Qwen Image Edit is a beauty I don't fully understand....

I'll keep this post as short as I can.

For the past few days, I've been testing Qwen Image Edit and comparing its outputs to Nano Banana. Sometimes, I've gotten results on par with Nano Banana or better. It's never 100% consistent quality, but neither is NB. Qwen is extremely powerful, far more than I originally thought. But it's a weird conundrum, and I don't quite understand why.

When you use Qwen IE out of the box, the results can be moderate to decent. And yet, when you give it reference, it can generate quality to the same level of that reference. I'm talking super detailed/realistic work of all different types of styles. So it's like a really good copy-cat. And if you prompt it the right way, it can generate results on the level of some of the best models. And I'm talking without LoRAs. And it can even improve on that work.

So somewhere inside, Qwen IE has the ability to produce just about anything.

And yet, its general output seems mid without LoRAs. So, it CAN match the best models, it has the ability. But it needs "guidance" to get there.

I feel like Qwen is like this magic "black box" that maybe we don't really understand how big its potential is yet. Which raises a bigger question:

Are we tossing out too many models before we've really learned to maximize the most out of the ones we have?

Between LoRAs, model mixing, and refining, I'm seeing flexibility out of older Illustrious models to such an extent that I'm creating content that looks absolutely NOTHING like the models I'm using.

We're releasing finetuned versions of these models almost daily, but it could literally take years to get the most out of the ones we already have.

Now that I've finally gotten around to testing out Wan 2.2, I've been in a state of "mind blown" for the past 2 weeks. Pandora's @#$% box.

Anyway, back to the topic - Qwen IE? This is pretty much Nano-Banana at home. But unlimited.

I really want to see this model grow. It's one of the most useful open source tools we've gotten in the past two years. The potential I see here, this can permanently change creative pipelines and speed up production.

I just need to better understand it so I can maximize it.

https://redd.it/1onop3p
@rStableDiffusion

Voting is happening for the first edition of our open source AI art competition, The Arca Gidan Prize. Astonishing to see what people can do in a week w/ open models! If you have time, your attention/votes would be appreciated! Link below, trailer attached.

https://redd.it/1onpxvw
@rStableDiffusion

Will Stability ever make a comeback?

I know the family of SD3 models was really not what we had hoped for. But it seemed like they got a decent investment after that. And they've been making a lot of commercial deals (EA and UMG). Do you think they'll ever come back to the open-source space? Or are they just going to go full close and be corporate? Model providers at this point.

I know we have a lot better open models like flux and qwen but for me SDXL is still a GOAT of a model, and I find myself still using it for different specific tasks even though I can run the larger ones.

https://redd.it/1onkffi
@rStableDiffusion

Sprite generator | Generation of detailed sprites for full body | SDXL\Pony\IL\NoobAI

https://redd.it/1oo00tk
@rStableDiffusion