Ultimate Midjourney Prompt Guide: Create Stunning AI Art

Midjourney v6 is a masterpiece of AI image generation, but its output quality is only as good as your prompts. This guide will take you from beginner to advanced prompter.

Anatomy of a Midjourney Prompt

A great Midjourney prompt follows this structure:

[Subject] + [Environment/Setting] + [Lighting] + [Style] + [Camera/Angle] + [Parameters]

Example: A cyberpunk samurai meditating on a rooftop, neon-lit Tokyo skyline, dramatic rim lighting, hyper-detailed anime style, low angle shot --ar 16:9 --stylize 750

Essential Parameters

• --ar [ratio] — Aspect ratio (16:9, 4:3, 1:1, 9:16 for portrait)
• --stylize [0-1000] — How much artistic interpretation to apply (default 100)
• --chaos [0-100] — Variation in results (higher = more unexpected)
• --quality [.25, .5, 1, 2] — Rendering quality (higher = more detail, more time)
• --no [element] — Negative prompt to exclude elements
• --seed [number] — Reproduce results with the same prompt

Lighting Modifiers That Transform Images

• golden hour, magic hour, blue hour
• dramatic chiaroscuro lighting
• soft diffused light, overcast lighting
• neon glow, bioluminescent
• backlit, rim lit, side lit
• volumetric lighting, god rays, light shafts

Style Phrases by Category

Photography

Shot on Hasselblad, Leica M10, Canon 5D Mark IV | 85mm lens, f/1.4 | bokeh, shallow depth of field | photorealistic, ultra-detailed

Illustration

Studio Ghibli style | Arthur Rackham illustration | Art Nouveau | comic book art | watercolor painting | oil on canvas

3D/Digital

Unreal Engine 5 rendering | Cinema 4D | octane render | ZBrush sculpt | hyperdetailed 3D | CGI masterpiece

Practical Prompt Templates

Portrait: Cinematic portrait of [description], soft natural light from window, shallow depth of field, film grain, Kodak Portra 400 --ar 4:5 --stylize 300

Landscape: [Location] at golden hour, dramatic clouds, reflecting water, hyper-detailed nature photography, National Geographic style --ar 16:9

Product Shot: [Product] on minimalist white surface, professional product photography, soft shadow, commercial advertising style --ar 1:1

Advanced Techniques

Multi-prompting: Use :: to weigh different elements. cyberpunk city::2 cats::1 makes the city twice as prominent as the cats.

Image prompting: Add an image URL at the start to blend styles from existing images.

--sref: Use a style reference image to maintain visual consistency across generations.