How to Use Midjourney’s Image Editor

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Midjourney’s Image Editor lets you edit both Midjourney creations and uploaded images in a browser. You can extend a canvas, replace objects, remove or change backgrounds, combine images with layers, and retexture an entire scene. The basic workflow is: open an image, define the area to change with Erase or Smart Select, describe the result, click Submit Edit, then choose from four generated variations.

Important: Midjourney’s current Editor documentation says that Editor functionality uses V6.1, even though newer models are visible elsewhere on the site. Interface labels and model availability can change, so your account may not look exactly like the steps below.

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Quick guide: choose the right Editor tool

The Editor is generative rather than a pixel-precise retouching tool. Even a localized edit can change nearby details, shadows, reflections, text, anatomy, or boundaries.

Open Midjourney’s Image Editor

Edit a Midjourney image

1. Go to midjourney.com and sign in.
2. Open the image from Create or Organize.
3. Open its creation details or lightbox.
4. Choose Edit in the Creation Actions area.
5. If the lighter interface does not show the tool you need, choose Open in Edit tab.

Some actions may be hidden under More options. The lighter gallery editor and the full Edit tab do not always expose the same controls.

Edit an external image

1. Open the dedicated Edit tab on the Midjourney website.
2. Upload an image from your device or paste an image URL.
3. Continue in the full Editor interface.

External-image editing was opened to all membership tiers in a Midjourney announcement from April 2025, but access and feature availability can change. Check your account if the Edit tab or upload control is unavailable.

For the current interface, see Midjourney’s official Editor documentation.

Understand the Editor workspace

• Move / Resize: moves or scales the source image, changes the canvas, and changes the framing.
• Paint: contains Erase, Restore, and brush-size controls.
• Smart Select: selects an object or area using inclusion and exclusion points.
• Layers: adds and manages additional source images.
• Retexture: regenerates the image’s overall style or surface treatment while attempting to preserve its composition.
• Imagine bar: describes what should be generated in the edited area or image.
• Results panel: displays the four results produced by an edit and keeps later iterations available.
• Export controls: include downloading, upscaling to the gallery, and saving the original or transparent edit information.

Make a basic object replacement

Suppose you want to replace a lamp with a plant, add a crown to a portrait, or place a chair in an empty part of a room.

1. Open the source image.
2. Use Move / Resize first if the new object needs more surrounding space.
3. Open Paint and select Erase.
4. Brush over the object or area to regenerate.
5. Include a little of the surrounding edge, shadow, or contact area if the replacement must blend naturally.
6. Describe the desired result in the Imagine bar.
7. Click Submit Edit.
8. Compare the four results and select the strongest one for another edit, download, or upscale.

A useful prompt identifies the object, position, scale, material, lighting, perspective, and visual style. For example:

Replace the erased area with a small brass table lamp on the right side of the desk, matching the existing camera angle, warm window light, perspective, and editorial-photography style. Keep the desk, wall, and subject unchanged.

Do not expect an exact pixel-preserving operation. If the result changes too much, undo or reset, reduce the mask, and make a smaller edit. Explicitly name the elements that must remain unchanged.

Erase and restore accurately

Erase marks pixels or regions for regeneration. Restore brings back parts of the original image that you accidentally erased. The brush-size control applies to both tools.

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• For an object replacement, erase slightly beyond the old boundary so its edge, shadow, or reflection does not constrain the new object.
• Do not erase too much when identity, pose, product shape, or composition must remain stable.
• Zoom in and reduce the brush size for small corrections.
• If a new object needs a shadow, erase enough of the nearby ground or surface for Midjourney to reconstruct the contact area.
• Use Restore when you have painted over an area that should remain original.

Use Smart Select for objects and backgrounds

Smart Select can create a mask from positive and negative points.

1. Activate Smart Select.
2. Click the object or region to include.
3. Add positive points to expand the selection.
4. Add negative or exclude points to remove nearby areas selected incorrectly.
5. Choose Erase Selection to erase inside the selection, or Erase Background to erase everything outside it.
6. Inspect the resulting mask before entering the prompt and submitting the edit.

The green highlighted selection is not necessarily an active erase mask. You must click Erase Selection or Erase Background. If the green overlay is still visible when you submit, the intended mask may not have been applied.

Replace a background

1. Load the image in the Editor.
2. Use Smart Select to select the main subject.
3. Choose Erase Background.
4. Check the erased or transparent area, especially around hair, fingers, foliage, smoke, glass, and thin wires.
5. Prompt the replacement background.
6. Submit the edit and repeat if the edge needs refinement.

Smart Select is generative rather than a guaranteed professional clipping path. For a clean commercial cutout with exact edges, a dedicated background-removal tool or conventional image editor may be more predictable.

Expand or reframe an image

Move / Resize

Move / Resize lets you move the image within the canvas, scale it by dragging corners, and rotate it by hovering outside the corners. Preset aspect ratios are available, and the full Edit tab supports a custom aspect ratio.

To create room for outpainting, drag the gray canvas bars to expand the canvas. The newly available area can then be erased or left transparent for Midjourney to generate.

Changing the frame is not the same as intelligently extending a scene. Stretching an image to a new aspect ratio simply distorts it. Midjourney’s Remix documentation specifically warns that aspect-ratio changes with Remix stretch the image rather than extend the canvas.

Pan and Zoom Out

Pan expands the canvas in a selected direction and is useful when you need more space on one side. It is available through Creation Actions and the Editor. See Midjourney’s Pan documentation.

Zoom Out generates more of the surrounding scene while preserving the central image. It accepts values from 1.0 to 2.0, with 1.5x and 2x shortcuts, according to Midjourney’s Zoom Out documentation.

Use Move / Resize when you want to control the new canvas boundaries, Pan when the extension should go in a particular direction, and Zoom Out when you want a wider view around the existing composition.

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Combine images with Layers

Layers lets you add source images to a composition, then move, scale, reorder, or delete them. The active layer is marked with a check mark, and editing tools apply to that layer.

1. Open Layers and choose Add.
2. Import the additional image.
3. Move and scale the new layer into position.
4. Select the layer you want to edit.
5. Erase portions that should not remain.
6. Adjust the base image and added layer independently where possible.
7. Submit the edit to generate the composition.

A critical limitation is easy to miss: when a layered edit is submitted, only visible transparent areas—the checkerboard regions—are regenerated. Visible portions remain unchanged. Midjourney will not necessarily harmonize every visible layer automatically.

If you need the entire composition regenerated into one coherent style, use Retexture instead. Layers are best for arranging source material; Retexture is better for whole-image reinterpretation.

Use Retexture to change the overall style

Retexture changes an image’s visual treatment while attempting to retain its structure and composition. It is suitable for turning a photograph into a watercolor illustration, converting a scene into a clay render, applying a cinematic treatment, or changing surface materials while preserving the rough arrangement.

1. Open the Retexture tab.
2. Describe the new style, material, or visual language.
3. Click Submit Retexture.
4. If unwanted parts of the original image influence the result, erase those regions first and try again.

Reinterpret the image as a detailed watercolor illustration, preserving the subject positions, silhouettes, overall composition, and camera angle.

Retexture is not the best choice for a small, tightly controlled correction. Use a small Erase mask for a local change; use Retexture when the whole image needs a unified treatment.

Prompting for more reliable edits

Describe the intended result rather than merely writing “add object.” Include:

• What to add, remove, or replace.
• Where it belongs.
• Its size, orientation, and quantity.
• Lighting, perspective, material, and color.
• The visual style it should match.
• The elements that must remain unchanged.

For a local replacement:

Replace the erased area with [subject], positioned [location], matching the existing lighting, camera angle, perspective, color palette, and visual style. Keep [specific elements] unchanged.

For outpainting:

Extend the scene into the erased area with [environmental details], continuing the same perspective, lighting, time of day, lens look, and artistic style.

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For Retexture:

Reinterpret the image as [style or material], preserving the subject positions, overall composition, silhouettes, and camera angle.

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These are starting patterns, not guarantees. Long prompts with conflicting constraints can be less useful than a concise description that clearly states the desired change and the important fixed elements.

Review results and iterate efficiently

After an edit, Midjourney generates four results in the results panel. Each later edit adds more results, so you can compare attempts without immediately losing earlier versions.

1. Change one variable at a time: the mask, prompt, object scale, or lighting description.
2. Keep the original image available for comparison.
3. Compare the mask size and prompt wording between attempts.
4. If the image drifts, undo or reset instead of stacking several uncertain edits.
5. Use the strongest result as the source for the next small edit.

When an object looks pasted on, erase the immediate contact area and describe its light direction, camera angle, material, scale, and shadow. A second localized pass can often integrate the object better than one broad edit.

Export and find edited images later

The Editor provides several ways to save work:

• Download Image: saves the result directly.
• Upscale to Gallery: sends the result to your Midjourney gallery.
• Save the original generation: preserves the source generation where available.
• Save a transparent PNG: preserves the current erased areas as transparency.

Uploaded images, layered edits, and their upscales may not appear in Create or Organize unless you upscale them. They remain available within the Editor. According to Midjourney’s Editor documentation, externally uploaded images, layered edits, and their upscales are visible only to you on midjourney.com and do not work with Discord’s show command.

Why an edit fails or looks wrong

The tool is missing

You may be in the lighter Editor. Choose Open in Edit tab. Also check More options, and remember that the full Editor is a web feature rather than a complete set of Discord controls. Interface rollouts can also change what appears in your account.

The edit changes too much

Reduce the mask, use Erase rather than Retexture, and state which objects must remain unchanged. Several small edits are usually easier to control than one large mask.

The inserted object looks pasted on

Your mask may not include the contact area, or the prompt may omit perspective, scale, lighting, material, and shadow. Erase a little more around the object, describe the scene’s light and camera angle, then try a second integration pass.

Smart Select chooses the wrong area

Add positive points to the intended subject and negative points to exclude nearby objects. Then apply the selection with Erase Selection or Erase Background. If the overlay becomes unreliable, reset the selection and start again.

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The green selection remains visible

The selection has probably not been converted into an erase mask. Click Erase Selection or Erase Background before submitting.

Moderation blocks an apparently harmless edit

Midjourney says moderation examines uploaded content, prompts, masks, and output images. Rephrase the prompt plainly, remove unnecessary references to real people or sensitive situations, and try a smaller, less ambiguous edit. A blocked job does not cost credits according to the Editor documentation, but moderation is not a legal determination that the source image or intended use is permitted.

The result is missing from Create or Organize

This can be expected for uploaded and layered work. Upscale the result to make it appear in the regular gallery, or return to the Editor where the work remains available.

Privacy, copyright, and consent

Only upload images you have permission to use. Midjourney’s Terms of Service require users to have appropriate rights and permissions for uploaded or edited content and prohibit infringement of third-party intellectual-property or privacy rights.

Do not upload private photographs without consent, client assets without authorization, or copyrighted and trademarked material you are not permitted to edit. Avoid abusive, derogatory, or sexualized manipulation of real people. Midjourney’s Terms also contain qualifications about ownership and commercial users, so treat ownership as a legal question rather than an unconditional copyright guarantee.

When Midjourney is not the best editor

Midjourney is a strong choice for prompt-guided additions, replacements, outpainting, and retexturing. It is less suitable when you need exact typography, professional color management, a guaranteed clipping path, non-destructive adjustment layers, or pixel-level control over every unchanged area.

• Photoshop is better suited to detailed masking, typography, adjustment layers, and professional compositing.
• Affinity Photo provides conventional photo-editing and compositing tools.
• Photopea is a browser-based option for manual, layer-oriented editing.
• Canva is more convenient for quick layouts, social graphics, and text-heavy designs.
• Dedicated background-removal tools can be more predictable when clean subject extraction matters more than creative reinterpretation.

For confidential assets or strict data-governance requirements, consider a local or enterprise editing workflow instead.

Final decision guide

Start with the smallest mask and the most specific prompt that can accomplish the job. Use the full Edit tab when the light editor lacks a control, and download or upscale the result deliberately because uploaded and layered work follows different gallery-visibility rules.

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ThatPainter Team