9 Lighting Recipes Every AI Artist Should Know
Rembrandt, butterfly, split, rim, clamshell and more — the classic studio setups written as prompt fragments you can paste into anything.
Lighting is the fastest lever you have. Change nothing but the light description and the same subject goes from a snapshot to a campaign. Here are nine setups, written as prompt fragments.
1. Rembrandt
"Key light 45 degrees camera left and slightly above eye level, creating a small triangle of light on the shadow-side cheek, deep controlled shadows, no fill." Classic, moody, flattering on most faces.
2. Butterfly
"Key light directly in front and above the subject, casting a small symmetrical shadow beneath the nose, silver reflector below the chin." The beauty and glamour standard.
3. Clamshell
"Large softbox above and a white bounce card directly below, both facing the subject, producing even shadowless illumination and twin catchlights." Skin-friendly and commercial.
4. Split
"Single hard light exactly 90 degrees to camera left, lighting half the face and leaving the other half in complete shadow." Dramatic and graphic.
5. Rim / backlight
"Sun just behind the subject's left shoulder creating a bright edge along the hair and cheek, white bounce card filling the front one stop under." The golden hour portrait look.
6. Window light
"Hard morning light through a window frame, casting a crisp diagonal shadow pattern across the scene, everything else falling into soft shadow." Instantly lifestyle.
7. Two-colour neon
"Magenta practical light camera left, cyan practical camera right, both acting as rim lights, face left in controlled shadow, wet ground reflecting both." Cyberpunk in one sentence.
8. Product edge light
"Large strip softbox behind and above the product creating a single sweeping highlight along its edge, black flags on both sides carving definition." Essential for glass, metal and watches.
9. Practical-only
"Lit entirely by light sources visible in the frame — a desk lamp, a phone screen, a neon sign — no additional studio lighting." Motivated lighting reads as cinema.
Paste any of these into a prompt you already like. Change nothing else. The difference is usually larger than a model upgrade.
