{
 "slug": "camera-tone-light-texture",
 "name": "Camera, tone, lighting, texture",
 "category": "guide",
 "group": "Prompt guides",
 "media": [
  "image"
 ],
 "checked": "2026-11-13",
 "effect": "A still prompt that reads like a photograph being described, camera first.",
 "use_when": "Realistic stills when no house template exists.",
 "phrase": "four sentences in this order: the camera and framing, the tone, the lighting, the texture",
 "pitfalls": [
  {
   "text": "Camera first: early words weigh most.",
   "evidence": "practitioner",
   "source": "Director Chair notes on Seedance 2.5 realism (Dan Kieft) and Director Chair field notes on image prompting"
  },
  {
   "text": "It is one creator's template. He picks image models by taste per image; that is his practice, not a measured ranking.",
   "evidence": "practitioner",
   "source": "Director Chair notes on Seedance 2.5 realism (Dan Kieft)"
  }
 ],
 "per_model": [],
 "external_refs": [],
 "licensed": [],
 "site_names": [],
 "related": [
  "framing-first",
  "guide-nano-banana-pro",
  "which-model-for-stills"
 ],
 "rights": "own-work",
 "evidence": "practitioner",
 "source": {
  "url": null,
  "note": "Own words from Director Chair notes on Seedance 2.5 realism (Dan Kieft)"
 },
 "body": "",
 "shown_with": null,
 "url": "https://directorchair.ai/guide/camera-tone-light-texture",
 "markdown": "https://directorchair.ai/guide/camera-tone-light-texture.md",
 "prompts": {
  "chat": "Give me a filled-in prompt that follows this guide, plus the one thing to check in the result, for a short video about [your product], for [your audience]. The technique is camera, tone, lighting, texture: a still prompt that reads like a photograph being described, camera first. How it works: four sentences in this order: the camera and framing, the tone, the lighting, the texture. It is right for: realistic stills when no house template exists. Camera first: early words weigh most. It is one creator's template. Be concrete: numbers, seconds and settings, no theory. Ask me one question first if something you need is missing."
 },
 "licence": {
  "code": "MIT",
  "text": "CC BY 4.0",
  "third_party": "Clips and card texts inside a \"licensed\" block belong to their makers and are shown with permission and credit."
 }
}