By a Virtual Cinematographer
I stopped using the word “Cinematic” in my prompts six months ago.
For three years, that was the magic word. If you typed “cinematic lighting” into Midjourney v6 or DALL-E 3, the model would slap a generic blue-orange filter on the image, crank up the contrast, and add some lens flares. It looked cool, but it looked cheap. It looked like every other AI image on the internet.
Then came Nano Banana Pro.
Google’s model is different. It doesn’t just guess what a photo looks like; it simulates how light behaves. It has an internal physics engine that calculates photon paths, index of refraction, and volumetric density.
If you are still prompting it like an old image generator, you are driving a Ferrari in first gear. You are asking for a “picture of a car” when you should be driving the car.
To master Nano Banana, you have to stop thinking like a Prompt Engineer and start thinking like a Director of Photography (DP). You have to stop describing the vibe and start describing the physics.
We call this “Physics Prompting.” It is the secret to getting those studio-perfect, hyper-realistic images that look like they were shot on an ARRI Alexa, not generated by a GPU.
Here is how to light your virtual stage.
1. The Philosophy: Stop Describing the Pixels
The biggest mistake beginners make is describing the result.
- Bad Prompt: “A moody portrait of a woman, dramatic shadows, scary vibe.”
Nano Banana hates this. “Moody” is subjective. “Scary” is vague. The model has to guess what you mean, and it usually guesses wrong (or gives you the cliché).
Physics Prompting means describing the cause.
- Good Prompt: “A portrait of a woman. Lighting setup: Single 2000W Fresnel spotlight placed 90 degrees to the subject’s right, aimed down at a 45-degree angle. Barn doors narrowed to a slit. No fill light. Background is absolute darkness.”
When you prompt this way, Nano Banana runs a simulation. It places the virtual light. It calculates the shadow fall-off. It knows that a Fresnel lens creates a sharp, hard shadow. It knows that “no fill” means the other side of the face will be pitch black.
The result is exactly what you asked for. It isn’t “generic moody.” It is a specific, physically accurate lighting state that evokes the mood you wanted, but with total precision.
2. The Setup: The “Virtual Gaffer” Syntax
You can actually talk to Nano Banana like you are talking to a Gaffer (the head electrician on a film set).
I have developed a specific syntax for this. I put it at the end of my prompt in a bracket called [LIGHTING_RIG].
The Three-Point Standard:
If you want a professional corporate headshot, stop asking for “Professional Headshot.” Build the studio.
Prompt: “A CEO smiling.”
[LIGHTING_RIG]:
- Key Light: 10ft Octobank Softbox, 5600K (Daylight), positioned 45-degrees House Left. Intensity 80%.
- Fill Light: White Reflector Card, House Right, bouncing the spill. Ratio 2:1.
- Rim Light: LED Strip, 3200K (Warm), placed behind subject, aimed at hair.
Nano Banana understands these terms.
- It knows that an Octobank creates a round catchlight in the eye.
- It knows that a Reflector Card creates a softer, more subtle fill than a second lamp.
- It knows that mixing 5600K (Blue-ish) and 3200K (Orange-ish) creates color separation depth.
When you control the rig, you control the reality. You are no longer rolling the dice; you are painting with light.
3. Advanced Technique: The “Gobo” and The “Cookie”
This is where Nano Banana destroys DALL-E.
In photography, a Gobo (Go Between) is a stencil placed in front of a light to cast a specific shadow pattern (like Venetian blinds or tree leaves).1
Old AI models were terrible at this. If you asked for “shadows of window blinds,” they would just paint black stripes on the face. The stripes wouldn’t wrap around the nose. They wouldn’t distort over the curvature of the cheek.
Nano Banana calculates the Projection Geometry.
Try this prompt:
“A detective smoking in a smoky office.”
[LIGHTING_RIG]: “Single Hard Source outside the window. A ‘Cookie’ (Cucoloris) with a slat pattern is placed between the light and the window. Volumetric Fog density: 0.5.”
Watch what happens.
The light hits the smoke. You see the beams (God Rays) cutting through the air.
The shadow of the blinds hits the detective’s face. It wraps around his nose perfectly. It stretches across the desk.
The smoke inside the light beam is illuminated; the smoke in the shadow is dark.
That is Volumetric Ray-Tracing. The AI is simulating the path of light through a medium (smoke). It gives the image a thick, tactile atmosphere that 2D-based generators simply cannot fake.
4. Material Physics: Index of Refraction (IOR)
Lighting is only half the equation. The other half is Materiality.
How does the light interact with the skin? With the glass? With the metal?
Nano Banana has an internal database of IOR (Index of Refraction) values.
If you are generating a product shot (say, a perfume bottle), you need to specify the physics of the glass.
- Bad Prompt: “A shiny glass bottle.”
- Physics Prompt: “A perfume bottle made of Crystal Glass (IOR 1.5). Liquid inside is Amber (IOR 1.33) with Subsurface Scattering (SSS) enabled.”
Subsurface Scattering is the holy grail. It’s the phenomenon where light penetrates a translucent surface (like skin, wax, or milk), bounces around inside, and comes out a different color.
It’s why holding a flashlight to your hand makes your fingers glow red.
If you want realistic portraits, you must add: “Skin texture with high Subsurface Scattering.”
Nano Banana will simulate the light entering the skin layers and bouncing back out, giving the face that soft, fleshy, living look, rather than the “plastic doll” look of older models.
5. The “Banana Factor”: Breaking the Physics
Now, here is the fun part.
Because Nano Banana is a “Liar” (as we discussed in previous articles), you can tell it to break the laws of physics for artistic effect.
You can set up lights that don’t exist.
The “Impossible Rim” Technique:
In real life, you cannot have a rim light (backlight) without seeing the light stand if the camera is moving around.
In Nano Banana, you can request: “Invisible Light Source.”
Prompt: “A floating apple.”
[LIGHTING_RIG]: “Key Light: Bioluminescent coating ON the apple itself. The apple is the light source. It casts shadows on the wall, but glows from within.”
The model understands this “Magical Physics.” It calculates how an object would look if it emitted light from its own skin. The shadows will be inverted (spreading outward from the object). The result is surreal, Dali-esque, but physically consistent within its own logic.
This is how you get the “Banana Aesthetic”—images that feel real (because the light makes sense) but look impossible (because the source is magic).
6. Conclusion: You Are the Gaffer Now
The transition from “Prompt Engineer” to “Virtual Gaffer” is the most important skill upgrade you can make in 2026.
Stop searching for “Best Midjourney Prompts” lists.
Go buy a book on Cinematography.
Go read “Painting with Light” by John Alton.
Learn what a “Rim Light” is. Learn what “Rembrandt Lighting” is (Key light high and to the side, creating a triangle of light on the shadow cheek).
When you understand the physics of light, you don’t need to guess. You don’t need to hit “Generate” 50 times hoping for a happy accident.
You build the set. You place the lights. You snap the shutter.
Nano Banana is the most powerful studio in history. But it’s sitting in the dark until you turn on the lights.