Neon noir
Film noir shadow and mood lit by saturated neon: crushed blacks, magenta and teal rim light, haze, and a lot of night.
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What it is
Neon noir takes the grammar of 1940s film noir (low-key lighting, deep shadow, rain, moral murk, a lonely figure) and lights it with saturated colored practicals instead of a desk lamp through venetian blinds. The signature frame is one subject in near-darkness, rim-lit magenta on one side and teal on the other, with the light source visible in shot. Reference films: Drive, Only God Forgives, Collateral, Atomic Blonde, and Roger Deakins' work on Blade Runner 2049.
Use it for mood over information: album art, a film or event page, a hero image that needs to feel like 2am. It is mostly a lighting recipe, which makes it cheap to apply. Crush the blacks, keep midtones sparse, let two complementary hues do all the color work, add haze so the light has something to travel through.
Gotcha: neon noir is not the same as cyberpunk. Cyberpunk is a whole world with technology and decay; neon noir is a mood and a lighting scheme that works fine in present-day Los Angeles with no sci-fi at all. The other trap is fake glow: a blur layer dumped over a bright shape looks pasted on. The glow has to spill onto skin, wet ground, and the air.
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Light this like neon noir (Drive, Blade Runner 2049). Night, low-key lighting, crushed blacks, very few midtones. Two complementary practicals in frame: hot magenta or red on one side of the subject, teal or cyan on the other, both acting as rim light so the subject reads as a silhouette with glowing edges. Add atmospheric haze or light rain so beams are visible and the glow spills onto wet surfaces and skin. Slight lens bloom and fine film grain. Palette limited to black, magenta, teal, and one warm sodium accent. Composition sparse and lonely, wide negative space, no bright ambient fill.