Write the Thing, Not the Feeling
How to prompt a feeling: write something you could photograph. Four stills, four prompts, Midjourney.
The prompts
Copy them, run them, change whatever you want. No signup.
cinematic film still, two roped climbers moving along a knife-edge snow ridge with an eight-thousand-meter drop on both sides, a plume of spindrift tearing off the crest into a sea of cloud below them, warm gold first light on the summit snow against the cold blue-white of the shadowed face, immense scale and exposure, photorealistic, shot on 70mm, film grain, cinematography in the style of Anthony Dod Mantle --ar 9:16 --style raw --stylize 250 --v 8.2 --relax --no painting, illustration
Frontier action western, photoreal cinematic still, 1860s American plains. Medium closeup, vertical frame edge to edge, no borders or bars. Woman, early thirties, head and upper chest, low left in frame. She's crested a rise, weight on back foot, shoulders squared, chin lifted, eyes narrowed against low sun, gaze past camera right. Late magic hour, sun 15 minutes above horizon behind her at camera right. Hard low backlight throws molten rim along jaw, cheekbone, and loose hair brightest element in frame. 4:1 ratio, cool sky bounce fill. 2200K key, 8000K fill. Visible airborne dust in beam. Dark blonde hair, sun lightened ends, coming loose, strands lit to filament brightness. Weathered skin, sun reddened nose and cheeks, dried sweat at temple, trail dust on jaw. No makeup. Bone cream linen shirt, open collar; faded indigo wool bodice, chromatic anchor. Cracked leather rifle sling, brass buckle specular. Background: ochre prairie grass, deep teal dusk sky, warm horizon haze. 65mm f/2.8, focus near eye, warm veiling flare, halation on rim. Amber teal palette, lifted blacks, rich 35mm grain. --no letterbox, black bars, borders, matte, split screen, diptych, triptych, collage, grid --ar 9:16 --raw --hd
cinematic film still, thousands of soldiers queued in long dark orderly lines along a narrow stone breakwater stretching far out into a gray sea, the queues receding to a vanishing point, a burning ship on the horizon, warm oily firelight on the water against the cold blue-gray of the sea and the overcast sky, immense scale and stillness, high wide angle, photorealistic, shot on IMAX 70mm, film grain, cinematography in the style of Hoyte van Hoytema in Dunkirk --ar 9:16 --style raw --stylize 250 --v 8.2 --relax --no painting, illustration, gore
cinematic film still, a colossal multi-level highway interchange completely reclaimed by forest, full-grown trees bursting through the deck and vines hanging from the collapsed ramps, one tiny figure walking the center line, warm gold shafts of late sun through the canopy against the cool blue-green of the moss and concrete shade, immense scale and quiet, photorealistic, shot on 70mm, film grain, cinematography in the style of Erik Messerschmidt --ar 9:16 --style raw --stylize 250 --v 8.2 --relax --no painting, illustration, video game
Why it works
A camera can’t see a feeling. It can see a place, a face or an object that causes one. Each of these four prompts names a thing you could photograph, and the feeling comes from the thing.
Swap “brave” for a long drop. The climbers’ prompt asks for a knife-edge snow ridge with an eight-thousand-meter drop on both sides. You never see courage. You see where they are standing, and you know what it takes to stand there.
Swap “determined” for what her face does. The western prompt says chin lifted, eyes narrowed against low sun. People read a feeling off a face, so describe the face and let the viewer name the feeling.
Swap “desperate” for a burning ship. The breakwater prompt puts a burning ship on the horizon at the end of a pier packed with thousands of men. Thousands are waiting, and the only ship in sight is on fire.
Swap “forgotten” for a tree on the highway. The ruin prompt asks for full-grown trees in a highway interchange. A tree takes decades to grow, so a big one here means nobody has driven this way in years.
Before you run it
The mood words are still in these prompts. Three of them end with a line like immense scale and exposure. Keep one if you like. Everything you can point at in each frame matches a thing the prompt names, so write the things first.
Ask yourself: could I photograph this? If a word in your prompt names a feeling, replace it with what you would point the camera at: a place, an object, or what a body does.
The settings differ. Three were made with --style raw --stylize 250 --v 8.2. The western portrait was made with --raw --hd and no version flag.