Jack-o-lantern still life by candlelight, no people
A carved pumpkin lit from inside on a wooden table: smoke, seeds, a knife laid down. Objects only — the kind of shot no one-click filter makes.
The prompt
Prompt for Midjourney, Gemini or Kandinsky — a still life, not a portrait. Paste as one line: still life photograph of a carved pumpkin glowing from a candle inside it, standing on a scratched wooden table, [SIDE ITEMS: scattered seeds, a scrap of newspaper, a small knife laid down beside it], a thin line of smoke rising from the pumpkin lid, dark kitchen behind fading into shadow, warm orange light spilling out of the carved eyes onto the table, one cold blue window light far in the background for separation, autumn palette of orange, deep brown and near black, 85mm, f/2.8, ISO 400, sharp on the carved edge, background melting into bokeh --ar 3:2 --style raw What to change: the carved face decides the mood — "a simple triangular-eyed face" reads classic, "a crooked uneven grin" reads homemade; swap the side items for what you actually have on the table; "a second unlit pumpkin behind" adds depth without adding light.
What you get
Five runs, three usable — good for a still life.
What works instantly: the smoke. One thin line from under the lid does more for the mood than any amount of asking for atmosphere, and the model draws it reliably.
The two failures were both about light. The model wants to light the whole kitchen, and then the pumpkin stops glowing — it becomes an object lit from outside rather than a lamp. If that happens, say the room is dark and the only warm light comes from inside the pumpkin.
What still breaks: the knife. Blades come out bent or with the handle merging into the tabletop; on a small preview nobody notices, at full size you will. And the carved mouth sometimes gets teeth that do not line up with the light inside — the glow leaks in the wrong places. Regenerating fixes it faster than describing it.
More prompts
Halloween porch at blue hour, carved pumpkins on the steps
Celestial witch portrait from a selfie: moonlit forest, glass orb
Food crawl itinerary: what to eat, where and in what order
Foggy graveyard at first light: leaning stones, bare trees, no figures