Light for a moving camera

Show where the light comes from early in the scene; after that, the camera can turn and the light can turn with it.

• The scene's first shot shows or clearly places its key [proven as craft]: a window, a lamp, the sun's side. The master plate (the approved still of the place) shows it too (see Photoreal anchors (Nano Banana Pro) → Location plates).

• Later angles may go contrasty [proven as craft], side-lit or backlit, with an edge on the face. The audience already knows where the light is.

• Negative fill where shape matters [proven as craft]: "the walls we never see stay black, and nothing lifts the dark side of her face".

• In an arc, say how the key moves against the face [proven as craft; the arc wording best available, not yet validated]: "as the camera arcs 40° right, the lamp slips behind his ear and leaves a thin line of light along his jaw". Template A's LIGHTING slot has a place for it (see Video with Seedance → Templates A, B and D).

• Speaking shots keep the mouth lit; products keep the label lit [proven as craft]. Contrast never takes the mouth or the label into shadow.

• Judge exposure on the 1080p finish, not the 480p draft [proven as craft] (see Video with Seedance → Draft and finish). A contrasty draft can look like an exposure fault when it isn't.

Bradford Young: once the audience knows "where the light's coming from… you can jump around."

Sources

• Bradford Young (Cooke Optics talk on lighting with practical sources, YouTube); Roger Deakins on Blade Runner 2049 (ASC); Higgsfield's Seedance 2.5 prompt builder.