Google Gemini’s image editing feature threatened Photoshop before getting overshadowed by this open-source model. I’m telling you all about Flux Kontext, where to get it, and what prompts I use.
I’ve become addicted to Flux Kontext. Flux is a family of generative flow-matching models that can generate new images from text prompts and edit existing images, developed by Black Forest Labs, based in Freiburg, Germany. Their model was used by X for its image generation feature.
What makes Flux Kontext revolutionary is its capacity to edit and merge existing images very quickly. It’s the perfect model not only for professional image manipulation and restoration, but also for indie app developers like myself.
Here are some wild examples:
Strengths and Limitations
Here are the important things I learned from my experiments with the model:
Strengths:
- Amazing at editing images (changing colorimetry, contrast, adding elements or backgrounds to paintings, restoring black and white photos, and copying styles)
- Perfect for image restoration, like enhancing photos that were too dark
- Can add or alter elements of pictures without changing their style, including backgrounds
Limitations:
- Struggles with complex Renaissance paintings due to too many details
- Cannot complete missing parts of pictures – for example, it wasn’t able to generate missing parts of paintings or mosaics. However, it can have some amazing results, like I experienced with the Pompeii Alexander Mosaic, especially from the Darius III side
- Sometimes it just doesn’t work and you don’t know why
Where to Use It
It’s fully available on Replicate. You need to create an account on Replicate.com, enter your credit card information, and go to the model page at https://replicate.com/black-forest-labs/flux-kontext-pro, or you can use the model via API. Each run costs about $0.04 per image for 5-4 seconds of generation.
Example Prompts
Prompt: Make it a modern Japanese anime style, be careful with the cape of the character, add a green dominant color to the picture, and add a green forest in the background with ancient Greek ruins and a very tall black tower with fire on its top, and make the sky dark and red
Prompt: Add a sunrise and an ancient Greek city in the background, and add a serpent on the ground in the right corner and the silhouette of an eagle in the sky.
Prompt: Restore an ancient Greek fresco depicting the mythological scene of the Rape of Persephone by Hades. The composition features Hades, with wild red hair, driving a chariot pulled by white horses as he abducts Persephone. She is shown struggling or reaching out, draped in flowing purple robes, while a female figure (possibly a companion or goddess) reacts in the background. Use authentic Hellenistic fresco style, with textured wall surface, weathered edges, and a faded but vibrant color palette dominated by ochres, reds, purples, and ivory tones. Keep the anatomical proportions and expressions true to the original. Goal: High-resolution restoration that evokes the original vibrancy while preserving historical accuracy. [As I mentioned, Flux-Kontext cannot complete/imagine missing parts of a picture, so heavily damaged pictures require you to come up with a very long prompt, which I generate with ChatGPT by providing the damaged picture and describing what it represents]
Prompt: Make the photo look like a 1990s American TV show style
Prompt: Make it look like a Renaissance painting, add a lion’s head hat on the head and a sword to the man on the left, and a turban/Persian hat to the man on the right, add ancient Greek ruins in the background.
Prompt: Make it look like a 1990s American movie style.
About My Alexander the Great App
Are you interested in bringing the ancient world to life but have zero time for it? And do you have an Android phone? Consider using my Alexander the Great app – it’s a top-tier application that lets you dialogue with ancient Greek texts. You won’t find a more accurate AI app, even compared to Wikipedia pages.
📲 Download it here! https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.alex2.philostone&referrer=utm_source%3Dwordpress%26utm_medium%3Darticle%26utm_campaign%3Dflux