Hard Light Beauty

Photography · Beauty · Hard Light

Download examples
Face in hard light·Nano Banana Pro
Tall crop·Seedream 4.5
Square version·Seedream 4.5
Detail of the skin·Seedream 4.5

Recipe

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.

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

Prompt

Beauty photography with nothing softened: the face filling the frame from a close distance, lit by a single hard light source throwing a crisp shadow down one side and picking out every texture in the skin. Neutral slightly cool colour, plain wall background, direct unsmiling expression. Sharp throughout, no retouching, no beauty softening.

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
1024 x 1280
Quality
High
Background
Opaque
Output
PNG

Tips

  • 1Say no retouching. Models smooth skin by default.
  • 2One hard source, one crisp shadow edge.
  • 3Direct gaze. Anything coy softens it.

Things to try

A profile in the same treatment

head turned, light held

Warm

a tungsten source instead

Coloured gel

one saturated colour on the light

Wider

head and shoulders

Two lights

a second rim from behind

Similar Styles