Mural Gaze

Use the uploaded user photo as the **only source of the final subject’s identity**. Preserve that person’s recognizable identity exactly: facial structure, proportions, face shape, forehead, eyebrows, natural eye shape, nose, lips, jawline, cheeks, chin, skin tone, natural skin texture, hairline, and distinctive facial characteristics. Do not copy or blend the reference subject’s identity, facial features, ethnicity, age, or appearance into the user’s identity. Do not beautify, redesign, masculinize, feminize, or otherwise reinterpret the user’s face. The user’s original facial expression, gaze, and head pose are irrelevant and must be replaced by those described below.
Recreate the reference image as closely as possible as a dramatic, photorealistic vertical cinematic photograph. The scene is a dark, weathered interior with a large distressed charcoal-black/gray wall or mural occupying the background. In the foreground, a young adult subject stands with their back mostly toward the camera, positioned in the lower-left/center portion of the frame, looking upward toward an enormous painted photographic portrait of themselves covering the wall on the right and upper portion of the composition. The final subject must retain the user’s identity while reproducing this exact visual relationship between the person and the monumental portrait.
BODY POSE: Show the user’s subject from approximately mid-thigh/upper legs upward, standing naturally but slightly angled toward the mural. Their back and left shoulder are predominantly visible to camera; the torso faces the wall at a slight diagonal. The head is turned upward and toward the large portrait, with the neck naturally extended enough to communicate that they are looking at the portrait. Both arms hang naturally at the sides. One hand is visible near the lower-right portion of the body, relaxed with naturally separated fingers. Maintain realistic anatomy, proportions, posture, and shoulder positioning.
CLOTHING: Dress the foreground subject in a loose long-sleeve black/charcoal-and-gray plaid/checkered shirt with a casual open collar and rolled or pushed-up sleeves around the forearms, paired with dark black/charcoal trousers or jeans. Preserve realistic fabric folds, stitching, plaid geometry, and slightly worn casual texture. Do not introduce logos or bright colors.
REFERENCE EXPRESSION AND GAZE: The monumental portrait on the wall has a serious, quiet, emotionally intense expression with a subtle mysterious/somber mood, not smiling. The eyes are open and directed toward the foreground person/camera area, creating a strong sense of eye contact. Reconstruct this expression using the user’s identity: relaxed but serious eyes, slightly focused gaze, naturally composed eyebrows, closed lips with a subtle tension and no smile. The head of the portrait is turned slightly toward the viewer, approximately a three-quarter orientation, with the chin subtly lowered. The foreground subject’s gaze must be directed upward toward the mural portrait, not toward the camera. Do not preserve any smile, expression, or gaze from the uploaded user photo.
MONUMENTAL PORTRAIT: The wall contains a huge hyper-realistic painted/photographic portrait of the same user, occupying most of the right two-thirds and extending from the upper-middle of the image down toward the bottom edge. The portrait is shown as a close-up/upper-body composition, with the face dominating the upper-right region. Recreate the portrait’s head position, three-quarter facial orientation, eye direction, serious expression, and subtle emotional intensity while preserving only the user’s identity. The portrait has dark, slightly messy/wet-looking hair with loose strands framing the face, adapted naturally to the user’s own hair characteristics without changing identity. Include detailed natural skin texture, pores, subtle imperfections, and realistic tonal variation.
STYLE OF THE MURAL PORTRAIT: The enormous portrait should look integrated into an old, distressed wall painting rather than like a clean modern poster. Its surface has scratches, vertical streaks, chipped areas, grime, cracks, peeling texture, and uneven pigment. Thin dark vertical lines and weathered marks pass across portions of the portrait and background, creating an aged industrial aesthetic. The portrait remains highly recognizable and detailed beneath the weathering.
WARDROBE/ACCESSORIES OF THE MURAL SUBJECT: Reproduce the reference styling in a gender-appropriate way that does not alter the user’s identity. The mural subject wears a dark, semi-transparent black garment draped over the shoulders, with visible shoulder and upper-back contours. Include ornate traditional dangling earrings and a delicate necklace only if naturally compatible with the user’s presentation; these accessories belong to the styling, not the identity. If jewelry conflicts with the user’s gender presentation, retain the visual impression through subtle dark ornamental accessories without changing who the user is.
COMPOSITION: Strictly preserve the reference composition: vertical 9:16-ish framing, approximately 736×1308 proportions. The foreground person occupies roughly the lower-left 45–50% of the frame, while the monumental portrait dominates the right side. The top of the mural portrait’s head sits around the upper-right quadrant. Leave relatively little empty space between the foreground subject and the portrait. The foreground figure partially overlaps the mural, emphasizing scale and visual connection. The mural extends beyond the right and bottom edges of the frame. Do not center the person or turn this into a conventional portrait photograph.
CAMERA: Eye-level to slightly elevated camera position behind and slightly to the left of the foreground subject, approximately a medium-full shot. Use a natural perspective resembling a 45–55mm full-frame lens, with minimal wide-angle distortion. Camera is several feet behind the subject, keeping the entire upper body and much of the legs visible while allowing the giant mural face to remain enormous in frame. Maintain the same spatial depth and scale relationship between the foreground person and the mural.
LIGHTING: Low-key, moody cinematic lighting with predominantly dim neutral charcoal/black surroundings and a subtle warm brown/orange illumination entering from the upper-left side. Soft directional light gently catches the foreground shirt and edges of the body while the mural portrait has slightly warmer, earthy skin tones. Deep shadows remain throughout the environment. Preserve realistic falloff, subdued highlights, and atmospheric contrast; avoid studio lighting, neon colors, excessive HDR, or glossy artificial skin.
COLOR AND TEXTURE: Dominant palette of charcoal black, graphite gray, muted brown, dusty beige, and warm natural skin tones. Strongly desaturated overall except for restrained warm skin and reddish-brown lip tones. Emphasize gritty wall texture, dust, scratches, paint erosion, moisture-like streaks, and aged concrete/plaster. Photorealistic skin and fabric texture should coexist with the surreal scale of the giant wall portrait.
MOOD: Intimate, mysterious, melancholic, reflective, and cinematic—the foreground person appears quietly absorbed in looking at the monumental portrait. The image should feel like a still from an atmospheric art film, with emotional tension created through scale, eye contact, darkness, and the weathered environment.
DEPTH AND DETAIL: Keep both the foreground person and the giant portrait sufficiently sharp to preserve their visual relationship, with subtle depth separation rather than heavy background blur. Fine facial detail, realistic hair strands, fabric texture, wall cracks, scratches, and pigment deterioration should remain visible. Add natural photographic grain and restrained cinematic contrast.
ABSOLUTE PRIORITY: USER PHOTO = WHO THE PERSON IS. REFERENCE = HOW THE person is positioned, posed, looking, expressing emotion, styled, illuminated, and composed. Preserve the user’s identity exactly while reconstructing the reference scene, monumental mural relationship, expression, gaze direction, head position, body posture, camera perspective, framing, clothing, environment, lighting, texture, and mood. Do not create a generic person or substitute the reference subject’s face. The final result must unmistakably retain the uploaded user’s identity while matching the reference composition as closely as possible.

Copy the complete prompt and use your own reference photos where requested.