The Same Place, Another Hour
Hand it a photograph of one thing and it relights the frame — another hour, another direction, another hardness — leaving the object, the surface and the background exactly where they were. Two fields.
One treatment, two different photographs. Late sun onto cut glass, and cloud onto leather — one going harder and warmer, the other going softer and cooler, so the pair reads as the two directions this treatment can travel rather than as one look applied twice.
Both runs hold the camera exactly, and both move the shadow rather than tinting the frame — the boot's hard right-thrown shadow becomes a soft one tucked under the sole, and the bottle grows a long one it did not have. The first run is worth reading carefully, though: the whole background warmed with the light. That is what a warm source does to a grey seamless, and it is also what a colour grade looks like, so the only thing separating them is the shadow, and it is the thing to check first. What this template cannot do is anything with a photograph that has no shadow to begin with. The first attempt at the second run used a flat, evenly lit boot and came back all but identical to its input — the words asked for another hour and there was nothing in the frame for another hour to move. The boot here was reshot with one hard light for that reason, which is the requirement above stated as a picture.
Generated for this library
Input
Object a faceted glass perfume bottle
Hour an hour before sunset, low and from the left, hard
Photograph perfume-front.png (1254 x 1254)
Returned 1 image · 1:1 · the same frame, another hour
object position, size, colour and marks all unchanged
camera same eye line and distance; outline lands on
itself
shadow long, thrown right, with a defined edge and
a bright caustic inside it
highlight moved onto the left facets; the right ones
have gone dark
colour the lit side warms, the shade stays the colour
the material is
words none, in any scriptYou fill in 2 fields — the braced lines at the top. Everything below them is fixed.
- 1The object, in three or four words
- 2The hour, and where the light comes from
The Same Place, Another Hour
What this makes
Hand it a photograph of one thing and it relights the frame — another hour, another direction, another hardness — leaving the object, the surface and the background exactly where they were. Two fields.
You are given ONE photograph of ONE object. Return ONE image: the same object in the same place, at a different time of day. Follow every line. Replace only the FIELDS block; everything after it is fixed.
First — do you have the photograph and the fields?
Say what this makes before you ask anything, in one or two sentences of their own words. Someone who has just pasted this has no idea what they are being asked for, and questions arriving cold are questions answered badly.
If no photograph is attached, stop and ask for one. This template has nothing to work on without it, and an object generated from the description instead is a different object that resembles the answer.
If either field below still has braces around it, stop and ask. Put both questions in one short message, and show the example under each one so they can see the shape of a useful answer. Wait for the replies, then work. Never fill a brace yourself: a value you invented is a value nobody asked for.
Ask in whatever language they are writing to you in. Translate the questions and the examples; do not make someone read English to tell you what they want.
If the photograph is attached and both fields are filled in, ignore this and carry on.
Fields — replace these two lines only
- The object, in three or four words: {what is in the photograph}
- The hour, and where the light comes from: {a time of day, a direction and a height}
The law everything else follows from
You can only see the face the photograph gave you.
So this template builds around the object and asks nothing of the object itself. It never turns it, opens it, tilts it or shows another side — you would have to invent that side, and not inventing it is the whole promise. If what you are about to do needs a face the photograph never showed, you are doing the wrong thing.
The object — carried through untouched
- Silhouette, proportions, and the position of every part.
- Colour, finish and material, including how light behaves on it: matt stays matt, gloss keeps its highlights where they were.
- Every existing mark, seam, join, chip and irregularity, including the ones that look like faults. They are how someone recognises their own thing.
- Any lettering already on the object stays exactly as photographed — same words, same letterforms, same position. You are not setting it again.
Nothing is added to the object: no label, no cap, no strap, no second copy of it, and no adjustment of its colour "to suit the scene".
The camera — it did not move
- Same eye line, same distance, same focal length.
- The object fills the same share of the frame within a twentieth, and sits in the same place in it.
- Perspective is unchanged: an ellipse that read nearly flat still reads nearly flat, a face that read square still reads square.
Check it by overlay. Stack the two frames. The object's outline should land on itself. Bigger, smaller, higher, or more from above means the camera moved — go again.
The ground — it must not swallow the object
Whatever you build, the surface behind and beneath the object differs from the object in at least two of these three: value, temperature, texture.
A sand-coloured object on sand-coloured linen under warm light is one object photographed inside itself. It looks tasteful as a thumbnail and vanishes at size, and it is the standing failure of this genre — scenery chosen to flatter the product rather than to show it.
The treatment — the light, and only the light
Keep the object, the surface and the background exactly where they are, at exactly the size they are. Nothing in the frame is moved, added or removed. What changes is the source.
Move the shadow, do not tint the picture. A different hour is a different position, so:
- The shadow points somewhere new, away from the source.
- Its length follows the height: a low source throws a long shadow, a high one throws a short one under the object.
- Its edge follows the hardness: direct sun gives a defined edge, cloud or a big window gives a diffuse one.
- The highlights move with it, onto the faces that now turn toward the source, and off the ones that no longer do.
The object keeps its own colour. Warm light *lands on* it; it is not repainted warm. The lit side warms, the shadow side stays the colour the material is, and the difference between the two is the whole point.
A colour cast over the entire frame with everything else identical is the failure this treatment exists to avoid.
Never
- Lettering, numerals, logos, labels, watermarks, price flashes, badges or packaging copy anywhere in the picture, in any script. Words already on the object are the only words allowed, and they stay as photographed.
- Hands, faces, figures, or any part of a person.
- A border, frame, vignette or sticker laid over the picture.
- A second copy of the object, a reflection showing a side that was never photographed, or a view into a part the photograph did not show.
What it should read as
The same shot, taken hours later. Someone left the camera and the props alone and came back when the sun had moved.
The whole template, in one piece. The steps below are the entire workflow.
How to use it
- Copy the whole template with the button above.
- Attach your photograph and paste the template in the same message.
- Replace the two FIELDS lines. In the second, give a direction and a height — without them nothing in the frame can move.
- Check the shadow first. If it is the same length and pointing the same way, the run graded the picture instead of relighting it, and that is the failure this template exists to catch.
- For a morning and an evening version, run the original twice rather than relighting the relit one.
What you swap
- The object, in three or four words
- a faceted glass perfume bottle
- The hour, and where the light comes from
- an hour before sunset, low and from the left, hard
Before it runs
- An actual photograph of the thing, attached to the message. There is nothing here for a description to work on.
- A shadow already in the picture. Relighting is moving the one that is there; a flat, shadowless shot gives the run nothing to move.
- One source. Two lights at two hours is not an hour, and the shadows stop agreeing.
- A direction you can name. 'Nicer light' is a mood; 'low and from the left' is a position, and only a position moves a shadow.
When to reach for it
When the set is right and the light is wrong, or when one product needs a morning version and an evening one. Templates in this genre relight by tinting the whole picture, which moves nothing and convinces nobody, because a real change of hour moves the shadow.
What changes
- One photograph in, one out — everything in the same position, lit at a different hour.
- The shadow moves, changes length and changes edge, because the source moved rather than the colour grade.
- The object keeps its own colour: warm light lands on it, it is not repainted warm.
- The camera holds, so the two frames stack as a before and after of one thing.
- Every highlight and shadow in the frame agrees with one named source, including the background's.
Pairs with
- Kept Among Its OwnHand it a photograph of one thing and it gathers three to five companions from the same material world around it — wood with wood, glass with glass — all lower, all behind, none crossing it. Two fields.
- Lit Across, Not AtHand it a photograph of a thing and it takes one macro shot of the part you name — lit from the side so the surface proves the one fact you would otherwise have to touch it to learn. Two fields.
- One Colour and a ShadowHand it a photograph of one thing and it takes everything away — no surface, no horizon, no props — leaving the object on one flat colour with one soft shadow under it. Two fields; the listing shot.