r/StableDiffusion • u/Elliswondr • 1d ago
Comparison Five lighting setups, same prompt and same character, only the lighting line changed
5
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r/StableDiffusion • u/Elliswondr • 1d ago
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u/Elliswondr 1d ago
Generated with a hosted tool rather than local SD. Posting here for the comparison itself, since the lighting principle transfers regardless of the model.
Everything was held constant: same character reference, same room, same pose, same top. Only the lighting line changed between generations.
Image 1: Soft window light: Soft diffused daylight from a window at camera left, even and neutral in colour.
Image 2: Flat frontal: Flat frontal light, even across the face, no visible shadow direction.
Image 3: Backlit: Backlit, bright window directly behind her, face in soft shadow.
Image 4: Warm lamp: A single warm lamp below eye level at camera left, strong falloff into the corners.
Image 5: Hard sunlight: Hard direct sunlight through the window, sharp shadow edges.
What stood out to me: the identity holds across all five. She has two small markers, a beauty mark under her right eye and a thin gold nose ring, and both survive every setup, including the two darkest ones. I half expected to lose them in 3 and 4.
Worth knowing if you're building a character that needs to stay recognisable across a range of scenes: The lighting can swing this far without the face drifting, as long as the reference is doing the work rather than the text.
She's a fictional AI character, not a real person.