# Over-the-shoulder shot

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

Puts the viewer inside a conversation, behind one person and facing the other.

- Use when: Dialogue, a salesperson with a client, someone looking at a screen.
- Phrase: over-the-shoulder shot from behind his left shoulder, his shoulder and the back of his head soft in the foreground, her face sharp beyond it
- Page: https://directorchair.ai/shot/over-the-shoulder-shot
- JSON: https://directorchair.ai/api/shot/over-the-shoulder-shot.json

## Watch out

- A viewpoint with a reason holds better than a ban. Say whose shoulder it is and what that person is looking at. (measured; Director Chair field notes on image prompting)
- Keep both shots of a dialogue on the same side of the two people, or they seem to swap places. (film-craft; The 180-degree rule, Director Chair field notes on video prompting)

## Prompts

### Nano Banana Pro

```
[your subject] in [your setting]. Over-the-shoulder shot from behind his left shoulder, his shoulder and the back of his head soft in the foreground, her face sharp beyond it.
```

### Nano Banana 2

```
[your subject] in [your setting]. Over-the-shoulder shot from behind his left shoulder, his shoulder and the back of his head soft in the foreground, her face sharp beyond it.
```

### GPT Image 2.5

```
A photograph of [your subject] in [your setting].
People and framing: over-the-shoulder shot from behind his left shoulder, his shoulder and the back of his head soft in the foreground, her face sharp beyond it
Exclusions: no extra text, no watermark, no logo.
```

### Seedream 5

```
[your subject] in [your setting]. Over-the-shoulder shot from behind his left shoulder, his shoulder and the back of his head soft in the foreground, her face sharp beyond it.
```

### Seedance 2.5

```
Scene: [your subject] in [your setting].
First frame: over-the-shoulder shot from behind his left shoulder, his shoulder and the back of his head soft in the foreground, her face sharp beyond it
Shot 1 (0:00 to 0:05): one continuous shot
```

### Seedance 2.0

```
Scene: [your subject] in [your setting].
First frame: over-the-shoulder shot from behind his left shoulder, his shoulder and the back of his head soft in the foreground, her face sharp beyond it
Shot 1: one continuous shot
```

### Kling 3.0

```
[your subject]. The scene is [your setting]. Over-the-shoulder shot from behind his left shoulder, his shoulder and the back of his head soft in the foreground, her face sharp beyond it.
```

### Veo 3.1

```
Over-the-shoulder shot from behind his left shoulder, his shoulder and the back of his head soft in the foreground, her face sharp beyond it. [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 shot type (paid, link only)
- https://flim.ai/ : film, ad and music-video stills of this shot type (free tier, link only)

## Goes well with

- Two-shot: https://directorchair.ai/shot/two-shot
- Medium close-up: https://directorchair.ai/shot/medium-close-up
- From behind: https://directorchair.ai/angle/back-view

## 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.