The Midjourney Prompt Formula, Explained (2026)

Think of the prompt as six slots, in order:

1. Subject — what the image is of (a lighthouse, an elderly watchmaker, a city street).

2. Medium — the rendering: photograph, oil painting, 3D render, watercolor, vector illustration.

3. Style — the aesthetic or reference: minimalist, art deco, cyberpunk, cinematic.

4. Lighting — golden hour, soft studio light, harsh neon, overcast.

5. Composition — framing and lens cues: close-up, wide shot, aerial view, shallow depth of field.

6. Parameters — the flags at the end: --ar, --stylize, --chaos, and so on.

You will not always fill every slot, and order within the descriptive part is flexible. The one hard rule: parameters go last, after all the descriptive text.

Start with just a subject and build outward so you can see what each slot adds.

``` Subject only: a lighthouse on a cliff + medium + style: a lighthouse on a cliff, cinematic photograph, moody coastal aesthetic + lighting + composition: a lighthouse on a cliff, cinematic photograph, moody coastal aesthetic, golden hour light, wide shot, shallow depth of field + parameters: a lighthouse on a cliff, cinematic photograph, moody coastal aesthetic, golden hour light, wide shot, shallow depth of field --ar 16:9 --stylize 250 ```

Each addition narrows the output. If a result drifts from what you wanted, change one slot at a time — swap the lighting, or lower --stylize — rather than rewriting the whole prompt, so you can see what each change does.

The same formula handles non-photographic work; you just change the medium and style slots.

``` a curious red fox, flat vector illustration, minimalist children's-book style, soft even lighting, centered composition on a plain background --ar 1:1 --stylize 100 ```

Lower --stylize values keep Midjourney closer to a literal reading of your prompt, which suits clean illustration and product work; higher values let it apply more of its own aesthetic, which often helps moody or painterly pieces. The exact numeric range and default are version-dependent — check the Midjourney docs for the version you are on. To experiment with blending two aesthetics in the style slot, our AI art style mixer is built for that.

A handful of flags cover most needs. Parameter names, ranges, and defaults change between Midjourney versions, so treat the table below as the concept and confirm the current syntax and values in the Midjourney documentation before relying on a specific number.

Put parameters at the end of the prompt, each prefixed with a double dash. If you are unsure whether a flag exists in your version or what its range is, see the docs rather than guessing.

Lower --stylize when: You need the model to follow your prompt literally — product shots, diagrams, clean illustration, brand work.
Higher --stylize when: You want Midjourney's own artistic flourish — cinematic, painterly, atmospheric, or concept-art results.