Alternative
While Discord thrives on interaction, the website offers a streamlined experience that feels more intuitive for photographers.
Key Features:
Organized Gallery: The website automatically stores your creations and lets you group them into folders. This is great managing large projects and images you want to group together for easy retrieval.
Prompt Tracking: Revisit past prompts without scrolling through endless chat logs.
Ease of Use: For those intimidated by Discord’s chat-based workflow, the website offers a clean, user-friendly interface.
External Image Editor: The website’s editor, including the new “Retexture” tool, is a standout feature. It’s still in a staged rollout, but it’s a game-changer for refining images directly on the platform.
Where the Website Shines:
Portfolios: Use the website to curate and organize images for specific projects or themes.
Distraction-Free Workflow: Ideal for photographers who prefer working without the buzz of real-time interactions.
External Image Editor: Yes, we mention it twice because it’s so nice!
Privacy Features: Discord vs. Website
Privacy is often a key concern, especially for photographers working on client-sensitive projects but fine art photographers and others as well.
Discord: You can create a private server for free, but images generated there will still be visible on the website unless you have a Pro membership and manually unpublish them on the website version.
Website: Stealth Mode, available with a Pro subscription ($60/month or $48/month annually), keeps your work private.
Which One Should You Choose?
The right platform depends on your workflow and goals:
Choose Discord if you thrive in collaborative environments, love learning from others, or enjoy quick-fire experimentation. Be sure to understand the private server limitations (see above).
Choose the Website if you want a more organized workspace, need to manage outputs for client projects, prefer a simplified workflow, need the stealth feature, and to take advantage of the External Image Editor.
Our Take: The External Image Editor on the website is a game-changer for us, making it our go-to tool for refining and transforming our photographs.
Why Not Both?
Many photographers suggest combining both platforms for the best results. Start by experimenting and generating ideas on Discord, then switch to the website to refine, organize, and polish your work. This approach lets you tap into each platform's unique strengths while keeping your workflow efficient. So they say.
However, it seems to me that Midjourney is focusing much more of its development energy on the website, so we’ll likely discontinue using the Discord server soon.
Whatever you choose, Midjourney is no longer just a tool for experimenting. It can be a creative partner for photographers who want to blend technology with artistry. I suggest trying both platforms out before settling on one or the other.
What do you think?
Of course, we’d love to hear from you! Feel free to comment to let us know about your experiences with Midjourney as a photographer and which platform you prefer. We’ll also answer or try to find answers to any questions you may have.
George, Thanks so much for your article and suggestions. Having seen your work on LinkedIn for what … a year now, and being blown away by your creative AI imagery, I feel very comfortable following your advice!