Lighting is the important thing to creating stunning, photorealistic artwork that stands out.
Using the precise Midjourney lighting prompts, you’ll be able to easily elevate your AI art.
For example, it is advisable to create the golden glow of a sunset, the dramatic shadows of a movie noir scene, or the soft, dreamy atmosphere of a misty morning; all this is feasible with the lighting prompts styles we’ll discuss on this guide.
In this guide, we’ll share the most effective Midjourney lighting prompts and show you methods to use them with examples.
Midjourney Lighting Prompts
Remember, we’ll use the most recent V6 Midjourney version for this guide. If you might have not yet updated your Midjourney, you’ll be able to easily accomplish that by going to Midjourney Settings and changing your Current Suffix to –v6.
Also on this guide, we’ll not be using random prompts, so that you could notice the lighting differences on the topic.
Here are the lighting style prompts that we’re going to discuss on this post:
- Soft Lighting
- Hard Lighting
- Back Lighting
- Golden Hour
- Midday Sun
- Overcast Lighting
- Artificial Lighting
- Seasonal Lighting
- Shadowed
- Sunflare
- Rim Lighting
- Cross Lighting
- High Key Lighting
- Low Key Lighting
- Broad Lighting
- Short Lighting
- Flash-Lamp & Flashtube
- Incandescent Lamp
- Crackle Tube
- Halogen Lamp
- Strobe Light
- Flickering Lighting
- Motivated Lighting
So tighten your seatbelts, and let’s start learning.
Soft Lighting
Soft, diffuse lighting can create a more natural, atmospheric feel and appear to the generated images. It helps to attenuate harsh shadows and highlights, leading to a more even and pleasing luminance.
It’s an important lighting style for those who want your AI images to have more pleasing lighting that’s not harsh on the eyes (for instance, hard shadows).
Soft Lighting
Prompt: a photograph portrait of a stupendous and diverse woman, soft lighting,::3 dslr::3 –aspect 1:1 –version 6.0 –stylize 50
Hard Lighting
Hard lighting, characterised by stark contrasts between brilliant highlights and deep shadows, can add drama, intensity, and a way of three-dimensionality to the generated images.
It’s an important lighting style to create more striking, cinematic, or mystical aesthetic images.
Hard Lighting
Prompt: a photograph portrait of a stupendous and diverse woman shadowed, hard lighting,:: dslr::3 –aspect 1:1 –v6 –stylize 30
Back Lighting
By placing the sunshine source behind the topic, backlighting can create a stupendous rim of illumination around the sides, separating the topic from the background and adding depth and dimensionality to the image.
It’s an important lighting style to attain a dramatic, ethereal, or ethereal look in your Midjourney AI artwork.
Backlighting
Prompt: a photograph portrait of a lady with flowing black hair, backlit by a golden sunset, brilliant backdrop, wearing a flowing white dress –v 6.0
Golden Hour
The golden hues and long shadows of golden hour lighting can create a dreamy, ethereal quality. This warm, soft lighting occurs in the course of the first and last hours of the day.
It’s an important lighting style to capture a serene, atmospheric, and aesthetically pleasing mood.
Golden Hour
Prompt: a photograph portrait of a handsome man, golden hour lighting –v 6.0
Midday Sun
Midday Sun is a harsh, direct light from the high sun creates strong shadows and highlights. It works well for subjects that need a daring, high-contrast look, like buildings or motion scenes. Midday sunlighting is nice for clarity and vibrancy in AI portraits or images.
Midday Sun Lighting
Prompt: a photograph portrait of a stupendous woman, harsh midday sun lighting, dslr –aspect 1:1 –version 6.0 –stylize 50
Overcast Lighting
The light becomes soft and even when the sky is roofed in clouds, which we call Overcast lighting.
This can create a peaceful, moody, and atmospheric look in the photographs. Overcast lighting reduces harsh shadows and highlights, giving a more subtle and diffused illumination.
It’s an important lighting style to make your AI image feel cozy, tranquil, or mysterious.
Overcast Lighting
Prompt: a photograph portrait of extremely beautiful woman, overcast lighting, dslr –aspect 1:1 –version 6.0
Artificial Lighting
Lighting that’s created by human-made sources, like lamps or spotlights, can add quite a lot of control and creativity to the photographs.
Artificial lighting lets you create specific moods, highlight certain elements, and even defy natural lighting conditions.
Artificial lighting
Prompt: a photograph portrait of a handsome man, artificial studio lighting –v 6.0 –stylize 59
Seasonal Lighting
The quality of sunshine changes throughout the various seasons of the 12 months. In winter, the sunshine is commonly softer and more diffused.
In summer, the sunshine is brighter and harsher. Incorporating seasonal lighting could make your Midjourney AI images feel more authentic and immersive.
It’s an important lighting style if you must capture a selected time of 12 months or evoke a certain mood and atmosphere.
Let’s take an example here of winter:
Seasonal lighting
Prompt: a comfortable mountain cabin within the soft, muted light of a winter afternoon, with snow-capped peaks in the gap, Unreal Engine
Or, let’s take the instance of the rainy season:
Prompt: children playing in a garden, seasonal lighting, rainy season –v 6.0
In the above image, you’ll be able to notice how dull saturation is with more colder colours.
Shadowed
Shadowed lighting can create a way of mystery, drama, and depth within the artwork.
Shadowed lighting makes some areas of deep shadow within the image, often with only a small amount of sunshine peeking through.
Shadowed Lighting
Prompt: a photograph portrait of a handsome and diverse man shadowed
Sunflare
Sunflare Lighting is when the sun’s rays create a brilliant, glowing effect in a photograph. It adds warmth and drama to photographs in Midjourney AI art.
It’s a cool lighting style to make use of for those who want your pictures to look extraordinary.
Sunflare
Prompt: a portrait of a stupendous woman, Sunflare, –stylize 70
Rim Lighting
Rim Lighting is when light outlines the topic, making a halo effect. It adds depth and highlights the sides of objects.
It’s a unbelievable lighting style to make your artwork stand out with a warm or cool glow.
Prompt: a photograph portrait of a lady, rim lighting, dslr –aspect 1:1
Cross Lighting
Rim Lighting is when light shines from behind the topic, outlining its edges.
In an AI art, it adds depth and emphasis to the topic, making it pop within the image. It’s a unbelievable lighting style to make use of for those who want your artwork to have a striking and dramatic look.
Prompt: a photograph portrait of a lady, cross lighting, dslr –aspect 1:1
High Key Lighting
High Key Lighting is when a scene is brightly and evenly lit, minimizing shadows.
In Midjourney, it’s going to create a soft, cheerful atmosphere and is good for capturing a clean, brilliant look in images.
It’s an important lighting to make use of for those who want your artwork to have a brilliant and uplifting feel.
High Key Light
Prompt: a photograph portrait of a lady, high key lighting, dslr –aspect 1:1
Low Key Lighting
Low Key Lighting is when a scene is predominantly dark with selective areas of brilliant light.
It adds mystery, drama, and a way of depth to the photographs by highlighting contrast between light and shadow.
Low Key Lighting
Prompt: a photograph portrait of a lady, high key lighting, dslr –aspect 1:1 –stylize 10
Broad Lighting
Broad lighting is a general term for lighting that comes from a large, diffused source.
This creates a good, soft illumination across the entire scene. Broad lighting could make Midjourney AI images look natural, calm, and balanced.
Broad Lighting
Prompt: a photograph portrait of a boy, broad lighting, dslr –aspect 1:1 –stylize 10
Short Lighting
With short lighting, the fundamental light source is coming from the side of the topic, creating more shadow on one side of the face or object.
This could make the topic look more dramatic and sculpted. Best style for those who want your artwork to have a powerful, moody, or cinematic feel.
Short Lighting
Prompt: a photograph portrait of a boy, short lighting, dslr –aspect 1:1 –stylize 10
Flash-Lamp & Flashtube
Flash-lamp and flashtube are two various kinds of lighting that may be utilized in Midjourney AI art.
A flash-lamp is a form of lamp that produces a really brilliant, sudden burst of sunshine. This is commonly used for photography to capture fast-moving subjects or freeze motion.
Flashlamp Light
Prompt: a photograph portrait of a boy, flashlamp lighting, –aspect 1:1 –stylize 8 –v 6.0
A flashtube is a form of electronic lighting that also produces a fast, brilliant flash of sunshine. Flashtubes are commonly utilized in cameras and studio lighting.
Flashtube Lighting
Prompt: a photograph portrait of a boy, flashtube lighting, dslr –aspect 1:1 –stylize 8 –v 6.0
Incandescent Lamp Lighting
Incandescent lamps work by heating a metal filament contained in the lamp until it glows and emits light.
The light from incandescent lamps has a warm, yellowish color tone. This can create a comfortable, inviting feel in Midjourney AI images. The lighting also tends to be a bit softer and more diffused in comparison with another lighting sources.
Incandescent lamp lighting is great for those who want your Midjourney AI artwork to have a classic, nostalgic, or homey atmosphere.
Incandescent Lamp
Prompt: a photograph portrait of a boy, incandescent lamp lighting, –aspect 1:1 –stylize 35 –v 6.0
Crackle Tube
Crackle tube lighting is a singular form of lighting.
A crackle tube is a special form of glass tube that has been treated to create a cracked or distressed appearance.
When lit up, the crackle tube gives off an irregular, flickering light that may appear like crackling electricity or flames. This creates a really dynamic and attention-grabbing lighting effect.
Use this lighting only for those who need a sense of energy, and chaos in your images.
Crackle Tube
Prompt: a photograph portrait of a boy, portrait lit using Crackle tube lighting, –aspect 1:1 –stylize 7 –v 6.0
Halogen Lamp
Halogen lamps work by heating a small capsule full of halogen gas. This produces a really brilliant, intense light.
The light from halogen lamps has a crisp, white color that is commonly described as “cool” or “daylight” in tone. Halogen lighting tends to create strong contrasts between brilliant highlights and dark shadows.
Halogen Lighting
Prompt: a photograph portrait of a boy, portrait lit using halogen lamp lighting, –aspect 1:1 –stylize 7 –v 6.0
Strobe Light
Strobe light produce very quick, brilliant flashes of sunshine in rapid succession.
This creates a flickering, stroboscopic effect that could make images appear like they’re moving or frozen in time. Strobe lighting is commonly utilized in photography and video to capture fast-paced motion.
Strobe Lighting
Prompt: a photograph portrait of a boy, portrait lit using strobe lighting, –aspect 1:1 –stylize 7 –v 6.0
Flickering Lighting
Flickering light is when the brightness of the sunshine keeps changing, giving an unsteady or wavering appearance.
This flickering effect could make a picture look more moody, unsettling, or have an eerie, supernatural feel to it.
Flickering Lighting
Prompt: a photograph portrait of a women, flickering lighting, –aspect 1:1 –stylize 7 –v 6.0
Motivated Lighting
Motivated lighting is a method used where the lighting within the image is supposed to appear like it’s coming from a selected, logical source.
For example, if there’s a lamp within the scene, the lighting should appear like it’s coming from that lamp, and not only generally lighting up the entire area. Or if there’s a window, the lighting should look natural as if it’s coming through the window.
Motivated lighting helps make the image look more realistic and believable. It creates a way that the lighting is an element of the scene, relatively than simply being added on top of it.
Motivated Lighting
Prompt: a photograph portrait of a women, motivated lighting, –aspect 1:1 –stylize 7 –v 6.0
Moon Light
Moonlight is the soft, gentle light that comes from the moon at night.
Compared to sunlight, moonlight is far dimmer and has a cooler, bluer tone. It creates long, soft shadows and a more mysterious, atmospheric feel.
Using moonlight lighting in Midjourney AI artwork could make a scene look peaceful, romantic, and even somewhat eerie. The low, diffused lighting is great for creating moody, dreamlike environments.
Moon Lighting
Prompt: a photograph portrait of a women, moonlit, –aspect 1:1 –stylize 7 –v 6.0
Diffused Lighting
Diffused light is a form of lighting that spreads out the sunshine in a soft, even way. Instead of getting harsh shadows and brilliant spots, diffused light creates a mild, uniform illumination.
This form of lighting is absolutely essential in fashion photography and Midjourney AI art. When photographing models or creating fashion-inspired images, diffused light could make the topic look smoother, more flattering, and more evenly lit.
Diffused Lighting
Prompt: a model wearing the most recent designer dress , fashion show, diffused lighting, –aspect 1:1 –stylize 7
Urban Night Lights
Urban night lights confer with the differing types of lighting present in cities and towns at night. This can include things like:
- Street lamps – These are the tall, brilliant lights that line the roads and sidewalks. They help light up the streets and make it safer to walk around at night.
- Neon signs – Many businesses in urban areas have neon signs that create a colourful, eye-catching glow at night. This adds a vibrant, energetic feel to the town.
- Building lights – The windows and exterior of buildings are sometimes lit up at night, making a glowing effect across the cityscape.
- Vehicle headlights – The headlights of cars, buses, and other vehicles moving through the town add their very own pockets of illumination.
Using urban night lighting is great for those who want your Midjourney AI artwork to feel immersive, contemporary, and true to the experience of being in a energetic city environment.
Urban Night Lighting
Prompt: a women, ny, urban night lights, –aspect 1:1 –stylize 7
Bokeh Light Effects
Bokeh is a photographic effect that creates soft, blurry circles of sunshine within the background of a picture. This happens when the camera’s lens is targeted on a subject, but there are small, brilliant light sources within the background.
In Midjourney AI art, bokeh light effects can add a stupendous, dreamy quality to the artwork. The out-of-focus circles of sunshine create a way of depth and atmosphere.
Bokeh is great for those who want your Midjourney AI images to have a more artistic, ethereal feel. The soft, glowing highlights could make a scene more magical or romantic.
Bokeh Lighting
Prompt: a portrait of a women, bokeh lights, –aspect 1:1 –stylize 7
And That’s It!
Mastering the usage of Midjourney lighting prompts is crucial for creating charming, professional-quality AI-generated images.
Remember, don’t be afraid to check out different lighting prompts and combos to see what works best for you.
If you’re desirous to learn more about Midjourney, try the below articles:
- How to Create Consistent Characters in Midjourney
- The Complete List of Banned Words In Midjourney (Updated)
- How to Upscale in Midjourney And Maximize Image Resolution
More Read
