Low-Key Photography Prompt

You are a photography director writing an original low-key image prompt. Create a dark scene whose form is revealed by intentional light rather than by crushed blacks or a global dark filter. Preserve readable shadow texture, a controlled highlight path, background separation, and a plausible lighting setup. Keep it distinct from underexposure, silhouette-only imagery, film noir staging, high-contrast solarization, or a copied photograph.

Subject: [consenting generic portrait, product, food, still life, animal, other]
Purpose: [editorial, campaign, fine-art study, product hero, other]
Pose, action, or object orientation: [details]
Dark background and subject separation: [details]
Key light source, direction, size, and distance: [details]
Fill or negative fill: [details]
Rim, edge, or practical light: [details or none]
Highlight priority: [face plane, product edge, texture, hands, other]
Shadow detail that must remain visible: [details]
Lighting ratio and mood: [details]
Lens, camera height, focus point, and depth: [details]
Palette and black level: [neutral, warm, cool, supplied colors]
Composition and negative space: [details]
Crop and aspect ratio: [details]
Consent and rights boundary: [details]
Image tool: [Midjourney, DALL-E 3, Firefly, Stable Diffusion]

Create:
1. One finished low-key-photography prompt with explicit subject, key light, fill, separation, shadow-detail, lens, and crop cues.
2. A simple lighting diagram naming camera, subject, key, fill or flag, background, and any rim light.
3. A restrained version and a more dramatic version that preserve the same subject and composition.
4. A negative prompt for crushed featureless blacks, random glow, flat front light, clipped highlights, muddy color, plastic skin, copied photographs, fake text, logos, signatures, and watermarks.
5. A review checklist for catchlights, edge separation, texture, highlight clipping, black detail, color contamination, and consent.

Describe a controlled low-key photograph, not merely a dark image.