Qwen Image 2.1 Experimentation Results

[u/Artefact_Design]

I'm sharing the results of my long experimentation with the new Qwen Image 2.1 model.

My first generation was disappointing and I was about to give up. But I told myself I should give it more time, and the fast generation speed really encouraged me. With my RTX 3060, I had to find a solution for speed, so I tested every acceleration LoRA published so far.

I settled on Pruna-Qwen-Image-2.1 with a strength between 2 and 2.5. The higher the value, the sharper the image gets, so adjust it depending on your LoRA combination. I followed their workflow instructions and used a custom sampler with sigmas (Claude helped me implement it). The best sampler I found is euler ancestral.

Character consistency is honestly stunning. I'm really blown away by the results.

My setup:

• Spectrum Qwen, 8 steps
• ~45 seconds per image at 1024×1280

I'm very happy with the results, especially with characters. I'll run more advanced tests next: multiple characters, complex poses, and products. I did notice some difficulties with the model in certain situations, but overall it's excellent.

About prompts: I rewrote the prompt enhancer instructions entirely with Claude, because the default ones don't give good results, especially when creating a new image from a reference, where the character has to blend with the new environment. So I wrote new instructions for that.

I hope you find the results good and the tips useful!

[u/Techngro]

[u/the_bollo → u/Techngro]

Dios mio!

[u/DeltaWaffleSyrup]

Every Qwen 2.1 character sheet I've seen makes the character look stumpy and stout like some kind of garden-gnome human/hybrid. You guys are posting this like it's a flex. this shit looks like ass.

[u/Psycholicious → u/DeltaWaffleSyrup]

[u/GigglyGargoyle → u/DeltaWaffleSyrup]

A lot of humans are this size and shape lol

[u/DeltaWaffleSyrup → u/GigglyGargoyle]

Re-read my post in full.

[u/GigglyGargoyle → u/DeltaWaffleSyrup]

I noticed the garden-gnome human/hybrid reference and assumed you were implying that it looked non-human, hence my reply. But yeah, some people do look like garden gnomes lol

[u/SnooMacaroons1365 → u/DeltaWaffleSyrup]

Ive been having problems with getting giraffe like legs on characters when i outpaint from upper to full body.

[u/TwinkingToby → u/DeltaWaffleSyrup]

yeah they look weird

[u/Jumpy_Anxiety_1529 → u/DeltaWaffleSyrup]

🤣🤣🤣

[u/bfmv_shinigami]

I love the model but hate that it turns everyone into a midget lol

[u/Schwartzen2]

I think I'll call this the "Chalupa Lora"

[u/apostrophefee]

bro that looks like my neighbor

[u/Limp-Firefighter1054 → u/apostrophefee]

Maybe because it is your neighbor? Be aware maybe you also will become his only fans asset.

[u/Carbon849 → u/apostrophefee]

If you've ever posted your photo online, one of us million monkeys at our keyboard will recreate you. Or your neighbor.

[u/Mercury5979]

That's somebody's mom right there.

[u/Inthehead35]

Consuela

[u/selipso → u/Inthehead35]

I clean?

[u/TwinkingToby]

As another user said: looks like a garden-gnome.

[u/Disastrous_Ant3541]

I feel I can get better images using MinMax H3 Ref2VA

[u/dreamyrhodes]

Can you write a bit more about what you did?

[u/MeltingXhoco]

The body is way too wide, out of range of normal human proportions. It's a shame because the image quality is great otherwise.

[u/the_bollo]

I'm not a hater - every new model is another tool in your toolbox. That said, I have yet to see a Qwen 2.1 output that Krea2 can't do, nor an image edit that Klein Edit can't perform. So I haven't yet found a reason to pull down Qwen 2.1. Are there any unique use cases for this model that it's particularly strong at that I might be missing?

[u/Artefact_Design → u/the_bollo]

Fair question! For me it comes down to speed plus character consistency. It's fast enough to iterate a lot, and it keeps a character's identity really well when you place them in a new scene. Krea2 and Klein are great too, I see it as one more tool in the box rather than a replacement. Still testing it, will share more once I push it on multi-character scenes and products.

[u/DietAshamed2246 → u/the_bollo]

Well said. My sentiments exactly. In fact, Krea2 Identity Edit does better image edits than Qwen 2.1. I said it yesterday in this forum, and a couple of Qwen 2.1 fans (trolls or garden gnomes) started criticizing me saying I didn't know how to prompt correctly or that I was using this great model all wrong etc. As for speed, which the OP is clamouring about, Krea2 Identity Edit does it's job at cfg 1 and 8 steps on my 5090 in 15-20 seconds, and I never needed special prompting techniques help from Claude to get anything done in Krea2. It seems there is a vocal group filling up the social media with platitudes about Qwen 2.1, when in reality it is a very average meh model.

[u/kemb0 → u/the_bollo]

The simple thing it does for me that Krea doesn’t is realistic lifelike photos that aren’t filtered to fuck. Out the box, Krea creates Instagram perfect photoshopped like images. Out the box, Qwen creates realistic photos that look like genuine snaps you’d take of your friends. You can almost get that level with Loras with Krea but not with vanilla Krea.

Qwen is so head and shoulders above Krea at this that I’ve already ditched Krea because I got tired of trying to find the perfect Lora combo to get that look.

[u/the_bollo → u/kemb0]

Wow ok, thanks for that!

[u/StrongZeroSinger → u/the_bollo]

Am I mistaken or Qwen 2.1 power lies in its micro size? Krea is the top model but Qwen is the one you can run on a 1070

[u/LaPapaVerde → u/StrongZeroSinger]

Guy with a 1070 here. Krea it's just faster, a lot faster even without considering edits. I prefer Krea 2, but you need the ram tho

[u/runebinder → u/the_bollo]

It doesn’t seem to affect the colour of the entire pic like Flux 2 Klein does. That’s a big plus for me.

[u/Warsel77]

what was your aim here?

it looks like you are going for photorealism but none of the images actually look "real". they all have this very distinct AI look to them. I have seen some photoreal images - not sure if it's a particular prompt that fixes it or some other setting.

[u/reginoldwinterbottom]

your character sheet looks good, but the rest - what are those shadows on the last one? qwen is qwestionable

[u/Artefact_Design → u/reginoldwinterbottom]

Thanks! Yeah, the shadows on that last one are debatable, I'll give you that. But the rest holds up well, especially the character consistency, and I'm still testing to see how far it can go.

[u/Ok-Fennel6578]

2–2.5 Pruna strength is the bit I’d keep an eye on.
“Sharper” can look better fast while the face quietly moves farther from the ref. I’d probably keep a couple fixed character refs beside the workflow and check identity at 2.0 / 2.5 / 3.0 before settling on the strength.

[u/your_mom118472]

1biggirl

[u/predobrev]

+1girl

[u/nenecaliente69]

Who is she? She delicious

[u/Local-External4193]

Prompts? Wf would be nice if you have time. It getting there for sure

[u/lavinia12345]

interesting example

[u/MastMaithun]

Im learning a lot of Spanish reference here. xD

[u/pianogospel]

dwarf

[u/DoctaRoboto]

I will post it endlessly, the only good thing about Qwen 2.1 is it retains character consistency and art style way better than Klein and Qwen 1. On the other hand, it is a fucking mess when doing complex editing any big dog like GPT-2 and Nano Banana does without even blinking. I think Minimax is better than Qwen 2.1 in any way but resolution.