Specifies camera and framing for product hero and detail shots - the 85-105mm focal band, sensor plane parallel to the product's dominant face, f/8-16 focus-stacked heroes vs f/2-4 single-element details, product filling 25-40 percent of frame, at most one prop - as HERO and DETAIL camera presets usable on a real set, in a 3D scene, or inside a prompt spec. Use when someone asks "what lens and aperture should I use for a product hero shot", "how should I frame our product hero image", "why does our product look distorted or toy-like in photos", "how much of the frame should the product fill". Do NOT use to plan the full campaign shot list - use product-campaign-shot-grammar instead; to phrase the camera spec for an image model, use photoreal-prompt-craft.
---
name: hero-shot-composition
description: Specifies camera and framing for product hero and detail shots - the 85-105mm focal band, sensor plane parallel to the product's dominant face, f/8-16 focus-stacked heroes vs f/2-4 single-element details, product filling 25-40 percent of frame, at most one prop - as HERO and DETAIL camera presets usable on a real set, in a 3D scene, or inside a prompt spec. Use when someone asks "what lens and aperture should I use for a product hero shot", "how should I frame our product hero image", "why does our product look distorted or toy-like in photos", "how much of the frame should the product fill". Do NOT use to plan the full campaign shot list - use product-campaign-shot-grammar instead; to phrase the camera spec for an image model, use photoreal-prompt-craft.
---
# hero-shot-composition
A wide lens bulges the near face and makes a thousand-dollar object look like a toy - the proportions stop matching the industrial designer's CAD intent, and no grade or retouch recovers a wrong focal length. This skill prevents shipping a hero that misrepresents the product's own geometry. It outputs a camera spec a photographer, a 3D artist, or a prompt writer can execute without taste calls.
## Operating procedure
Run the steps in order: intent, then optics, then framing, then crops. Focal length constrains camera distance, distance constrains framing, and crops must be planned at capture - a crop decided after the fact breaks the composition instead of trimming it.
### Step 1: Elicit intent and geometry
Gather exactly these inputs before choosing anything. If any input is a guess, label it a guess and move on.
1. **Charter**: the client's brand charter block - it decides the aspect set and the lockup side. Paste the charter block if one exists. If the client has a charter but the foundations pack is not installed, elicit the needed values directly and label them provisional. If no charter exists at all, halt and route to premium-design-foundations - never substitute worked-example values.
2. **Shot intent**: hero or detail.
3. **Geometry**: the product's dominant face, and its one signature element (crown, logo, stitching, port).
4. **Deliverable**: photo, 3D scene, or prompt spec. When no photographer or studio is engaged, the default execution path is photoreal-prompt-craft, so a picture still comes out the other end.
5. **Aspects and type**: target aspect ratios, and whether typography will sit in-frame (reserve negative space on one side if so).
Neutral defaults only: hero intent, 16:9 master with 4:5 and 1:1 crops planned. The focal band, focus split, and coverage band below are craft floors grounded in optics; the aspect set and lockup side are the client's charter decisions - enforce the charter's values, not house taste.