Small wording changes in Midjourney prompts can make a surprisingly large difference in output quality. Here are the tips that made the biggest difference in our own testing.
1. Be Specific About Lighting
Adding lighting descriptors ("golden hour," "soft studio lighting," "dramatic backlight") consistently improved image mood and realism far more than adjusting the subject description alone.
2. Use Aspect Ratio Parameters Early
Setting your aspect ratio (e.g., --ar 16:9) at the start of your prompt avoids awkward recompositions later โ Midjourney respects framing better when it's part of the initial generation.
3. Reference Art Styles, Not Just Subjects
"A portrait of a woman" is generic. "A portrait of a woman, in the style of a 1970s film photograph" gives the model a much clearer creative direction.
4. Use Negative Prompts Sparingly but Deliberately
Rather than listing many things to avoid, we found one or two well-chosen negative prompts (--no text, watermark) worked better than long exclusion lists, which sometimes confused the output.
5. Iterate on Seeds, Not Just Prompts
If you like a composition but want to refine details, reusing the same seed number while tweaking your prompt text keeps the overall structure while adjusting specifics โ more efficient than starting from scratch each time.
Bonus: Build a Personal Prompt Library
Keep a running document of prompts that worked well for specific styles you use often. It saves significant time compared to re-deriving good phrasing from scratch every session.