parameters — --stylize
Reading --stylize from 50 to 1000 in real prompts
Twenty-six images here set a stylize value. The distribution is not smooth — it clusters at 50 and 250, and each cluster comes with its own companion parameters.
--stylize is described as controlling "how strongly Midjourney's default aesthetic is applied". That is accurate and almost useless, because it does not tell you what you lose. What you lose is control: as stylize climbs, the model's taste starts overruling your description and your style reference.
The clearest way to see that is not a slider demo with one subject. It is looking at what values working prompts actually settle on, and what else those prompts have in common.
- 26of 85 images set a stylize value
- 5distinct values, from 50 to 1000
- 18of the 26 sit at either 50 or 250
- 100%of the --stylize 50 images also use --raw
The distribution is lumpy, not smooth
If stylize were a dial people swept through, you would expect values scattered across the range. Instead they cluster, and each cluster has a signature:
| --stylize | Images | Also use --raw | Also use --sref |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | 8 | 8 — all of them | 8 — all of them |
| 240 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 250 | 10 | 4 | 10 — all of them |
| 400 | 4 | 4 — all of them | 2 |
| 1000 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
Two things jump out. Every single image at --stylize 50 also carries --raw and a style code. And every image at --stylize 250 carries a style code too. That is not coincidence — it is a recipe.
The low-stylize recipe: get out of the way
--stylize 50 --raw --sref … is a single coherent instruction, said three times. Low stylize tells the model to apply less of its own aesthetic. --raw tells it to apply less beautification on top of the prompt. A style reference tells it what aesthetic to use instead. Together they mean: do not decorate this, use my reference.
Five of the eight --stylize 50 images. Restrained, filmic, no obvious Midjourney gloss — which is the entire point of the value.
flower, shot on Svema color film --ar 3:2 --v 7 --raw --sref 3808932062 --p n59emtm 72csxc4 --s 50
This is why "turn stylize down" is such common advice for photographic work and such bad advice for illustration. Turning it down does not make images more realistic; it makes the model contribute less. If you have not supplied something to fill the gap — a reference, a detailed description — you get something flat rather than something restrained.
250: the default that is not the default
Ten images sit at --stylize 250, the largest cluster here. Midjourney's own default is 100, so 250 is a deliberate step up: enough model opinion to make an illustration feel composed, not so much that a style code stops registering. All ten carry a style code.
The 250 cluster. Note how much more the rendering is doing here than in the row above — colour, light and finish are all being decided by the model rather than merely permitted.
400 and 1000: paying for it
Only six images go above 250. The four at --stylize 400 are interesting because all four also use --raw, and only two carry a style code — a different bargain from the low end. Here --raw is being used to hold the subject steady while stylize is pushed for finish.
The four images at 400. Two still lifes and two heavily treated portraits — cases where the surface is the subject.
At --stylize 1000, only two images. That is the honest answer about the top of the range: it is available, and it is rarely what you want, because your description stops steering.
Picking a value
From what the data here supports, rather than from theory:
- Start from what else is in your prompt. Carrying a style code you trust? Go low — 50 with
--rawif you want the code to dominate, 250 if you want it blended. - Change one thing. Stylize interacts with
--rawand--srefso strongly that moving all three at once tells you nothing about any of them. - Match the value to the source. A style code found at one stylize value reproduces at that value. This is the single most common reason a copied code "does not work" — see the style-code guide, where the same pattern shows up from the other direction.