A Short Guide to Quickly Creating "Film Photo" Images in the Style of the Archive - 10/14/24

A quick tutorial on how to create mock film photo style images similar to the ones used by the Archive.

Good morning folks! Last week was a busy week for me on the personal front and I didn't have a chance to get a good story up - but don't worry, that just means you guys are getting two this week. To hold you over until tomorrow and Friday (when those next stories will be arriving) I wanted to present a very short tutorial on how you can easily create mock film photo images in the style of the Archive using Midjourney. This guide won't cover the hybrid illustrative img2img process that I use for some images - that's been covered here before, and will likely be covered again in greater detail in the future. The only thing you'll need to achieve the looks covered in today's guide will be a midjourney membership. This is not an exhaustive guide - I'll continue to follow up on it with new techniques as the Archive evolves.

I recently switched over to Midjourney as the main engine for the Archive's image creation, and while I'm still learning a lot, I've been staggered by how finely I can control the style of the images made by it. Recently, the most useful feature to me has been the SREF feature, wherein one can ask MJ to create an image in a specific style by having it reference either an SREF code in the prompt or an uploaded image or set of images. The code portion of this is what I've been using most frequently recently, and I have found several great SREF codes on online databases. https://sref-midjourney.com/ is my favorite, but I have found equally as many good SREF codes simply by browsing the "Explore" tab in midjourney. Anyway, here's a few prompts, images, and associated SREF codes that I've been using lately to create images that emulate old film photos for Archive stories and videos.

--sref 2872866529

This sref code has been great for creating atmospheric, richly colored images with a surreal bend. The images created when using this code are reminiscent of 70's art house film or vintage national geographic photography. Here are some prompts that have been used in conjunction with this sref code and the images that have been produced:

sharp film photo of an enormous castle flying in the sky, large old growth trees in the foreground, liminal space, creepy ambience, fantastic scene, 80's film, Kodak Ektar 100, beautiful film photo,70's film, HD DVD screengrab, dark fantasy, highly detailed, HQ, masterpiece

--sref 20240806

This sref code is great for creating scenes that look like they came straight from an 80's sci fi movie. Mixing this one with the above sref code has also led to some interesting results! I used this one heavily in the recent fisherman videos. Here are some prompts that have been used in conjunction with this sref code and the images that have been produced:

sharp film photo of a derelict automaton head with glowing red eyes seen from afar, large rusted automaton head sitting in a grassy valley seen from afar, rust, wires, broken machinery, rolling green hill, large boulders, fantastic scene, 80's film, Kodak Ektar 100, beautiful film photo,70's film, VHS screengrab, dark fantasy,highly detailed, HQ, masterpiece

another one:

beautiful film photo of a massive futuristic alien metropolis built within the walls of an enormous underground crevasse, subterranean waterfalls and rivers, massive desert cavern crevasse, 80's sci fi movie, highly detailed, sharp

These two SREFs in conjunction with a lot of the same prompt wording have been instrumental in achieving the current look of the Archive's mock film photo imagery. Play with these prompts and srefs and let me know what you come up with!

Cheers,

The Head Curator