Midjourney Pan Feature In V6 – How to Use It to Extend image?

The Pan feature in Midjourney has opened up new horizons for creators, offering greater control over the directional expansion of images.

This innovative tool allows users to extend their creations beyond the original frame, adding depth, context, and intricate details to their artwork. Understanding and utilizing the Pan feature can significantly enhance your Midjourney experience.

Understanding the Pan Feature

At its core, the Pan feature allows users to extend their images in specific directions—up, down, left, or right. 

This feature allows you to create panoramic images, expand scenes with details, or add new elements that blend smoothly into the original composition. You can add more of the story you wish to tell.

How to Use The Pan Feature to Extend Images

How to Access and Use the Pan Feature

After creating and upscaling an image in Midjourney, you’ll see arrow buttons indicating the possible directions to pan (left, right, up, down). Clicking an arrow initiates the pan in that direction, opening up new creative possibilities for your image.

Prompt Adjustments: If you’ve activated ‘Remix mode,’ you can modify your prompts with each pan to guide the AI, ensuring the expanded areas align with your vision. If you deactivate remix mode, Midjourney will automatically extend the image.

To make the most out of the Midjourney’s Pan feature, it’s essential to configure your setup optimally. Type “/settings” in your chat, and you can get access to the setting options.

• Select the Latest Version Models: Ensure you use the Midjourney or Niji model V6. It offers enhanced capabilities, such as panning in multiple directions without restrictions and creating variations on your panned images.
• Activate Remix Mode: Remix Mode is crucial for utilizing the Pan feature to its fullest, allowing for prompt adjustments during the panning process.

New Pan Feature in V6 – What’s New?

Over time, the pan feature has evolved, with each version of Midjourney bringing enhancements that offer more control and creative freedom.

Early Stages: Initially, the Pan feature was basic, allowing users to extend images in set directions but with limited control over composition and detail.

Version 5 Improvements: Version 5 introduced interactive adjustments, improved prompt, and parameter control during the pan process, and started enhancing image quality and coherence in expansions.

Version 6 Enhancements:

• Directional Flexibility: V6 removes limitations on changing panning directions, offering unparalleled creative freedom.
• Variations on Panned Images: Now, users can create variations on panned images, exploring multiple outcomes from a single direction.
• Improved Quality Maintenance: The update ensures panning doesn’t add pixels, preserving the original image’s resolution and quality, even after several expansions.
• Avoiding Repetitive Elements: A significant improvement is the feature’s ability to maintain the scene’s integrity without duplicating elements, even with multiple pans, ensuring the expanded image stays true to the original concept. 

Previously, in V5.2, if you used a prompt like ‘a girl sitting on a bench’ and then panned the image multiple times without altering the prompt, the result would include multiple instances of the scene described by the prompt — meaning more girls sitting on more benches would appear with each pan.

However, in V6, the Pan feature adheres strictly to the original prompt’s intent. So, if you pan the image multiple times, the scene expands, but the content remains true to having just one girl sitting on a bench, regardless of how many times you pan.

This change ensures that the expanded image maintains the original concept without unnecessarily duplicating elements described in the prompt.

Aspect Ratios and Image Resolutions After Panning

Aspect Ratios:

As you pan, the ratio between the width and height of your image changes, extending the original image by 50% in the direction you choose. Being aware of how this change impacts your image’s composition is crucial for achieving the look you want.

Image Resolution:

The clarity of your panned image is tied to its resolution. In the previous version, V5.2, Midjourney would add pixels after each pan. For instance, panning a default 1024x1024px image would result in an image sized 1024x1536px, adding 512px. If you pan again, the image size will increase to 1024x2048px, making the final image progressively larger.

However, in Version 6, Midjourney has improved this process. While the aspect ratio remains the same as in V5.2, pixels are not added, meaning the overall resolution changes but remains relatively. This ensures your files don’t become larger after panning.

Some Examples of Using the Pan Feature

Building a Dynamic Cityscape: Begin with a single skyscraper and pan to each side to develop a bustling metropolis, complete with bustling streets, towering buildings, and a lively urban atmosphere.

Creating a Panoramic Historical Battle Scene: Use the pan feature to expand a medieval battlefield, adding layers of soldiers, cavalry, and siege engines to both sides, deepening the sense of scale and drama.

Pan Vs. Zoom Out

Panning and zooming are two similar features in Midjourney that allow for different types of image manipulation and expansion:

What’s the difference?

• Directional Control: Panning offers directional control to expand the image, whereas zooming provides a uniform expansion around the image’s center.
• Usage Scenario: Panning is ideal for creating panoramic images or extending a scene in a specific direction. Zooming is best for adding more background or context to an existing image without favoring any side.
• Resolution Impact: Panning can create images larger than the original maximum dimensions in one direction while zooming maintains the original upscale limit but expands the image equally in all directions. In the previous V5, zooming out a panned image will restore the resolution to the default 1024
• Remix Mode: Paning supports remix mode, allowing for prompt changes during the panning process to guide the expansion creatively. Zooming only allows custom zoom between 1x and 2x.

If you want to change the composition of a picture, combining Pan with Zoom is a good solution. 

After panning, you can also use the Vary Region to edit or refine parts of the expanded areas, adding or removing elements to perfect the composition.

Pan Tool Troubleshooting and FAQs

Why My Images Become Blurry After Expansions

If expansions become blurry, refine your prompts for greater specificity or avoid panning multiple times. 

How many times can I pan an image?

While there’s no strict limit, the quality and coherence of the image may diminish with excessive panning. It’s advisable to pan with a purposeful direction in mind.

Can I pan in different directions for the same image?

Yes, especially with the latest updates in V6, you have the flexibility to change directions, allowing for more complex image constructions. However, in V5 or previous models, you can only pan image horizontally or vertically.

Wrapping Up

The Pan feature in Midjourney is a powerful tool that can elevate your artwork. By mastering it, you not only enhance your current projects but also add creativity to your existing artwork whenever inspiration hits.

Whether your focus is on vast landscapes, detailed urban scenes, or complex story-driven compositions, Pan provides the flexibility and control needed to realize your artistic vision. I hope this guide helps; happy creating!