Top Light
Top lighting is illumination from directly above the subject, falling on forehead, nose bridge, and shoulders while the eye sockets and the underside of the chin go into shadow. The source is a ceiling, a rig, or a high practical, not a frontal beauty key.
Narrative function
Power sitting in a chair, or guilt: the head is a skull with a lid of light. Crime bosses, interrogations, and some night exteriors use overhead so the eyes recede.
The person is still human; the pupils must not emit. It is the wrong tool for glamour.
If you bring the source forward of the head you get butterfly. If you need a catchlight, add a tiny eye light rather than lowering the overhead until it becomes a frontal key.
How it works
Hang a lamp or use a ceiling practical directly above, flagged so it does not rake the nose as a frontal. Hardness can be hard (bare bulb) for a skull, or a bit softer (shaded pendant) for a diner.
Color is often tungsten, sometimes cool industrial. Keep exposure on the forehead, not in the sockets, unless you add a separate eye glint.
Prompt: A lamp directly above [Subject], light falling on forehead and shoulders, eye sockets in shadow, human eyes, no light emitting from the pupils.
When to use it
Use it for a figure of power in a chair, a diner pendant, a guilty face under a garage bulb. Do not use it as beauty lighting.
Compared with similar shots
Underlighting is the opposite direction, from below. Butterfly lighting is high but still in front of the face.
Low-key lighting is the ratio that often houses top light. Hair light is behind and above, not a downward key on the forehead.
Cameo may use a top pool but is about isolating the figure in void.
In film
The Godfather is the famous overhead office: forehead and hands, eyes in wells. The Batman (2022) uses overhead rain and practicals so faces sit under lids of light.
The sockets stay dark on purpose.
Prompt it
Put the lamp on the ceiling axis. Use: "A lamp directly above [Subject], light falling on forehead and shoulders, eye sockets in shadow, human eyes, no light emitting from the pupils." Forbid frontal beauty fill.
What usually goes wrong
The usual wrong cousin is butterfly or glowing eyes. The tell is an under-nose butterfly with open sockets, or pupils that shine like LEDs.
Fix it by moving the source truly overhead and keeping eyes as dark human surfaces with at most a tiny catch.
Questions
What is top light in film?
Light from directly above that hits forehead and shoulders and drops the eye sockets into shadow. It is a downward key, not a hair rim.
Top light vs butterfly lighting
Butterfly is high and in front, opening both eyes with a small nose shadow. Top light is overhead enough that the sockets hollow.
When should I use top light?
Use it for power, guilt, a pendant over a table, a boss in a chair. Skip it for glamour.
How do I prompt top light for AI image or video?
Place a lamp directly above. Light on forehead and shoulders, eye sockets in shadow, human eyes, no light from the pupils.
Melies can generate this Top Light
Melies is the AI filmmaking workspace. This Top Light opens with the lighting prompt loaded, so you generate the key, fill, and falloff instead of naming a mood.