Chiaroscuro Figure Study

Photography · Chiaroscuro · Dark

Recipe

The style is the recipe. The subject is yours.

The examples above were generated with Nano Banana Pro and Seedream 4.5. The recipes below are written for GPT Image and Flux, so treat the settings as a starting point rather than the exact run.

A description in plain sentences. This is the version to start with, and it works on any current image model. Settings below are the ones we used on GPT Image; treat them as a starting point.

Make it yours

The recipe is the style, not the picture. Put your own subject in and the highlighted part of the prompt changes.

Prompt

A photograph where almost the entire frame is black and only the edges of two or three overlapping figures are lifted out of the darkness by one soft light source. Warm skin against deep shadow, shallow slightly soft focus, gesture and the tilt of a head carrying the image rather than expression. No background, no props, no horizon, nothing but the figures and the dark. Quiet and intimate.

The prompt gets you close. Feed one of the examples in as a style reference for the rest. Download the images

Use the examples as a reference

Download the examples

Send the example as an input image to the images.edits endpoint alongside the prompt, or attach it in ChatGPT. It follows composition closely, so describe your subject firmly or it will copy the example.

Settings on GPT Image

Size: 1536 x 1024
Quality: High
Background: Opaque
Output: PNG

Tips

1Say almost the entire frame is black. Models are reluctant to commit to darkness.
2Overlap the figures. Separation makes it a group portrait.
3Soft focus keeps it painterly rather than clinical.