How to use this cheatsheet
Style modifiers are the vocabulary that turns a plain description into a deliberate image. The pattern that works across Midjourney and DALL-E 3 is the same: state the subject and scene first, then append comma-separated style phrases describing the medium, lighting, camera, and composition. Pick a few terms from different categories rather than stacking many from one — one medium, one lighting mood, one camera or composition term is a strong, controllable baseline.
Medium and art style
The single most powerful lever is naming the medium or style:
- Photography: photorealistic, candid photo, product photography, film photography, analog grain, Polaroid, macro photo.
- Illustration: flat vector illustration, line art, children’s book illustration, technical drawing, comic book, ink sketch.
- Painting: oil painting, watercolour, gouache, impressionist, acrylic, fresco, Renaissance painting, ukiyo-e woodblock.
- 3D and digital: 3D render, octane render, claymation, low-poly, isometric, pixel art, matte painting, concept art.
- Anime and manga: anime style, cel shaded, studio-style animation, manga line art, chibi.
Describe the style rather than naming a living artist — it is more reliable and avoids policy blocks.
Lighting and mood
Lighting changes the entire feel of an image and is worth one dedicated term per prompt:
- Soft and natural: soft diffused light, golden hour, overcast, window light, backlit.
- Dramatic: chiaroscuro, rim lighting, high contrast, single key light, film noir lighting.
- Coloured and stylised: neon glow, cyberpunk lighting, bioluminescent, volumetric light, god rays, studio lighting.
- Time and atmosphere: blue hour, dusk, foggy, candlelit, bright airy, moody.
Camera, lens, and composition
Photographic and framing terms give precise control, especially for realism:
- Lens and depth: wide-angle, telephoto, macro, fisheye, shallow depth of field, bokeh, tilt-shift.
- Angle and shot: close-up, extreme close-up, wide shot, overhead/top-down, low angle, Dutch angle, eye-level portrait.
- Composition: rule of thirds, centred composition, symmetrical, negative space, leading lines, framed by foreground.
- Detail and quality cues: highly detailed, sharp focus, intricate, minimalist, clean background.
Putting it together
A complete prompt layers one item from several categories. For example:
“a quiet harbour at dawn, oil painting, soft golden-hour light, wide shot, rule of thirds,
muted palette.” Start minimal, add one modifier at a time, and keep the ones that visibly
improve the result. In Midjourney, combine these terms with parameters like --ar for aspect
ratio and --stylize to dial the strength of styling; in DALL-E 3, keep the language natural
and descriptive. The same core vocabulary serves both.