All groups

Side light

Half the face lit, half in shadow: shape, texture and tension.

Use when: Serious portraits, thrillers, craft and texture close-ups.

Prompt instructions

Scene: [your subject] in [your setting]. Shot 1 (0:00 to 0:05): one continuous shot Light: a single light from the subject's left at head height, the left side of the subject's face bright, the right side falling into shadow

Seedance 2.5 reads labelled blocks with timecodes.

SubjectSetting

Say it like this

A single light from her left at head height, the left side of her face bright, the right side falling into shadow.

Watch out

A style word for light does nothing. Name the source, where it sits against the person, and what fills the shadow side.measured: Director Chair field notes on image prompting

Rembrandt lightPrompt Hard lightPrompt Low-key contrast

Mostly shadow with a few lit areas: drama, mystery, premium.

Prompt

Sources

Own words; the term from general film vocabulary, as also used in ShotDeck's filters Checked 2026-11-13.

ShotDeck: real film examples of this lighting (paid, link only)

Flim: film, ad and music-video stills of this lighting (free tier, link only)

For agents: this card as markdown, as JSON.