You can use Midjourney to generate images of food that look like they were taken by a professional photographer. This is beneficial to a lot of people across the globe who might not have enough money to hire a photographer to take photos of their dishes.
Picture this, you're a content creator and you have some incredible recipes that you want to share with the world. No matter how good your recipes are, you're going to have a hard time attracting users to your content if you don't have quality images of the food you're preparing.
Another scenario might be that you've just managed to save enough money to open up a fast-food restaurant. You want to attract customers but lack the funds for professional food photography. In this case, you can use AI-generated images of your dishes as a placeholder until you hire a photographer.
If you're interested in learning how to create photorealistic images in Midjourney that aren't related to food, I have a great article on the topic on this website. I'm certain that you'll find it useful.
How to Write Midjourney Prompts for Food Photography
Before we get down to the process of writing Midjourney prompts for food photography, I have to mention that you should always use the latest iteration of the AI model to get the best results. At the time of writing this article, the latest iteration is Midjourney v5.
You don't need a lot of experience in Midjourney to generate photorealistic food images. The most important thing is to describe the dish you're preparing in full detail while also keeping the prompt concise. Remember that Midjourney has a soft maximum of roughly 60 words!
Since you don't want the images you create to be misleading in any way, you should make sure that the images are photorealistic.
How do you do that?
It's simple - provide Midjourney with adequate instructions. This isn't difficult to do. In most cases, all it takes is mentioning at the beginning of the prompt that the image should be photorealistic.
You can also include some special keywords in your prompts for better results like 'full HD', 'HD photography', "Pinterest trending photo", and some more keywords you'll see in my prompts.
Midjourney Food Photography Prompt Examples
I'm now going to show you some Midjourney prompt examples for food photography. I recommend that you change certain parts of my prompts to see how it will affect the generated images, as I think that's the best way to learn how to write your own prompts.
Here is the first prompt I want to show you. I'll start off with something simple, like a delicious pasta carbonara.
/imagine photorealistic image of pasta carbonara in a deep plate with thin slices of bacon and grated parmesan cheese on top, full HD, Pinterest trending photo --v 5
It would be pretty difficult to spot that this is an AI-generated image, in my opinion. It also wouldn't be misleading to use a photo like this even if you have a restaurant and want to show customers what type of dishes you serve.
/imagine photorealistic image of a burger on a wooden board with fries on the side, the burger has a white mayo sauce, caramelized onions, a slice of cheddar cheese, and sliced jalapenos --ar 16:9 --v 5
While it wasn't obvious that the image of the pasta carbonara was generated with artificial intelligence, this one would be pretty easy to spot. Even if people don't think it's AI-generated, they'll surely think that it is photoshopped.
Some people might have a problem with this, but I personally don't. Remember what type of images you see when you look at a burger ad at McDonald's or Burger King. This image looks like something you'd expect to see in an ad for a fast-food restaurant.
/imagine photorealistic image of baby back ribs on a wooden board next to fries and coleslaw, the baby ribs are grazed with delicious smoky barbecue sauce, HD photography --ar 16:9 --v 5
Oh. My. God. This looks absolutely stunning. I grew up in a place where baby back ribs aren't really a popular dish. But ever since I first tried them I've been a huge fan.
/imagine sizzling hot fajita served in a cast iron with tortillas on the side, the fajita is made with pico de gallo, sour cream, onions, garlic, beef strips, and guacamole, ultrarealistic, restaurant food --ar 16:9 --v 5
I didn't even have to write that this should be a photorealistic image at the beginning of the prompt. I should've but I forgot and when I saw the results I saw that it wasn't necessarily needed. That's mainly because Midjourney v5 showed a significant improvement when it comes to making all images look more realistic unless you specify it shouldn't look like a photograph.
/imagine photorealistic image of traditional mac and cheese on a white plate, full HD, Pinterest trending photo --v 5
Who doesn't like mac and cheese? This simple dish is a favorite for people of all ages and is popular across the globe. Since the dish is simple, I figured that the prompt for this image should be too.
/imagine three different kinds of sushi on a wooden board, HD photography --ar 16:9 --v 5
Sometimes, it's best to let Midjourney randomize elements of an image as much as possible. I wanted different kinds of sushi in a single image, and the AI model delivered. You can also go into detail about which types of sushi you'd like to see.
/imagine photorealistic image of tacos on a wooden board with ground beef, diced onions, shredded cheese, shredded lettuce, sliced avocado, and sour cream, with a slice of lime on the side --ar 16:9 --v 5
This prompt shows you the effect of describing everything you want to see in an image in full detail. I love the touch that a slice of lime or two on the side gives to an image like this. Very impressed with the result here.
/imagine photorealistic photo of a Chicago-style deep dish pepperoni pizza, full HD, 8K, realistic --v 5
This image was made on the first try and I didn't observe it closely because my initial thought was that it looked good and I knew if I spent more than 5 seconds looking at the image I would end up ordering a pizza. This is not good, since I'm trying to cut down on calories.
/imagine photorealistic image of homemade lasagna served on a white plate, full HD, homemade, 8K --ar 16:9 --v 5
In this prompt, I wanted to make sure that I mention that it's homemade lasagna. This helps to give the image a different type of aesthetic.
/imagine food photo of deep fried chicken drumsticks on a white plate next to cornbread, mashed potatoes, and coleslaw, food photography, full HD --ar 16:9 --v 5
Sometimes, it's difficult to get Midjourney to generate every single thing that you want. There is no cornbread in this image even though I mentioned it in the prompt. But I'm not mad at it, since the image looks amazing.
/imagine professional food photo, apple pie, whipped cream, caramel sauce, cinnamon, full HD, food photography, 8K --ar 16:9 --v 5
You thought that I wasn't going to include images of desserts in this article? I guess you don't know me well. I have a sweet tooth and there wasn't a chance I was going to end this article without generating a few images of some of my favorite desserts. I don't even know what to say about this image except that it's insanely good.
/imagine photorealistic image of a homemade nutella-swirl pound cake on a white plate, homemade food, full HD --ar 16:9 --v 5
Here's another example of a prompt that contains the word 'homemade' in it. Now compare it to the apple pie photo and see the major differences. If you need food photography from Midjourney because you're writing recipes online, you should make it a habit to use the word 'homemade' in your prompts.
Final Thoughts
Using Midjourney to generate realistic food images can save you a lot of money. In my opinion, people who can most benefit from this practice are recipe writers who want to attract users to their blog or YouTube channel.
You can present just about any dish in Midjourney. I want to reiterate that you should never use AI-generated images that are misleading. Work on making sure that the images are as close to the real thing as possible.
