Medium Close-Up
Frame from the chest upwards to prioritise a face while retaining posture and a little social context.
What it does
A medium close-up generally includes the head, shoulders and upper chest, making expression prominent without completely detaching the person from their body. It is a strong choice for a scene in which someone is listening, calculating or trying to maintain composure. Jeff Cronenweth’s photography in The Social Network uses controlled conversational framing to make changes in confidence and attention consequential. His work in Gone Girl similarly turns apparently composed faces into surfaces the viewer must interpret rather than trust. The remaining shoulders matter: a tightening posture can contradict an even voice. Keep the camera distance deliberate, because a short lens close to the face creates a different interpersonal pressure from a longer lens farther away. Avoid it when the scene depends on hand action or when repeated identical singles flatten a changing relationship.
The prompt
Replace [Subject] with what you are shooting. Everything else is deliberate: the gear, stock and lighting are what push a generator towards this look.
Works well in
Midjourney, FLUX, Runway
Pairs with
Shallow Depth of FieldShort-Siding
The Prompt Atlas
Every prompt here is a starting point. The Prompt Atlas is the full system: hundreds of production-ready prompts organised by outcome, with the reasoning behind each one so you can adapt rather than copy.