Before asking AI to “make it like this,” write a reference brief.

Put the project view and reference side by side. Before opening Midjourney, Veras, ComfyUI, Photoshop, or any other image tool, write five short lines: what to borrow, what to protect, what to ignore, what may change, and how the result will be judged. That page is the reference brief.

The brief is not a longer prompt. It is an art-direction decision made outside the generator. It keeps a useful mood image from becoming an accidental instruction to copy another building.

A reference is a bundle of signals

People read reference images selectively. An architect may see calm northern light. A client may see pale oak and uncluttered furniture. A model may respond most strongly to the dramatic camera, oversized glazing, or the distinctive house in its training associations. “Like this” gives all those readings equal permission.

Separate the image into five channels: camera, light, material, atmosphere, and content. Camera includes lens feel, eye height, crop, perspective, and composition. Light includes direction, softness, exposure, contrast, and time of day. Material includes palette, roughness, reflectance, texture scale, and junction character. Atmosphere includes occupancy, weather, styling density, color grade, and emotional temperature. Content includes the actual walls, openings, objects, planting, and background.

Most architectural references should donate two or three channels, not all five. A useful brief might borrow soft side light, restrained warm timber, and low styling density while explicitly rejecting the reference camera and building content.

Reference images work better when each one has a job and a list of things it is forbidden to change.

Write the protected facts first

List project facts that must survive before describing the desired appearance. Include camera position, opening count, façade rhythm, ceiling height, major dimensions, circulation, specified materials, fixed furniture, signage, and any planning condition visible in the frame. Be concrete: “retain six equal bays and the solid east return” is testable; “keep the architecture” is not.

Mark each fact as absolute or tolerant. An absolute fact cannot move. A tolerant fact may shift within a stated range, such as planting species, loose furniture, cloud cover, or the intensity of interior lamps. This prevents the team from treating every changed pixel as a failure while still defending the design.

Attach the right evidence. A beauty render is weak evidence for geometry. Use a depth pass, edge map, object mask, clay render, or low-denoise source image when the tool accepts it. In a BIM-connected system such as Veras, select geometry controls appropriate to the stage. In ComfyUI, structural conditioning and masks can give protected facts a stronger path than prose alone.

Add a small tolerance note beside every protected item. A window count may be absolute, while reflections across that glazing may vary freely. A stone type may be fixed, while individual joint tones can shift. These distinctions keep the review practical. Without them, the operator either freezes the whole image and gains little from generation, or treats every attractive variation as permission to redesign.

Name what the reference contributes

For each reference, complete the sentence “Use this image only for...” A lighting reference might contribute broad overcast window light, gentle shadow edges, and preserved exterior detail. A material reference might contribute matte limestone, medium-grain oak, and low-gloss metal. A composition reference might contribute eye height, negative space, and a foreground frame.

Then write an exclusion sentence. “Do not borrow the window proportions, furniture forms, floor pattern, or camera position.” Exclusions are especially important when the reference contains a memorable design that the model may reproduce more readily than subtle lighting.

Do not average conflicting references

Three appealing images can point in different directions. One may be valuable for light, another for materials, and a third for occupancy. Label them A, B, and C, then assign one or two channels to each. Never ask the model for “a mix of these” unless an uncontrolled average is acceptable.

If two references compete for the same channel, choose one or define a ratio and test it separately. For example, use the diffuse illumination of A with only the warmer color grade of B. Generate a small contact sheet while holding the source, seed, and geometry controls steady. Pick the direction before increasing resolution or adding detail.

Watch for reference contamination. If the brick coursing, window shape, furniture silhouette, or planting arrangement begins to copy an example that was meant only for atmosphere, reduce its influence and restate the protected facts. A recognizable borrowed element is not proof that the model understood the brief. It often proves the opposite.

Translate the brief into the tool

In a general image generator, keep the project description and reference role explicit. State the protected composition before the appearance cues. Generate one variable at a time when the interface permits. Use image-editing or region tools for bounded changes instead of asking for a complete rerender.

In a geometry-aware renderer, use the model view as the main source and the reference as secondary art direction. Begin with conservative creativity or geometry-override settings. Raise them only after the first result proves that openings, edges, and volumes remain intact.

In ComfyUI, build separate conditioning paths where possible. The source image, depth or edge pass, style reference, and text prompt should not become one opaque instruction. Fix the seed and produce a low-resolution test grid at several reference or control weights. Record the first point where a protected fact changes.

In Photoshop or another editor, use the brief as a mask plan. The “may change” list identifies safe regions. The protected list identifies boundaries that require tight masks, lower generative strength, or ordinary compositing.

Review with a two-pass check

First review facts without discussing beauty. Overlay the result on the source at partial opacity. Count openings, trace the silhouette, compare major edges, inspect stairs and rails, and confirm specified materials. Circle every change that the brief did not authorize.

Only after the factual pass should the team review direction. Ask whether the intended light, palette, atmosphere, and composition are present. Avoid “more like the reference.” Replace it with a channel-level note: softer shadow edges, less furniture density, cooler exterior light, or rougher stone response.

Save the accepted result with its brief, inputs, settings, and selected reference labels. A future operator should be able to see why each image was included. This also gives clients a cleaner choice: they can approve a direction without accidentally approving copied geometry.

Keep rejected tests too, with one sentence explaining the failure. A folder of unlabeled images becomes visual noise. A contact sheet marked “camera drift,” “copied furniture,” or “light correct, material wrong” becomes evidence for the next round and a faster training aid for the next person on the project.

Our take

Reference control is not mainly a prompting skill. It is editorial discipline. The person directing the image must decide which visual facts belong to the project, which belong to the example, and which are open for invention.

Use the five-line brief on the next request. Borrow three things. Protect five. Ban four. Give the machine less ambiguity than the phrase “make it nice.”

Written from the 27 August 2026 intel sweep, which surfaced a current archviz discussion about the hope that AI will make a finished render from a model plus a Scandinavian reference. ArchiGen AI carries no sponsored placements.