Cinematic Portrait Photography Style (Midjourney v7)
A reusable Midjourney v7 recipe for film-still portraits: anamorphic look, motivated lighting, and the parameter set that keeps skin texture natural.
Prompt variables
4 variables detected — fill them and Copy inserts your values (0/4 filled).
cinematic film still, close-up portrait of {{subject}}, {{emotion}} expression, shot on anamorphic 50mm lens, shallow depth of field, motivated practical lighting from {{light_source}}, teal and amber color grade, natural skin texture with visible pores, subtle film grain, background bokeh with soft city lights, composition follows rule of thirds with negative space on the {{left_or_right}}, in the style of a Denis Villeneuve frame --ar 21:9 --style raw --v 7
Recipe notes (read before using):
- Keep --style raw: v7's default beautification smooths skin into plastic; raw preserves the photographic texture this style depends on.
- {{light_source}} does heavy lifting — pick something diegetic: "a neon sign outside the window", "a single desk lamp", "match flame". Motivated light = cinematic; unmotivated studio light = corporate headshot.
- For two-shot compositions, swap the close-up for "medium two shot" and widen negative space.
- If faces come out over-stylized, append --stylize 50. If the grade goes too orange, replace "teal and amber" with "desaturated kodak portra".
- Works best with concrete subjects: "a tired night-shift nurse", not "a person".
Proof of work
Example outputs
Prompt as run: cinematic film still, close-up portrait of a tired night-shift nurse, quiet resolve expression, shot on anamorphic 50mm lens, shallow depth of field, motivated practical lighting from a flickering hallway fluorescent, teal and amber color grade, natural skin texture with visible pores, subtle film grain, background bokeh with soft city lights, composition follows rule of thirds with negative space on the left, in the style of a Denis Villeneuve frame --ar 21:9 --style raw --v 7 Result notes: 3 of 4 generations kept natural skin texture; the fluorescent motivation read clearly as a green-tinged key that the teal/amber grade absorbed nicely. Upscaled variant used for the category header.
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