Cinematic Dark
Step out of the dark — lit by a single thin edge of light.
Upload a clear, well-lit close-up of your face.
What it does
A pure-black character-reveal portrait where your face emerges from shadow, lit only by a thin white rim.
When to use it
- A dramatic, mysterious profile picture for social or gaming platforms
- Character-reveal style key art for a personal brand or project
- A moody author, founder or artist portrait with a cinematic edge
- Striking cover art for a podcast, playlist or video channel
- A bold, low-key headshot that stands out from bright corporate photos
- Dark, poster-grade portraits for a team or cast lineup with a consistent look
When not to use it
- Bright, evenly-lit corporate or ID photos where the full face must be clear
- Group shots — only the single main person is kept and relit
- Full-body or wide environmental scenes; this is a tight head-and-shoulders crop
- Looks that need color lighting, smoke, neon or a detailed background
How it works
Upload a clear photo of yourself. The model locks onto your identity from the reference, then rebuilds the scene as a centered portrait on pure black, relighting you with a single thin white rim around the edges while keeping the face deep in shadow. It preserves your features, skin texture and outfit, adds cinematic contrast and subtle grain, and returns a poster-style image in seconds.
Updates
- v2Jun 3, 2026
Improvement applied
- v1Jun 3, 2026
Initial release
Specifications
- Approach
- Identity-preserving relight and reframe into a dark cinematic portrait.
- Stylization
- Pure-black background, low-key exposure, single razor-thin white rim light.
- What stays
- Face structure, proportions, eyes, hairstyle, age, skin texture and outfit.
- What changes
- Lighting, background, framing and overall mood — not your identity.
- Ideal source
- A sharp, well-focused photo of one person with the face clearly visible.
- Maximum input
- Up to 25 MP per image
- Supported formats
- JPEG, PNG, HEIC
- Output format
- PNG — deep blacks and clean rim highlights preserved without compression banding.
- Pricing
- 3 credits per image
Frequently asked questions
Will I still look like myself?
Yes. Identity fidelity is the priority — your facial structure, proportions, eyes, hairstyle, age and outfit are preserved. The model relights and reframes you; it does not beautify you into a different person.
Why is the face so dark?
That's the intended look. Cinematic Dark is a low-key, character-reveal style where the face stays mostly in shadow and only a thin rim light defines the edges. If you want your full face clearly lit, this isn't the right model.
Will it add smoke, neon or a background?
No. The background stays completely black with no gradients, textures, smoke or particles, and the lighting stays white and minimal. The drama comes purely from shadow and a single razor-thin rim light.
What kind of photo works best?
A sharp, well-lit photo of one person, framed from the shoulders up, with the face clearly visible and in focus. Avoid heavy existing shadows, sunglasses or busy group shots for the strongest result.
What about aspect ratio and cropping?
The output is a tight, centered head-and-shoulders portrait with clean negative space, framed like a poster. Very wide or full-body source photos will be cropped in to fit this composition.
Can I use the result commercially?
Yes — generated images on upsa are yours to use for personal and commercial purposes. We recommend you keep the consent and rights to the source photo as well, since the output preserves the identity in it.
How long are my photos stored?
Source uploads and generated results are stored for 48 and then automatically deleted from upsa's storage. We don't train any model on your photos.
AI results vary
Each generation uses a different random seed, so your result may not exactly match the example shown. If the first try doesn't fit what you had in mind, run it again — output differs noticeably between runs.
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