Guide · Midjourney
The Best Midjourney Prompts
A curated, copy-ready library of high-leverage Midjourney prompts — built around how v6 and v7 actually interpret subject, style and parameters.
PromptInFlow AI Guides
General AI Models
Image & Video Models
AI Task Guides
- AI WritingRead guide
- AI MarketingRead guide
- AI CodingComing soon
- AI BusinessComing soon
- AI EducationComing soon
Midjourney rewards prompts that read like a photographer's or art director's brief, not a search query. The model is trained on a deep aesthetic distribution, which means the difference between a flat output and a portfolio-grade image is rarely the subject — it's the language used to describe lens, light, material, composition and mood. The prompts in this guide treat Midjourney as a visual collaborator: they specify what to render, how to render it, and what to leave out, using the structure v6 and v7 respond to most reliably.
This is a working reference, not a gallery. Every prompt has been tested in Midjourney v6 and v7 (with notes for v5.2 fallback where relevant), grouped by the job to be done, and written with clear {placeholders} and tuned parameters (--ar, --style, --stylize, --chaos, --weird, --sref, --cref) so you can copy, swap five words and ship. You'll find prompts for photography, illustration, brand and product, characters, environments, UI/concept art, and editorial covers — plus the parameter playbook that turns a one-line idea into a consistent series.
Who is this guide for? Designers and art directors who need on-brand visuals at speed. Founders and marketers generating landing-page imagery, ads and social creative. Illustrators and concept artists exploring style options before committing. Photographers who want mood references for shoots. If you've ever generated a Midjourney image and thought "this is close but not quite there," the gap is almost always in the prompt's structure — and this guide closes it.
To get the most out of Midjourney, treat each prompt as a brief and each parameter as a dial. Start with a clean subject, then layer style, lens or medium, lighting, environment, color palette and mood. Add parameters last — aspect ratio, stylize, chaos — and tune one at a time so you can see what each move does. Use --sref for style consistency across a series and --cref for character consistency. Bookmark this page — we refresh it whenever Midjourney ships a new version or a parameter changes behavior.
Editorial standards
How we selected these prompts
Why each prompt earns its place in the library.
Every prompt in this guide has been generated, reviewed and re-tuned on the current Midjourney lineup. We only ship prompts that produce a usable image in the first 4-grid, hold up across re-rolls, and adapt cleanly to a different subject or brand without losing their aesthetic. Prompts come from our own daily commercial work, patterns documented in Midjourney's official guides, and community-tested techniques refined inside the Prompt InFlow library.
Visually specific
Each prompt names the lens, light, material or medium — not just the subject. Midjourney rewards specificity in the visual vocabulary, not in the conceptual one.
Parameter-aware
Every prompt sets the parameters that actually move the output — aspect ratio, stylize, chaos, sref, cref — instead of dumping every flag and hoping.
Adaptable structure
Subject → style → light → environment → composition → parameters. The same skeleton works across photography, illustration and concept art so you can swap the subject and keep the look.
Production-ready
Prompts target real use cases — ad creative, hero imagery, character sheets, product shots — not novelty experiments that look amazing once and never get used again.
Who this guide is for
This guide is built for anyone who needs Midjourney to produce on-brief, repeatable visuals — not just one-off lucky renders.
Designers & art directors
Producing on-brand imagery at speed with consistent style references across a series.
Founders & marketers
Generating hero shots, ad creative and social visuals without booking a photographer for every test.
Illustrators & concept artists
Exploring style, palette and composition variations before committing to a final piece.
Photographers
Building mood boards, location references and lighting studies before a shoot.
Product & UX designers
Drafting UI concepts, app store imagery and onboarding visuals with a consistent look.
Content creators
Cover art, thumbnails and editorial imagery that doesn't look like default AI output.
In this guide
What you'll learn
Skim the highlights, then jump to the section you need.
The anatomy of a great Midjourney prompt
The six layers that separate a flat render from a portfolio image — subject, style, lens, light, composition, parameters.
40+ copy-ready prompts by use case
Photography, illustration, brand and product, characters, environments and editorial — paste into Midjourney and run today.
Parameter playbook for v6 and v7
When to reach for --stylize, --chaos, --weird, --sref, --cref and --ar — with concrete trigger ranges, not vague advice.
How to build a consistent series
Using style references, character references and a fixed prompt skeleton to keep an entire campaign on-brand.
Framework
How great Midjourney prompts work
The six-part anatomy behind every prompt that consistently ships usable output.
Every Midjourney prompt that consistently produces usable imagery shares the same underlying shape. We call it the S-S-L-L-C-P framework: Subject, Style, Lens / medium, Light, Composition, Parameters. Skip a layer and the output drifts — usually toward the default aesthetic of whatever style word came first.
Subject
Name the subject in concrete terms: "a 60-year-old fisherman mending a net," not "an old man working." Specific subjects produce specific images; abstract subjects produce stock-photo defaults.
Style / medium
Tell Midjourney what kind of image this is: editorial photography, oil painting, cel-shaded illustration, isometric 3D render. Style words anchor the model's aesthetic distribution before lighting and composition fine-tune it.
Lens / material
For photography, name the lens (35mm, 85mm, macro), depth of field and film stock. For illustration, name the medium (gouache, ink wash, vector). This is the single biggest lever on perceived quality.
Light
Light is the soul of the image. "Soft north-window light, late afternoon" produces a different image than "hard noon sun, deep shadows." Specify direction, quality and color temperature when it matters.
Composition
Frame the shot: low-angle three-quarter, overhead flat lay, symmetrical centered, rule-of-thirds with subject left. Composition cues stop Midjourney from defaulting to centered headshots.
Parameters
Tune at the end: --ar for aspect ratio, --stylize 50–1000 (low = literal, high = stylized), --chaos 0–100 for variety, --sref for style consistency, --cref for character consistency. Change one parameter per re-roll so you can see its effect.
Three examples — and why they work
Editorial portrait photography
Editorial portrait of a {60-year-old fisherman mending a net on a wooden dock}, weathered hands, salt-bleached jacket, calm expression, shot on a Hasselblad 80mm at f/2.8, soft overcast north-window light, shallow depth of field, muted teal-and-rust palette, full-frame three-quarter composition, fine grain, magazine-cover quality --ar 4:5 --stylize 250 --v 6Product hero on solid background
Product hero shot of a {matte black ceramic coffee mug with thin gold rim}, centered on seamless soft-grey backdrop, top-three-quarter angle, large soft key light from upper left, subtle gradient shadow, single specular highlight along the rim, commercial advertising photography, ultra-clean, no props, no text --ar 1:1 --stylize 150 --v 6Consistent illustrated character series
Full-body character sheet of {a young space botanist in a worn olive flight suit holding a glowing potted fern}, three poses left-to-right (front, three-quarter, side), flat cel-shaded illustration, limited palette of olive-rust-cream, clean line work, neutral grey background, art-of-style concept art --ar 16:9 --stylize 400 --sref {URL_to_your_style_ref}Browse by use case
Featured prompt categories
Jump into the library that matches what you're working on — each category includes guidance on when to use it and what good output looks like.
- When to use
- Reach for Midjourney whenever the image is the deliverable — campaign creative, hero shots, illustrations, concept art, mood boards and editorial visuals.
- What you can achieve
- Portfolio-grade photography, consistent illustrated series, on-brand brand imagery, and concept frames you can iterate on with style and character references.
- Best practices
- Name the lens or medium — "85mm portrait, f/1.8" produces a different image than "close-up photo."
- Lock --stylize between 100–300 for literal commercial work; push to 500–1000 for editorial and concept art.
- Use --sref for style consistency across a series and --cref for character continuity across frames.
- When to use
- Use Midjourney for worldbuilding, concept frames, album art, book covers and any visual exploration where mood and style matter more than literal accuracy.
- What you can achieve
- Mood boards in minutes, alternate art directions before committing to a final piece, and consistent visual languages for fictional worlds.
- Best practices
- Generate a 4-grid at --chaos 30–50 first to explore directions, then re-roll the strongest with --chaos 0 to refine.
- Pin a hero image's seed (or use --sref with its URL) to build a series from it.
- Constrain palette and lighting explicitly; "any colors, dramatic light" produces generic fantasy art.
- When to use
- Use Midjourney for ad creative, landing-page heroes, social imagery and seasonal campaigns where you need on-brand visuals fast and at volume.
- What you can achieve
- A/B-ready ad variants, hero images that match brand palette and tone, lifestyle imagery without a stock-photo license, and a consistent style across an entire campaign.
- Best practices
- Build a brand --sref URL once and reuse it across every campaign visual for instant consistency.
- Match aspect ratio to placement: --ar 1:1 for feed, 9:16 for stories/reels, 16:9 for hero banners.
- Always include negative cues for what to avoid (no text, no watermarks, no extra props) when the image needs to be ad-ready.
- When to use
- Pair Midjourney with writing work when you need cover art, hero illustrations or editorial imagery for blog posts, newsletters and ebooks.
- What you can achieve
- Original cover art that doesn't look like default AI output, editorial visuals consistent across a publication, and on-brief illustrations for long-form articles.
- Best practices
- Mirror the article's tone in the prompt: a piece on burnout deserves muted palette and soft light, not high-contrast neon.
- Generate hero + companion images in the same session with one --sref to keep the article visually cohesive.
- Crop in Midjourney with --ar at generation time; upscaling and re-cropping later softens detail.
Hand-picked
Curated prompts
The prompts we reach for most often — copy, paste, adapt.
Editorial Food Photography
Top-down hero shot of a seasonal dish with soft natural light and a moody, magazine-quality palette.
Top-down editorial food photography of a roasted heritage carrot dish, hand-thrown ceramic plate, linen napkin, soft window light from the left, deep shadows, Kinfolk magazine palette --ar 4:5 --style raw
Cinematic Coffee Commercial
Slow-motion espresso pour with macro detail, warm morning light and a 35mm anamorphic film look.
Cinematic 5-second shot, slow-motion espresso pour into a ceramic cup, macro lens, warm golden morning light through a cafe window, shallow depth of field, anamorphic 35mm film grain, subtle steam.
Veo Character Consistency Sheet
Keep the same character across multiple Veo shots with a reusable description block and shot list.
Character: 32-year-old woman, shoulder-length auburn hair, freckles, olive linen jacket. Reuse this exact description for every shot. Shot 1: medium close-up, golden hour. Shot 2: walking shot, overcast street. Shot 3: cafe interior, warm tungsten.
At a glance
Quick reference tables
Cheat-sheets for picking the right model and the right prompt style.
Midjourney versions at a glance
Pick the version that fits the job — v7 is not always the right answer.
| Version | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| v7 | Latest aesthetic, strongest prompt adherence, best text-in-image | Some users prefer v6's photographic realism for portraits |
| v6 | Photoreal commercial work, brand and product imagery | Slightly less stylized; needs higher --stylize for editorial mood |
| v5.2 | Legacy support for prompts already locked to that look | No longer the default; missing newer parameters |
| Niji 6 | Anime, manga and stylized illustration | Not for photography; ignore for product or commercial photo work |
Parameter cheat sheet
What each flag actually does, and a sensible starting range.
| Parameter | Effect | Starting range |
|---|---|---|
| --ar | Aspect ratio (1:1, 4:5, 9:16, 16:9, 21:9) | Match the final placement |
| --stylize | How much Midjourney adds its own aesthetic | 100–300 literal · 500–1000 editorial |
| --chaos | Variety across the 4-grid | 0 refined · 30–50 exploring |
| --weird | Unusual, off-distribution aesthetics | 0–100, leave at 0 unless exploring |
| --sref | Style reference from a URL | Reuse one URL across a series |
| --cref | Character reference from a URL | Pair with --cw 50–100 to lock face |
Midjourney vs Flux vs Image-AI alternatives
Where each model wins. Use the right tool for the job.
| Task | Pick Midjourney when | Pick Flux when |
|---|---|---|
| Editorial / brand imagery | Aesthetic and mood matter most | You need exact subject control and editing |
| Photoreal product shots | You want a hero look fast | You need precise placement and consistent lighting |
| Text in image | v7 handles short text reasonably well | Flux is generally stronger at long, accurate text |
| Character consistency | Use --cref across a series | Use Flux LoRAs for stronger character locking |
| Open-source / self-hosted | Not an option — Midjourney is hosted | Flux is the right answer |
Method
How to write better prompts
Four habits that lift the quality of every prompt you write.
Front-load the subject
Midjourney weights the first few words most. Open with the concrete subject ("a 60-year-old fisherman mending a net"), not with adjectives or mood words.
Name the lens or medium
"85mm portrait at f/1.8" or "gouache on paper" is the single biggest quality lever. It anchors Midjourney in a specific visual tradition instead of the default look.
Treat parameters like dials, not seasoning
Change one parameter per re-roll. If you change --stylize, --chaos and --sref at once, you'll never learn which one improved (or ruined) the image.
Use --sref for series, not for single images
A style reference's value compounds when you reuse the same URL across an entire campaign. For a one-off image, just describe the style in words.
Avoid
Common mistakes
The patterns that quietly tank output quality.
- Writing in full sentences with conjunctions — Midjourney parses comma-separated tokens better than prose.
- Stacking five style words at the top ("cinematic, hyperrealistic, 8K, ultra-detailed, masterpiece") — they cancel each other out and produce a generic look.
- Forgetting --ar and accepting the default 1:1, then re-cropping later and losing resolution.
- Pushing --stylize to 1000 for commercial work and wondering why the product no longer matches the brand.
- Using --weird for serious campaigns — it's an exploration flag, not a quality flag.
- Skipping negative cues ("no text, no watermark, no extra props") on product shots and getting unusable output.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Quick answers about this guide and the prompts in it.
Keep reading
Related guides
The Best Flux Prompts
A curated, copy-ready library of high-leverage FLUX.1 prompts — built around how Pro, Dev and Schnell actually interpret subject, structure and style.
The Best Veo Prompts
A curated, copy-ready library of high-leverage Google Veo prompts — built around how Veo 2 and Veo 3 actually interpret subject, camera and motion.
The Best Kling Prompts
A curated, copy-ready library of high-leverage Kling prompts — built around Kling's strengths in cinematic motion, character consistency and longer takes.
The Best AI Marketing Prompts
A curated, model-aware library of marketing prompts that ship — built for the channels and tasks marketers actually run every week.
Explore
Related categories
Compatible models
Works well with
Fresh
Latest prompts
Recently added to the Prompt InFlow library.
Editorial Food Photography
Top-down hero shot of a seasonal dish with soft natural light and a moody, magazine-quality palette.
Top-down editorial food photography of a roasted heritage carrot dish, hand-thrown ceramic plate, linen napkin, soft window light from the left, deep shadows, Kinfolk magazine palette --ar 4:5 --style raw
Cinematic Coffee Commercial
Slow-motion espresso pour with macro detail, warm morning light and a 35mm anamorphic film look.
Cinematic 5-second shot, slow-motion espresso pour into a ceramic cup, macro lens, warm golden morning light through a cafe window, shallow depth of field, anamorphic 35mm film grain, subtle steam.
Veo Character Consistency Sheet
Keep the same character across multiple Veo shots with a reusable description block and shot list.
Character: 32-year-old woman, shoulder-length auburn hair, freckles, olive linen jacket. Reuse this exact description for every shot. Shot 1: medium close-up, golden hour. Shot 2: walking shot, overcast street. Shot 3: cafe interior, warm tungsten.
SEO Topic Cluster Builder
Generate a pillar page plus 12 supporting article ideas with target keywords and search intent.
Act as an SEO strategist. For the seed topic {topic}, produce one pillar page idea and 12 supporting articles. For each: working title, primary keyword, search intent, and one internal link target.
In summary
Conclusion
The ideas to carry forward — and where to go next.
Midjourney isn't a search engine — it's a visual collaborator that responds to specificity. Subject, style, lens, light, composition, parameters: get those six layers right and your hit rate goes from one in twenty to one in three. Skip them and you'll keep getting outputs that are "close, but not quite there."
Treat every prompt in this library as a skeleton. Swap the subject, keep the structure, and lock a brand --sref to make an entire campaign feel cohesive. Re-roll one parameter at a time so you learn what each dial actually does — that compounding skill is what separates a Midjourney user from a Midjourney art director.
When you're ready to push further, jump into our Midjourney prompt generator to build production-ready prompts in seconds, or explore the other model guides to learn how Flux, Veo and Kling complement Midjourney across the image-and-video pipeline.
Continue Learning
Prompt Engineering Learning Path
A guided reading order through every Prompt InFlow flagship guide — start with the model you use most, then layer in topical skills.
- 1
Best ChatGPT Prompts
50+ tested ChatGPT prompts and the R-G-C-C-O-E framework that makes them ship usable output.
Model guide - 2
Best Claude Prompts
Long-context reasoning, on-voice writing and XML-tagged briefs for Claude 3.5 and Claude 4.
Model guide - 3
Best Gemini Prompts
Grounded, multimodal and long-context prompts that lean into Gemini's real-time strengths.
Model guide - 4
Best AI Writing Prompts
Voice, structure and editing — the writing playbook across ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini.
Topical guide - 5
Best AI Marketing Prompts
SEO, content, social, email, ads and brand — model-matched prompts for every channel.
Topical guide
Build prompts faster with Prompt InFlow
Browse 500+ tested prompts across every major AI model — or use our generators to build your own in seconds.