{
 "slug": "butterfly-light",
 "name": "Butterfly light",
 "category": "light",
 "group": "Portrait",
 "media": [
  "image",
  "video"
 ],
 "checked": "2026-11-13",
 "effect": "A polished, flattering face for a talking head.",
 "use_when": "Founders and presenters talking to camera.",
 "phrase": "one soft key light directly in front of her and slightly above eye level, a small shadow under the nose, a softbox as the source",
 "pitfalls": [
  {
   "text": "Cinematic lighting says nothing to the model. Name the source, where it comes from and the fill.",
   "evidence": "measured",
   "source": "Director Chair field notes on image prompting"
  }
 ],
 "per_model": [],
 "external_refs": [],
 "licensed": [],
 "site_names": [],
 "related": [
  "rembrandt-light",
  "softbox-light",
  "format-face-cam",
  "look-talking-head"
 ],
 "rights": "own-work",
 "evidence": "film-craft",
 "source": {
  "url": null,
  "note": "Own words from the Director Chair hook framework (our 2026 synthesis of @marco.thecreative's TikTok series, OpusClip's hook formulas, a Brandefy article, Meta retention research and a Gemini research report) (the set-up is established portrait lighting)"
 },
 "body": "",
 "shown_with": null,
 "url": "https://directorchair.ai/light/butterfly-light",
 "markdown": "https://directorchair.ai/light/butterfly-light.md",
 "prompts": {
  "nano-banana-pro": "[your subject] in [your setting]. One soft key light directly in front of her and slightly above eye level, a small shadow under the nose, a softbox as the source.",
  "nano-banana-2": "[your subject] in [your setting]. One soft key light directly in front of her and slightly above eye level, a small shadow under the nose, a softbox as the source.",
  "gpt-image": "A photograph of [your subject] in [your setting].\nDetails: one soft key light directly in front of her and slightly above eye level, a small shadow under the nose, a softbox as the source\nExclusions: no extra text, no watermark, no logo.",
  "seedream-5": "[your subject] in [your setting]. One soft key light directly in front of her and slightly above eye level, a small shadow under the nose, a softbox as the source.",
  "seedance-2.5": "Scene: [your subject] in [your setting].\nShot 1 (0:00 to 0:05): one continuous shot\nLight: one soft key light directly in front of her and slightly above eye level, a small shadow under the nose, a softbox as the source",
  "seedance-2.0": "Scene: [your subject] in [your setting].\nShot 1: one continuous shot\nLight: one soft key light directly in front of her and slightly above eye level, a small shadow under the nose, a softbox as the source",
  "kling-3": "[your subject]. The scene is [your setting]. One soft key light directly in front of her and slightly above eye level, a small shadow under the nose, a softbox as the source.",
  "veo-3.1": "[your subject] in [your setting]. Framing and subject stay as in the start image. One soft key light directly in front of her and slightly above eye level, a small shadow under the nose, a softbox as the source."
 },
 "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."
 }
}