Guides8 min read25 May 2026
Image Generation Prompting: A Practical Guide
Midjourney, DALL-E, Stable Diffusion — the models differ, but great image prompts follow the same patterns. Here's the complete framework.
For most business use cases (marketing imagery, product mockups, social media visuals), DALL-E 3 is the fastest path from prompt to usable output. For artistic, editorial, or conceptual work, Midjourney produces more striking results. For recurring use cases with a specific style, a fine-tuned Stable Diffusion model is the most consistent.
Negative prompts should be specific to what you have seen go wrong, not generic quality terms like "bad quality" — those are often ineffective. If hands keep coming out distorted, add "deformed hands, extra fingers" specifically.
text (Midjourney aspect ratio syntax)
# Midjourney: use --ar flag A minimalist product shot of a coffee mug on a marble surface --ar 16:9 A lifestyle portrait in natural light --ar 4:5 # DALL-E 3: specify in natural language "Generate a 16:9 landscape image of..." "Create a vertical portrait-oriented image at 9:16 ratio of..." # Stable Diffusion: set width and height # 512x512 = 1:1, 768x432 = 16:9, 512x768 = 2:3
Build a personal style dictionary: 10-20 keywords that reliably produce the visual style you use most. Test them systematically on the same base prompt, note what works, and reuse your best-performing style combinations as a template.
image generationMidjourneyDALL-EStable Diffusionvisual AIguides
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