Midjourney Prompt Structure for Cohesive Photo Series

Table of Contents

Starting with a blank canvas in Midjourney

When I first opened Midjourney I thought it would be like Canva or Photoshop where you just drag shapes around. Nope. The interface is more like chatting with a stubborn robot inside Discord. You type a line of text called a prompt, and that text is the only clue Midjourney has to build the picture. If your words are vague, the picture will look vague. When I wrote something like `red car on a street` it looked like an AI caricature of a Hot Wheels ad. But when I added more descriptive cues like `red vintage car parked on a cobblestone street in soft evening light` the results felt much more natural.

The best way I’ve found to think of prompts is like giving directions to a stranger. If I just say “meet me downtown,” that could mean anywhere. But if I describe the coffee shop across from the green statue with the broken fountain, the odds of them finding me are way better. That’s basically the trick with Midjourney — get oddly specific.

I actually keep a little list of adjectives I like open in another browser tab. Words like rustic, cinematic, faded, wide angle, minimal. Tossing them in at the right spot really shapes the output. Too many adjectives, though, and Midjourney tends to just mash them all and send back overcrowded images. So I’ll usually pick three or four main ideas and stop there.

Adding style language to your prompts

After a few hours of experimenting, I realized most of the images looked like digital paintings unless I told Midjourney otherwise. If I wanted a clean photography style I needed to say something like `photorealistic 35mm photography` or even `unedited raw DSLR photo`. If I kept forgetting that, Midjourney kept leaning into fantasy art covers. Sometimes fun 🙂 but not really what I was aiming for.

There are also tricks with art movements. If I say `1960s film poster style` the composition comes out like bold shapes and flat colors. Adding something like `Polaroid photo` changes the tones completely. It almost feels like seasoning food — a sprinkle of one word makes a huge difference. I tried prompts like `minimal digital sketch in Bauhaus style` and the whole vibe shifted instantly.

Newcomers get frustrated because sometimes these style words compete with each other. Like if you type `ultra detailed watercolor pencil sketch 3D render` it just looks confused ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. My fix has been making a table of style categories so I don’t accidentally pile together opposites:

I’ve learned to pick no more than one from each column, otherwise the poor AI just freaks out.

Structuring prompts for full series consistency

Okay, so making one single nice picture is already plenty. But what if you want a whole series that feels consistent? That’s where the structure matters. One of my failed experiments was trying to build a cookbook cover and then matching inside illustrations. The cover came out gorgeous, but the inside looked like it was illustrated by five totally different artists. Because technically Midjourney doesn’t remember what it made before unless you remind it, every new variation starts fresh.

What I eventually figured out was keeping a recurring base phrase and never straying too far. Example: every prompt had to begin with `modern rustic kitchen scene` and then I would add the details I wanted afterward like `with bread on the counter` or `with herbs hanging on the wall`. That made them feel related. If I swapped the opening phrase halfway through to `country farmhouse kitchen` the mood shifted and suddenly the photos looked like two different photo shoots.

Another trick is setting aspect ratios. By default Midjourney gives you a square. But series feel more professional when framing is consistent. I’ll force them into the same shape using `–ar 3:2` or `–ar 4:5`. Even before thinking about colors or lighting, just keeping the frame shape steady ties everything together.

Testing prompts with quick variations

When a prompt feels almost right but not quite, I avoid rewriting it from scratch. There’s a trick with the variation buttons. Midjourney always spits out four options at once in a grid. Below that are small buttons labeled V1, V2, V3, V4. Clicking V1 means remake version one with the same basic setup but small tweaks. I call this the slot machine button. Sometimes the first reroll fixes everything.

There’s also upscaling. If one tile looks promising, I hit the U buttons and Midjourney reprocesses it bigger with more detail. Downsides: upscales sometimes hallucinate new textures that weren’t there before. I once upscaled a bowl of fruit and the bananas somehow grew extra fingers :P. That’s fine if you want surreal art, but for stock photo style images it can ruin the set.

Because rerolls can eat your daily credits quickly, I usually type my base text into a notepad and copy paste it back in with very small adjustments. Like swapping “sunset” for “early morning” or “wide angle” for “close portrait.” That way I can see exactly which word changed the output.

Dealing with lighting and mood problems

One of the biggest causes of inconsistency in my series was forgetting lighting words. Midjourney really cares about them. Without lighting cues, even the same subject can look like ten different scenes across images. By adding terms like `soft morning light`, `dramatic shadow`, or `overcast daylight`, the system gives a more consistent vibe.

Here’s a quick mini list I keep taped to my monitor:

– golden hour light
– soft studio headshot lighting
– dramatic film noir shadows
– cloudy overcast daylight
– warm indoor lamplight glow

If I pick one and stick with it throughout the whole sequence, the images look much more connected. Once, I made the mistake of mixing `neon cyberpunk glow` with `natural morning light` in alternating prompts. The series looked like it belonged half inside a nightclub and half inside a meditation retreat. Not exactly cohesive.

Double checking with side by side exports

Midjourney only shows you four at a time, so it’s easy to lose track of what you already made. My lazy but effective way is to quickly save each batch into a folder on my desktop labeled by the project name. Then I flip through them quickly using the preview window like a slideshow. If two images jump out as really off style, I just delete them right away. The cleanup phase is weirdly important because when you look at all the art at once, inconsistencies scream louder.

Sometimes I’ll even throw them into a blank Google Slides doc so I can see them next to each other in the grid view. That’s when it becomes obvious if one image “feels” wrong. If you are posting to a portfolio or using them in marketing, that kind of slot comparison makes or breaks the cohesion.

Reusing prompt pieces across projects

One final habit I picked up is saving my favorite chunks of phrasing. I now keep a text file called “Prompt Snacks” where I paste good fragments like `cinematic soft depth of field` or `cohesive editorial photo shoot look`. When starting something new, I pull a couple of these into the new text and adapt them. That way, even if I’m trying a new subject, there’s already some built in consistency from my past work.

Over time these fragments become like ingredients in your personal kitchen shelf. You know the result if you grab a pinch of one and a dash of another. The difference is, instead of changing flavors, you’re steering an AI toward a look you trust.

For anyone totally new, if you remember nothing else: pick a repeating base subject phrase, choose one style lane, stick with a single lighting description, and lock your aspect ratio. From there, keep rerolling patiently until the series quietly clicks into place.