Midjourney prompts follow a predictable structure. Once you understand the parts, you can build almost any image prompt without guessing.
The basic formula
[subject], [style/medium], [lighting], [composition], [extra detail] --ar [aspect ratio] --v [version]
Example: a lighthouse on a rocky cliff, oil painting, golden hour lighting, wide shot, stormy sea in background --ar 16:9 --v 6
Subject: be specific, not clever
“A dog” gives you a random dog. “A wet golden retriever shaking off water on a beach at sunset” gives you an actual scene. Specificity is the single biggest lever you have.
Style and medium
Name a medium directly: oil painting, watercolor, 35mm photograph, isometric 3D render, pencil sketch. You can also reference an art movement (“art deco”, “ukiyo-e”) instead of an artist’s name.
Lighting matters more than people expect
Try: golden hour, blue hour, harsh studio lighting, soft diffused light, backlit, neon-lit. Lighting changes the mood of an image more than almost any other single word.
Useful parameters
--ar 16:9— widescreen, good for banners/thumbnails--ar 9:16— vertical, good for Shorts/Reels covers--no [thing]— exclude an element, e.g.--no text--chaos [0-100]— higher values produce more varied, unexpected results
A simple starter template
[subject doing something specific], [medium], [lighting], [camera angle], highly detailed --ar 16:9
Fill in the brackets and you’ll get consistently better results than a one-line vague prompt.
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