Short answer / recommendation
If your priority is reproducible, production-ready lifestyle imagery with controlled framing and lighting, start with Leonardo for template-driven, reference-based generation and inpainting, and use Midjourney only when you need more artistic, high-end stylization. Use a dedicated prompt-template workflow (ChatGPT can help automate variations) and do final color/profile control in a color-managed editor (Lightroom/Photoshop).

Why this recommendation
- Leonardo: stronger for repeatability. It gives easy image-to-image, inpainting, layered canvases, and user presets that let you lock composition, references, and masks — which is ideal for “same frame, different season” shots. It’s generally easier to run batches from templates and iterate on a base asset.
- Midjourney: excels at creative, cinematic lighting and highly stylized output. It can give prettier single images but is harder to guarantee pixel-for-pixel consistency across many runs without extensive prompt engineering and seed management.

Decision criteria (pick the one that matters most)
- Reproducibility & templating: Leonardo (best)
- Artistic/unique lighting and painterly looks: Midjourney (best)
- Control over specific areas (clothing swap, background seasonal changes): Leonardo (inpainting + masking)
- Color profile / production color fidelity: neither fully replaces a color-managed edit — plan to do final grading in Lightroom/Photoshop
- Budget & throughput: check each tool’s pricing model—Leonardo often uses credits for large batches; Midjourney is subscription-based but can be slower/less deterministic for batch consistency.

Practical checklist to implement (15–30 minutes setup, then repeatable)
1. Create a canonical reference shot: one high-res base image for framing, lens, and lighting. Save it as your anchor.
2. Build a prompt template: fixed tokens for camera (e.g., “35mm, f/2.8, 3-point lighting, soft fill”), scene framing (e.g., “waist-up, centered, 2m distance”), and a variable token for season/wardrobe/props. Use ChatGPT to generate 10 prompt variants from that template.
3. Lock generation parameters: model version, aspect ratio, seed (when available), quality/steps. Store these in a project spec file.
4. Use Leonardo’s image-to-image + mask workflow to swap seasonal elements (leaves, snow, clothing) while keeping base lighting/framing. For Midjourney, use the same reference image and seed, and add strict camera/lens tokens. Compare results.
5. Batch-generate 8–12 candidates per scene, pick candidates, and refine with inpainting or re-roll. Keep the best seed/prompt pair in your spec.
6. Export images at highest quality, then do color/profile matching in Lightroom/Photoshop using your brand LUT or ICC workflow.
7. Save final assets and the prompt/seed/parameters alongside them for future reproducibility.

Best-for / Avoid-if
- Best for Leonardo: teams needing consistent templates, inpainting-based seasonal swaps, and production pipelines. Avoid if you need extremely painterly or cinematic stylization as your main goal.
- Best for Midjourney: single-shot hero images with dramatic lighting and creative flair. Avoid if you need tight, repeatable batches with pixel-level consistency.

Notes on team, budget and workflow
If you have a small team and need fast iteration, Leonardo’s template + inpainting route is faster to standardize. If you have a creative lead who values bespoke, stylized hero art, add Midjourney to the workflow for hero shots and produce templated variants in Leonardo. Use ChatGPT to automate prompt variants and a simple spreadsheet to track seeds and parameters.

If you want, I can: (a) draft a reusable prompt template for your brand (season + wardrobe + lighting tokens) and (b) give a short checklist for color-grading/export settings.

Compare Midjourney and Leonardo AI