XXG Portrait Rebuild Light

English | 简体中文 | 日本語 | 한국어

xxg-portrait-rebuild-light is an image-edit skill for existing portraits. V2.1 separately controls physical light, exposure placement, color/style grade, capture-device response, broad skin tone, bounded reflection, and scale/focus-aware microdetail.

The skill changes the lighting without redrawing the person. It preserves identity, facial structure and proportions, natural slight asymmetry, expression, pose, camera view, and composition. It avoids plastic skin, grainy skin, dirty color variation, and fake depth made by exaggerating wrinkles.

Key features

• Provides texture-only fidelity recovery without changing source lighting, color, focus, depth of field, or scene content.
• Repairs plastic smoothness by separating clean broad tone, source-shaped highlights, and scale/focus-aware regional microdetail.
• Adds seven skin-finish profiles (P0–P6) for source-matched, satin-matte, soft-daylight, editorial, direct-flash, beauty, and available-light response.
• Adds E0–E7 exposure recipes that explicitly place highlight headroom, facial midtones, directional shadows, and black point.
• Adds G0–G8 color/style grades and D0–D8 capture profiles for full-frame digital, medium format, 35mm negative, CCD compact, point-and-shoot flash, smartphone, instant film, and disposable-camera response.
• Separates device response from optics: camera-style edits preserve viewpoint, perspective, crop, focal plane, and depth of field unless optical restyle is explicitly requested.
• Repairs weak backlighting, disconnected indoor window light, flat lighting, unintended crushed shadows, and highlights with no physical source.
• Supports soft window light, commercial soft light, Rembrandt lighting, cinematic low-key lighting, golden hour, dual-color neon, and diagonal hard light.
• Adds at most one physically coherent atmosphere effect: window shadow, tree shadow, background bokeh, sunset flare, subtle volumetric light, or a full-black backlit subject silhouette.
• Controls subject and background in layers: key light and exposure intent first, then fill, shadows, ambient light, and color temperature.
• Preserves identity, facial feature size and position, expression, pose, wardrobe, background structure, and source framing.
• Reduces the skin-detail target automatically when the face is small, without canceling the requested lighting change.
• Uses the current agent's own image-generation or image-editing capability by default; no separate API is required.
• If the current agent has no image-edit capability, or the edit misses the target, returns one complete compact image-edit prompt.
• Never uses Pillow, NumPy, OpenCV, ImageMagick, or temporary filter scripts to produce the delivered image.

Core method

The skill first makes a director-style lighting decision internally:

Scope → Key L → Exposure E → Fill/Shadow → Skin S/P → Light color T → Look G → Capture D → Atmosphere A

The prompt sent to the image model uses four compact lines, adding RENDER only for a requested grade or device response. Target length is 55–110 English words:

EDIT: Choose the smallest authorized scope; retain source identity, geometry, pose, camera view, optics, framing, and every unauthorized axis.
LIGHT: One L and E with explicit highlight, midtone, shadow, black-point, background, T, and optional A behavior.
RENDER: One G palette/curve plus one D capture response. Omit for G0 + D0.
SKIN: One scale-aware S plus one light-consistent P finish.
AVOID: Only two or three source-specific failures.

The skill does not pile identity audits, object inventories, repeated negatives, and several photographic styles into one prompt. That often causes constraints to cancel each other or produces an unchanged copy.

For skin-only requests, V2.1 forces L0 + E0 + T0 + G0 + D0 + A0. Tone correction changes only E/T/G; capture-style changes only G/D and a logically required E. Relighting changes L/E/T/A. Viewpoint, perspective, crop, focal plane, and depth of field stay source-matched unless the user explicitly requests optical-restyle.

A6 forces E6 silhouette exposure, moves the effective light behind the person, removes all fill and catchlights, and renders the subject interior black. L/T and any G/D treatment affect only the rear source and background; S/P are suppressed.

Recipes

Choose only:

one L light + one E exposure + one S skin scale + one P skin finish + one T light color + one G color/style grade + one D capture response + zero or one A atmosphere

Lighting L

Code	Purpose
L0	Match the source; repair only flat light, unexplained crushed shadows, abnormal highlights, and harsh transitions
L1	Natural backlight, highlight-priority by default; add fill only when explicitly requested
L2	Soft natural window light
L3	Large commercial soft light
L4	Outdoor skylight
L5	Indoor practical and mixed lighting
L6	Hard single-point light or direct sunlight
L7	Low-key diagonal narrow light beam
L8	Classic editorial Rembrandt lighting
L9	Cinematic low-key warm key / cool ambient light
L10	Golden-hour sunset side backlight
L11	Cyberpunk cyan/magenta dual-tone neon
L12	Clean, even commercial soft light

Exposure E

Code	Purpose
E0	Preserve source highlights, midtones, shadows, and black point
E1	Balanced natural exposure with clear midtones and directional shadows
E2	Protect a bright source/rim and let unlit planes follow available bounce
E3	Recover only blocked shadow information while controlling bright sources
E4	High-key exposure with textured whites and gentle facial modeling
E5	Low-key exposure with selected lit planes and a clean black point
E6	Full silhouette exposure; use only with A6
E7	Direct-flash subject exposure with rapid ambient falloff

Skin scale S

Code	Purpose
S0	Small face or wide shot; restore only clean skin tone and natural reflection
S1	Default for medium shots; low-contrast microtexture with original lip and eye-area detail
S2	High-resolution close-up; region-aware pores, fine vellus hair, and existing details

Skin finish P

Code	Purpose
P0	Preserve the exact source diffuse/specular response; default for texture-only edits
P1	Natural satin-matte balance with bounded key-facing highlights
P2	Soft-daylight luminous midtones and broad highlight roll-off
P3	Editorial satin response with controlled T-zone highlights
P4	Direct-flash response with compact separated highlights
P5	Clean beauty response without porcelain uniformity
P6	Available-light response with source focus falloff and no added grain or marks

Color temperature T

Code	Purpose
T0	Preserve the source white balance
T1	Neutral natural daylight
T2	Golden warm light with healthy neutral zones retained in the skin
T3	Warm key light with cool background ambience
T4	Cyan/magenta neon relationship
T5	Cool-neutral overcast or blue-hour light without a full-frame blue wash
T6	Warm tungsten practicals with distance-based color falloff
T7	Mixed daylight/practical balance with believable skin and neutral objects

Color and style grade G

Code	Purpose
G0	Preserve the source palette and curve
G1	Neutral editorial color with a restrained S-curve
G2	Clean commercial color, accurate whites, bright midtones
G3	Muted documentary environment with protected skin chroma
G4	Warm lit skin with controlled cool background/shadow ambience
G5	Pastel editorial midtones and compressed highlights
G6	Tonal monochrome with separated skin, hair, clothing, and background
G7	Restrained 1970s print response; grain remains opt-in
G8	Clean 1990s/Y2K flash color and contrast

Capture response D

Code	Purpose
D0	Preserve source capture response
D1	Modern full-frame digital: clean detail and smooth highlight roll-off
D2	Medium-format digital: smooth tonal steps and restrained sharpening
D3	35mm color negative: gentle highlight compression and softer microcontrast
D4	Compact CCD/digicam: direct crisp tone with modest highlight headroom
D5	Point-and-shoot direct flash; pair with L6 + E7
D6	Smartphone computational: broad range without HDR halos or crunchy edges
D7	Instant-film tone; border and grain remain opt-in
D8	Disposable-camera response; exposure defects and grain remain opt-in

Atmosphere A

Code	Purpose
A0	Add no atmosphere effect
A1	Soft window shadow
A2	Sparse natural tree shadow
A3	Soft bokeh restricted to the defocused background
A4	Gentle lens flare aligned with the sunset direction
A5	Very subtle volumetric light with sparse dust motes
A6	Force the entire backlit subject to a clean black silhouette; no face, skin, hair, or clothing detail remains visible inside

See Lighting, skin, color-temperature, and atmosphere recipes for detailed prompt clauses.

Image capabilities by agent

Agent	Default route
Codex	Read the $imagegen rules, discover the actual tool in ALL_TOOLS, prefer tools.image_gen__imagegen, and pass source images through referenced_image_paths
Claude Code	Use the image-generation or image-editing capability installed or built into the current environment
OpenClaw	Use the imagegen skill or native image action enabled for the current agent
Other agents	Use an equivalent image-edit capability explicitly exposed by the tool registry

In Codex, the skill never guesses tools.image_gen or input_image. It returns a prompt handoff only after tool discovery confirms that no compatible image capability exists. If the real image tool fails, produces an almost unchanged image, changes identity, or dirties the skin, the skill also returns a short copy-ready prompt.

Requirements

• An agent that supports directory-based SKILL.md skills.
• An image-generation or image-editing capability in the current agent.
• Python 3.9 or newer, used only for read-only aspect-ratio, mask, and region checks.
• Pillow 9.1 or newer, used only for read-only analysis and never to create the final image.

Install the read-only script dependencies:

python3 -m pip install -r ./xxg-portrait-rebuild-light/requirements.txt

Install in Codex

Personal skill:

mkdir -p ~/.codex/skills
cp -R ./xxg-portrait-rebuild-light ~/.codex/skills/

Shared Agent Skills directory:

mkdir -p ~/.agents/skills
cp -R ./xxg-portrait-rebuild-light ~/.agents/skills/

For a project-level install, place it in .agents/skills/ at the project root. Invoke it explicitly with $xxg-portrait-rebuild-light.

Install in Claude Code

Personal install:

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cp -R ./xxg-portrait-rebuild-light ~/.claude/skills/

Project install:

mkdir -p .claude/skills
cp -R ./xxg-portrait-rebuild-light .claude/skills/

Invoke it with /xxg-portrait-rebuild-light.

Install in OpenClaw

Local install:

openclaw skills install ./xxg-portrait-rebuild-light \
  --as xxg-portrait-rebuild-light

Shared install:

openclaw skills install ./xxg-portrait-rebuild-light \
  --as xxg-portrait-rebuild-light \
  --global

You can also copy the complete directory into the current agent workspace's skills/ directory or the shared ~/.openclaw/skills/ directory.

Install in other agents

Copy the complete xxg-portrait-rebuild-light/ directory into the agent's personal or project skill root. Preserve the relative structure of SKILL.md, requirements.txt, references/, scripts/, and agents/, then reload the skill list.

Usage examples

Tone and exposure correction

Use $xxg-portrait-rebuild-light to edit this portrait with L0 + E1 + S1 + P0 + T7 + G1 + D0 + A0.
Keep the existing light direction. Protect bright-area shape, place facial midtones clearly, open only blocked shadows, and retain a stable black point. Neutralize the unwanted cast while preserving skin hue, white objects, wardrobe color, viewpoint, focal plane, depth of field, and scene content.

Smartphone capture response

Use $xxg-portrait-rebuild-light to edit this portrait with L0 + E1 + S1 + P1 + T0 + G0 + D6 + A0.
Preserve the physical light and optics. Use broad usable dynamic range, neutral skin color, restrained local tone mapping, and controlled edge sharpening; keep bright sources shaped and shadows directional, without changing crop, focal plane, or depth of field.

Classic fashion editorial

Use $xxg-portrait-rebuild-light to edit this portrait with L8 + E1 + S2 + P3 + T1 + G1 + D2 + A0.
A large soft key from the upper front-side creates restrained Rembrandt lighting; subtle fill preserves the eye socket, one cheek falls into a deep soft shadow, and the eyes receive one source-consistent catchlight. Keep the skin clean and healthy with low-contrast photographic microtexture.

Cinematic low-key warm/cool

Use $xxg-portrait-rebuild-light to edit this portrait with L9 + E5 + S1 + P3 + T3 + G4 + D1 + A5.
A warm side key shapes selected illuminated planes under explicit low-key exposure with no frontal fill. Keep cool color only in the background and rim, with extremely subtle source-aligned haze; illuminated skin remains chromatically clean and facial lines are not used for sculpting.

Golden-hour backlight

Use $xxg-portrait-rebuild-light to edit this portrait with L10 + E2 + S1 + P2 + T2 + G1 + D1 + A4.
Warm sunset light from the side-rear outlines the hair and shoulders. Expose for the sunset highlights with no frontal fill; let the unlit side of the face fall naturally into a partial silhouette, allow slight bloom on lit edges, and give the background matching oblique warm light and long shadows.

Cyberpunk neon

Use $xxg-portrait-rebuild-light to edit this night portrait with L11 + E5 + S1 + P6 + T4 + G4 + D1 + A3.
Separate the cyan rim light clearly from the magenta key while preserving a natural skin-tone zone in the center of the face. Keep bokeh only in the defocused background, never over the eyes or skin.

Full-black backlit silhouette

Use $xxg-portrait-rebuild-light to edit this portrait with L10 + E6 + S1 + P0 + T2 + G0 + D0 + A6.
Place the effective light behind the person and expose for the bright background. Remove all frontal and side fill, catchlights, and internal subject illumination. Render the face, skin, hair, clothing, and body as one clean continuous black silhouette while preserving the original outer contour, proportions, pose, camera view, and composition.

Soft window light with window shadow

Use $xxg-portrait-rebuild-light to edit this indoor portrait with L2 + E1 + S1 + P2 + T1 + G0 + D0 + A1.
Soft window light from the upper-left front creates a broad, gradual left-to-right falloff; faint room fill preserves the shadow side. One low-contrast window shadow continues across the person and adjacent wall and must not look pasted on.

Portrait with tree shadows

Use $xxg-portrait-rebuild-light to edit this outdoor portrait with L4 + E1 + S1 + P2 + T1 + G0 + D0 + A2.
Broad skylight illuminates the person. Sparse tree shadows break softly across facial and clothing curvature, may cross parts of the eyes and cheeks where physically plausible, and continue into the background in the same direction with source-consistent color and smooth transitions.

Output standard

• The target key light, light-to-shadow relationship, or atmosphere effect is immediately visible at normal viewing size.
• The subject remains the same person; facial features are neither beautified nor made artificially symmetrical.
• Subject, clothing, and background obey the same light sources.
• Shadow depth, highlight roll-off, and silhouette strength follow the selected exposure intent instead of flattening the scene to keep everything visible.
• E clearly controls highlight headroom, subject midtones, directional shadows, and black point; G/D produce one coherent palette and capture response without unauthorized optical change.
• Source complexion remains clean and continuous, with bounded source-shaped highlights and regional detail limited by scale, focus, and illumination.
• Grain, added marks, random color variation, global sharpening, and darker facial lines are never used to imitate realism.
• Window shadows, tree shadows, bokeh, sunset flare, and light beams have a plausible source and landing area.
• With A6, the complete subject interior is clean black with no facial, skin, hair, clothing, or catchlight detail; identity continuity is judged from the preserved outer contour, proportions, pose, and framing.
• Preserve composition, orientation, aspect ratio, and the subject's share of the frame. Proportional downscaling to an image model's maximum resolution is allowed; exact source pixel dimensions are not required.

Related files

• Main skill rules
• Compact prompt compiler
• Lighting, skin, color-temperature, and atmosphere recipes
• Tone, exposure, color/style, device, and optics recipes
• Backend capability notes
• Python dependencies
• Contributing guide
• Changelog

License

Licensed under the MIT License.