Overcoming the “AI Look”: Why Lighting Cues are Your Secret Weapon

By Arab Seed News Editorial Team

Have you ever noticed how AI video sometimes feels “too perfect”? It’s too smooth, too bright, and it lacks that gritty, cinematic feeling we love in movies. My transition from traditional cinematography to AI-led production was a steep learning curve because I had to learn how to “de-perfect” the machine’s output.

The problem isn’t the AI; it’s the lack of Cinematic Vocabulary in the prompts. To get a high-quality result, you need to speak to the AI like a Director of Photography (DP). Instead of saying “a dark room,” you should prompt for “Low-key lighting with a 4:1 contrast ratio and Rembrandt light on the subject.”

Use “Negative Prompts” to remove unwanted artifacts. Always specify the lens type (e.g., “shot on 35mm anamorphic”) to force the AI to simulate realistic optical distortion. This immediately separates your content from the amateur “dreamy” AI look that AdSense filters might flag as low-value.