# Medium shot

Camera / Shot size / Distance. Checked 2026-10-13.

Conversational distance: the viewer sees the face and the hands, as if talking across a table.

- Use when: Interviews, talking-head ads, explainers in a creator style.
- Phrase: medium shot, framed from the waist up, the person off-centre with a little space above the head
- Page: https://directorchair.ai/shot/medium-shot
- JSON: https://directorchair.ai/api/shot/medium-shot.json

## Watch out

- For a candid creator look, keep the person at 50 to 65 percent of the frame, not 85 to 95, and avoid eye contact unless they talk to camera. (measured; Director Chair field notes on image prompting (ad work))

## Prompts

### Nano Banana Pro

```
[your subject] in [your setting]. Frame the subject in a medium shot from the waist up, balancing their expression with a glimpse of the background.
```

### Nano Banana 2

```
[your subject] in [your setting]. Frame the subject in a medium shot from the waist up, balancing their expression with a glimpse of the background.
```

### GPT Image 2.5

```
A photograph of [your subject] in [your setting].
People and framing: medium shot, framed from the waist up, the person off-centre with a little space above the head
Exclusions: no extra text, no watermark, no logo.
```

### Seedream 5

```
[your subject] in [your setting]. Medium shot, framed from the waist up, the person off-centre with a little space above the head.
```

### Seedance 2.5

```
Scene: [your subject] in [your setting].
First frame: medium shot, framed from the waist up, the person off-centre with a little space above the head
Shot 1 (0:00 to 0:05): one continuous shot
```

### Seedance 2.0

```
Scene: [your subject] in [your setting].
First frame: medium shot, framed from the waist up, the person off-centre with a little space above the head
Shot 1: one continuous shot
```

### Kling 3.0

```
[your subject]. The scene is [your setting]. Medium shot, framed from the waist up, the person off-centre with a little space above the head.
```

### Veo 3.1

```
Medium shot, framed from the waist up, the person off-centre with a little space above the head. [your subject] in [your setting]. Framing and subject stay as in the start image.
```

## Look further

- https://aicameracontrol.com/ : a free 3D stage to place the person and set the lens before you generate
- https://shotdeck.com/ : real film examples of this frame size (paid, link only)
- https://flim.ai/ : film, ad and music-video stills of this frame size (free tier, link only)

## Goes well with

- Medium close-up: https://directorchair.ai/shot/medium-close-up
- Medium wide shot: https://directorchair.ai/shot/medium-wide-shot
- Two-shot: https://directorchair.ai/shot/two-shot

## Source

Own words, from the first Director Chair spec and Director Chair field notes on video prompting; pitfalls from the sources named per pitfall

Text CC BY 4.0, Director Chair (directorchair.ai). Reference clips and their card texts belong to their makers.