Midjourney has been the dominant player in the AI image generation space for a year and a half. Many other platforms have been released and improved over this time, with each offering something unique, but they have yet to deliver the quality that Midjourney has been able to deliver consistently.
However, some of the foundering members of Stability AI left the company and have started a new company called Black Forest Labs, and with it their first AI image generation platform, Flux. With Flux, Black Forest Labs has released a platform that is capable of not just competing with Midjourney, but to some, it is even surpassing Midjourney.
Flux excels in creating photorealistic images of people, something Midjourney has consistently led the market with and no other platform has come close. This is despite Midjourney releasing their latest adjustment to their version 6 model, with version 6.1. Additionally, Flux is open-source and available to run locally on a relatively high-spec laptop. For those without a capable computer, there are a number of sites where it is possible to test at minimal cost.
Let’s look at some side-by-side comparisons of Flux’s Pro and Midjourney’s version 6.1 models:
Image 1:
Prompt: “A trendy male fashion influencer with perfectly styled hair and designer stubble, posing on a city street. He’s wearing a tailored suit and holding up a vintage tarot card. The background shows blurred city lights, creating a chic urban atmosphere.“
Image 2:
Prompt: “A charismatic speaker is captured mid-speech. She has long brown hair. She is wearing a floral dress with rectangular-framed glasses with dark rims, is animated as she gestures with his left hand. She is holding a black microphone in her right hand, speaking passionately. She’s also wearing a simple cyan lanyard hanging around her neck. The lanyard badge has the text “FugazAI”
Image 3:
Prompt: “a photo of a street in Melbourne with a tram passing by and people walking about”
Image 4:
Prompt: “photo of a futuristic cyberpunk car, parked on a busy road with people walking around and neon lights illuminating the streets”
Image 5:
Prompt: “close up dof render of a mythical creature made of detailed spiraling fractals and tendrils, detailed recursive skin texture”
Image 6:
Prompt: “A glamorous young woman with long, wavy dark pink hair and smokey eye makeup, posing in a luxury hotel room. She’s wearing a sparkly black cocktail dress. Soft, warm lighting creates a luxurious atmosphere.”