Film noir femme fatale with cigarette smoke

A tool-agnostic prompt pattern for a classic film noir portrait using cigarette smoke as a compositional and atmospheric element.

Black and white film noir portrait of a woman with cigarette smoke curling through venetian blind light

Prompt

A black and white film noir portrait of a woman in a 1940s setting, seated at a
small round table in a dimly lit bar. She wears a wide-brimmed hat angled to cast
a shadow across one eye. A single hard key light from the upper left creates deep
chiaroscuro across her face, leaving half in complete darkness. A thin trail of
cigarette smoke rises from her hand, curling upward through a shaft of light
coming through venetian blinds behind her. The smoke catches the light and becomes
the brightest element in the mid-ground. Tight composition, shot from slightly
below eye level. Film grain visible throughout, deep blacks with no crushed
shadows. Inspired by the cinematography of John Alton, classic Hollywood glamour.
Negative prompt 
color, saturated, bright, cheerful, modern clothing, digital look, smooth skin filter

Aspect ratio: 2:3

Tool-agnostic: adapt to your generator.

Why this works

Film noir is one of the most visually codified styles in cinema history, and this prompt exploits that by stacking recognizable genre signals.

Period anchoring — “1940s setting,” “wide-brimmed hat,” and “small round table in a dimly lit bar” lock the generator into a specific era and environment. Without period anchoring, noir prompts often drift into generic dark portraits.

Smoke as compositional bridge — The smoke trail is described not just as atmosphere but as a compositional element: it “rises from her hand, curling upward through a shaft of light.” This gives the generator a physical path to render, connecting the subject’s hand to the mid-ground light. Smoke described in motion is rendered far better than static “smoky atmosphere.”

Chiaroscuro through light placement — Specifying “hard key light from the upper left” with “half in complete darkness” is the foundational noir lighting setup. Adding venetian blind light as a secondary source creates the iconic striped shadow pattern without requiring the generator to interpret abstract style terms.

Camera angle as mood tool — “Shot from slightly below eye level” is a subtle but critical detail. Low angles in noir convey power and menace, and generators trained on film stills understand this framing convention.

Monochrome enforcement — Explicitly stating “black and white” and including “color” in the negative prompt prevents the common failure where generators add desaturated color instead of true monochrome.

What to change if it fails

  • Getting color bleed despite B&W specification? Add “pure monochrome, black and white film stock, no color” and strengthen the negative prompt with “color, tinted, sepia.”
  • Smoke not visible enough? Change to “thick plume of cigarette smoke brightly backlit, smoke clearly visible against the dark background.”
  • Venetian blind shadows not appearing? Be more literal: “horizontal stripes of light and shadow falling across her face and the wall behind her, cast by venetian blinds.”
  • Too modern-looking? Add “1940s film stock, vintage Hollywood cinematography, silver gelatin print quality” to reinforce the period.
  • Hat shadow hiding too much of the face? Adjust to “hat brim casting a shadow across her forehead, both eyes visible in the key light.”

Browse related

film noir smoke

ai-generated demonstration · created by imageprompt.com · takedown requests

Comments will be enabled once the site is deployed.