2.3 – Composition and Lighting Lesson

Lesson Overview

In this lesson, you’ll deepen your understanding of how composition (the arrangement and perspective of elements in an image) and lighting (the quality and direction of light) shape the results you get when generating art in Midjourney. The right composition can determine what draws the viewer’s attention—whether it’s a sweeping landscape, a detailed macro shot, or a dramatic close-up. Lighting determines mood: a brightly lit, shadowless image often feels cheerful, while hard shadows and dim illumination can make a scene feel tense or mysterious.

This lesson is essential if you want to create images in Midjourney that truly match your vision, whether you’re aiming for warmth and comfort or drama and suspense. You’ll see real-world examples of terms like “ultra wide,” “close up,” “portrait,” “high angle,” “golden hour,” and “cold light,” and learn when to use each for maximum effect. These concepts are widely used in photography, filmmaking, illustration, and digital art. They’re just as useful for designers creating moodboards, marketers communicating a vibe, or storytellers setting a scene. By mastering these terms, you’ll be better equipped to instruct Midjourney and produce images that support your project goals.

Who This Is For

If you want more meaningful and powerful visual outcomes from your Midjourney prompts, this lesson is for you.

• Artists and illustrators aiming for specific moods or styles
• Marketers looking to match images to brand tone or campaign goals
• Educators and creators seeking to convey stories or emotions visually
• Designers building moodboards or visual concepts
• Anyone ready to move beyond basic prompts and want more control over image aesthetics

Where This Fits in a Workflow

Composition and lighting choices should be considered early when crafting any Midjourney prompt, right after selecting your subject and medium. Using the right descriptive terms here transforms basic scene generation into intentional image creation. For example, if you need a welcoming website background, you might use a wide shot with warm, soft lighting. Alternatively, designing a poster for a thriller could involve hard, cold shadows and tight close-ups.

These skills support a range of workflows—from producing consistent sets of visuals that share a mood, to quickly iterating visual styles for presentations or client reviews. By mastering these techniques, you lay the groundwork for stronger creative direction in later steps, such as refining or blending images.

Technical & Workflow Benefits

Traditionally, creating images with purposeful composition and lighting would require technical camera knowledge or hours spent editing in graphics software. With Midjourney, you can achieve a similar level of intentionality simply by describing these aspects directly in your prompt. This shortens the feedback loop so you can explore multiple visual directions quickly.

For example, comparing the manual approach (setting up lights, changing angles, and restaging scenes in photography) to the Midjourney method (prompt tweaks), you save significant time while retaining creative control. This is particularly useful for marketers running rapid A/B tests, designers previewing different campaign looks, or educators assembling visual teaching aids. The ability to combine “cinematic photo, ultra wide, golden hour” or “macro, cold, hard shadows” gives you snap access to professional-grade image moods—no technical setup or editing required.

Practice Exercise

Choose a simple subject, such as a person in a park, and create three distinct Midjourney prompts that each use different compositions and lighting styles. For example:

1. Write a prompt for a wide shot with warm, soft lighting.
2. Write a prompt for an extreme close-up with cold, hard shadows.
3. Write a prompt for a portrait at golden hour.

Send each prompt to Midjourney and compare the results.

**Reflection:** Which combination most strongly influenced the mood of the image? How did changing the composition or lighting alone alter your perception of the same scene?

Course Context Recap

This lesson builds on your understanding of prompt basics and subject selection by introducing composition and lighting—the key creative tools that determine how viewers experience your images. Up until now, you’ve learned how basic prompts drive output. After this lesson, you’ll be ready to start working with image prompts and blending, deepening your creative toolkit.
Continue with the course to discover more ways to expand your control over Midjourney’s visual results and unlock new creative possibilities for your projects.