How to Fix Midjourney Hands: Complete Guide

AI-generated hands have been a persistent problem, and Midjourney is no exception. While recent versions improved significantly, hands can still appear with extra fingers, wrong poses, or distorted shapes. This guide covers techniques to get better hands.

Understanding the Problem

AI models struggle with hands because:

• Hands have complex articulation
• Training data shows hands in many configurations
• Small details matter more with hands
• Context determines correct hand poses

Midjourney V6 improved considerably, but issues persist.

Prevention Techniques

1. Prompt Positioning

Keep hand descriptions at the front of prompts where they carry more weight:

Better: “detailed realistic hands, woman writing at desk…”

Worse: “woman at desk… with detailed hands”

2. Specify Hand Actions

Describe what hands are doing, not just how they look:

• “hands clasped together”
• “hand gripping coffee cup”
• “fingers interlaced”
• “palm resting on surface”

Action descriptions often produce better results than appearance descriptions.

3. Hide Hands When Possible

If hands aren’t essential to the image:

• “hands in pockets”
• “arms crossed”
• “hands behind back”
• “hands out of frame”
• “cropped at waist”

4. Use Simple Poses

Complex hand poses fail more often:

Easier: Open palm, closed fist, hands at sides Harder: Counting fingers, intricate gestures, overlapping hands

5. Negative Prompts

In Midjourney V6+, add to prompts:

--no extra fingers, mutated hands, deformed hands

This doesn’t always help but occasionally improves results.

Correction Techniques

1. Regenerate

Often the fastest fix—regenerate until hands look right. Use:

• V1-V4 buttons to create variations
• Different seeds for new attempts
• Slight prompt modifications

2. Zoom and Regenerate

Use outpaint/zoom features to:

• Zoom in on problem areas
• Regenerate just the hand region
• Often produces better local results

3. Vary (Region)

Midjourney’s Vary (Region) feature:

1. Click Vary (Region) on your image
2. Select the hand area
3. Add hand-specific prompts
4. Generate variations of just that region

This is often the most effective built-in fix.

4. External Inpainting

Export to external tools:

• Photoshop Generative Fill
• DALL-E inpainting
• Stable Diffusion inpainting
• Other inpainting tools

Select just the hands and regenerate.

Alternative Approaches

Use Different Models

Some models handle hands better:

Flux: Significantly better hand generation DALL-E 3: Improved hands over earlier versions Leonardo: Good hand results with right settings

Consider using these for hand-critical images.

Post-Processing

Manual fixes in image editors:

• Clone stamp for minor fixes
• Liquify tool for shape adjustment
• Cut and paste from other generations
• AI-assisted retouching tools

Composite Approach

1. Generate body in Midjourney
2. Generate hands separately (or use stock/photo)
3. Composite in image editor
4. Blend seamlessly

More work but reliable results.

Best Practices Summary

Technique	Effort	Success Rate
Action prompts	Low	Medium
Hide hands	Low	High
Vary Region	Medium	High
External inpainting	Medium	High
Compositing	High	Very High

When to Give Up

Sometimes it’s faster to:

• Accept imperfect hands for non-critical images
• Use a different AI model
• Source hands from photos
• Commission hand fixes

Don’t spend hours on one image when alternatives exist.

The Platform Perspective

Hand problems highlight a limitation of single-image generation. In storytelling platforms like Multic, character consistency features can help maintain hand quality across scenes once you achieve a good result.

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Related: Midjourney Review and Midjourney Alternatives