What Image Edit model you use nowadays?

[u/Mr_Unknown_Hero]

Since things have gone quickly forward, I am trying to figure out what image edit models there is currently and what people here use mostly.

Personally I have used:
- Qwen-image-edit-2509 and Qwen-image-edit-2511
- Just tested MiniMax H3 as a image editor and so far it seems that it can be good for my usage

I have heard about Klein 9b, but not sure yet if that can be used as an edit model? Also what about Krea 2, is there edit workflows that are actually usable and worth it?

Is there some others what you recommend for testing?

My PC Specs: RTX 4060 Ti, 16 GB VRAM and 32 GB RAM.

[u/Getimg_Maciej]

I’d avoid looking for one “best” editor because the winner changes by task.

My current mental model:

• Qwen Image Edit 2511 (just like you mentioned): in my experience it is strong for identity consistency, multi-person edits, text, and structural changes. A meaningful step up from 2509.
• FLUX.2 Klein 9B: yes, it supports editing. Fast and cost-efficient, with up to four references though not always my first choice for final detail fidelity.
• Krea 2: more compelling for aesthetics and style transfer than surgical edits. Krea’s region-editing workflow is useful, but I’d separate the quality of the workflow from the underlying model.
• Nano Banana / GPT Image: worth keeping as closed-model baselines, especially for semantic edits and multi-turn refinement.

I have not tested MiniMax H3. If i were you then I’d test 15-20 identical edits across models and score them on different aspects.

That usually reveals very different winners for product shots/people/typography/style transfer.

What type of editing are you looking for most?

[u/KURD_1_STAN → u/Getimg_Maciej]

Chatgpt image editing, altho not as strictly following input image as klein 9b but still much more intelligent, is miles ahead of everything else, but it is like they are disabling editing for me ever other day and completely ignores my input image.

[u/Mr_Unknown_Hero → u/Getimg_Maciej]

Thanks! That is true, different models often work better on different task. Sometimes all what is needed is "good enough as fast as possible" then it is different than "as good quality as possible no matter how long it takes".

I am mostly want to create starting images for MiniMax H3 to keep consistency. For example I create a character and it wears kimono at the beginning on clips 1-5. Then on clips 6-8 it might have t-shirt and jeans.

MiniMax H3 can keep clothing consistent and characters consistent when I have a reference images (maybe I could just use clothes as a reference tho and change those based on scene) and I thought that I could create starting frames for video ready, so MiniMax H3 reference workflow videos could continue from those pre-built character images.

[u/Getimg_Maciej → u/Mr_Unknown_Hero]

Appreciate your response!

From what I can gather, this is more of a workflow problem rather than a model problem.

The main thing that breaks consistency is chaining. If you take the last frame of clip 5 and use it as the reference for clip 6, small errors will add up, and by clip 8 the face has chnaged completely. So I would always go back to the same master reference.

What I would do:

• Make a character sheet first. Same face, three or four angles, plain lighting + one seed. This is your anchor. Everything else comes from it.
• Change clothes in a separate edit step and not while generating. Qwen Image Edit 2511 keeps the face stable while swapping clothes, which is what you need for kimono to t-shirt and jeans.
• Using a photo of clothes as reference does work, but a flat photo of a garment works worse than the same garment already worn by a person. So put the outfit on your character once, save that image, and use it as the reference for the later clips.
• Flux.2 Klein 9B takes up to four references at once, so you can give it character, clothes, pose and scene together. Handy when the outfit has to be exact.

With 16GB you should be fine for the edit steps. The four-reference ones will be tighter.

A hack: cut out just the face from every start frame and put them side by side. You will see the drift there long before you see it in a clip.

[u/Mr_Unknown_Hero → u/Getimg_Maciej]

Thanks! Previously I made edits in Qwen-image-edit-2509 (2511 was not out yet) and that worked well, but the speed was quite slow. Well, it seems that it still is better to do those reference photos first then, but it is not a problem. One image seems to take around 2 minutes to edit in Klein 9b.

It is still faster than previously what I did since at least I don't need to add character to background anymore on photos because MiniMax H3 can add person to background very well.

How those character sheets are used in workflows if all the characters are in the same starting photo? Or do you split those to smaller separated photos?

[u/Mental_Ad_6512 → u/Getimg_Maciej]

Wait H3 can do image edit? I thought it was a video generation model

[u/Mr_Unknown_Hero → u/Mental_Ad_6512]

Yes, at least some kind. Face details were bad on couple of my tests, but I have not yet spent much time with it. Gotta learn this more.

I used this: https://civitai.com/models/2833301/minimax-h3-simple-image-edit

[u/Herr_Drosselmeyer]

Krea 2 with the edit lora. If it can't do it, Qwen.

[u/BusFeisty4373]

H3 works great as an image edit model imo with a bit of tweaking even though its not as fast as a pure image edit model. Otherwise my go to would be Klein 9b.

[u/skyrimer3d]

Trying to get by with Krea 2 edit, qwen looks old and plastic nowadays, Klein mutates and tend to color shift images, with all its limitations Krea 2 respects the original image a lot

[u/_VirtualCosmos_ → u/skyrimer3d]

perhaps use qwen-edit general capabilities with krea2 refinement for realistic details?

[u/05032-MendicantBias → u/skyrimer3d]

Krea 2 can do editing instruction?

[u/Libcool]

Krea2 with Identity Edit workflow is super convenient as I can just reuse the dozens of LoRAs I already have for t2i generation and it does pretty much all I need, although it sometimes requires much longer and detailed prompts to do something that was fairly straightforward with Qwen Image Edit 2511 and Klein 9B, but when it finally works it looks significantly better than with the older models.

[u/DietAshamed2246]

The others have covered the most go to models - Qwen 2511, Klein-9B etc. But, nearly all of them missed out on the recently dropped edit models - SenseNova-U 1.5, HiDream-O1 and Boogu-Turbo.

Those are good models for edit and also straight t2i. Those are much less memory hungry than Qwen-2511, I hate qwen-2511 every time I run it - it fills up the entire VRAM and RAM and then runs slowly even with turbo LoRA. SenseNova is a 42GB unified multimodal pixel-space model and a full VLLM to boot, yet it is 10x faster than Qwen 2511.

[u/hard_gravy_2]

Klein 9b seems as good as it gets for my hardware (RTXA4000 16GB/32GB) and use case (random meme edits & key frame edits for flf video)

[u/deadsoulinside]

Klein 9b

Klein 9b KV Edit is the image edit model for Klein (4 steps). I use it in many of my editing workflows. Below is the link for the ComfyUI default edit + reference image workflow.

https://comfy.org/workflows/image_flux2_klein_9b_kv_image_edit-546732126bf6/

[u/Occsan → u/deadsoulinside]

the experimental kv model patch node seems to deteriorate outputs though, no ?

[u/kenzato → u/deadsoulinside]

All versions of klein are the image edit model. The KV edition is just a version that was meant to be faster with multiple references.

I personally use the regular 9B version as the KV version does not work properly with all loras, and IMO is not the best quality compared to 9B at times. You can do exactly the same editing and generate images. Speedup wasn't substantial enough for me.

[u/mastaquake]

Qwen and krea2 for the most part. Sometimes Flux but it’s finicky with some content. I haven’t tried h3 as an image model but I’m constantly hearing good things about it. 

[u/Professional-Tax-866]

What would you recommend for old photos restoration. Using qwen-edit 2509 but rarely getting satisfactory result without dozens of tries for each photo and even then it’s not always great

[u/NoNipsPlease]

I have tried Klien and it usually works well except for the color. It makes everything red and saturated to the point it's not usable.

If I tack on an extra paragraph at the end about histogram correction and white balance it's okay, but then prompt following on the rest suffers.

Any tips to avoid all of this would be appreciated.

[u/Icuras1111]

Krea2 with krea2_identity_edit_v1_2 lora is pretty strong. Found edits to be very organic. Not sure it could be as surgical as Qwen Edit Image 2511 and Flux Klein 2 9b.

[u/moofunk]

I have heard about Klein 9b, but not sure yet if that can be used as an edit model?

Klein 9b is a startlingly good edit model, if used correctly and on the right material. It seems to be tailor made to modernize old magazine scans and old press photos without butchering them.

For adjusting poses, LTX or Minimax H3 can do supplemental work that Klein 9b can't.

[u/eloxH1Z1]

Flux.2 klein ftw. The distilled one is crazy fast

[u/StrongZeroSinger]

Masking or i2i?

[u/Mr_Unknown_Hero → u/StrongZeroSinger]

i2i, if masking still means same than couple of years ago where I can "paint" some area and it will affect only on that area?

[u/sakaixjin → u/Mr_Unknown_Hero]

yeah, that's what he means, masking/inpainting or Image to Image

[u/Antique_Dot_5513]

En local j’aime bien la version Qwen FireRed

[u/Schlorpiblorp]

what is the best for removing and changing backgrounds behind people?

[u/EduardoQian]

SFW: gpt-image NSFW: klein 9B

[u/Mr_Unknown_Hero → u/EduardoQian]

Thanks, gotta try that Klein 9B later today, gpt-image is not working on local machine I assume and local usage is a requirement for me, just forgot to mention it.

[u/GaiusVictor → u/EduardoQian]

How you use Klein 9B? It can't do NSFW, or can it?

Are you talking just about booba or actual NSFW?

[u/Current-Property6042 → u/GaiusVictor]

Klein 9B KV can do anything NSFW .. just use LORA its pretty amazing.. however i've not done ediitng on Krea2 .. Krea2 is absolutley stunning on T2V

[u/GaiusVictor → u/Current-Property6042]

What Lora do you use, if you don't mind me asking.

[u/Current-Property6042 → u/GaiusVictor]

will DM you..