---
title: "Qwen Image 2.1 Image Editing Full Test — The AI That Threatens Photoshop"
date: 2026-09-23
time: "22:30"
model: "operator"
category: knowhow
summary: "Qwen Image 2.1 can do Photoshop-grade editing, from background removal to color control, object swapping, and character sheets. But it also has limits: pose transfer and a clay-like skin texture. Here are 12 core features laid out with actual test results."
tags: "Qwen, Image, AI-image-editing, ComfyUI, background-removal, character-sheet"
---

# Qwen Image 2.1 Image Editing Full Test — The AI That Threatens Photoshop

> "Photoshop's mysterious first loss. Extreme background removal that even recognizes the alpha channel of smoke."

Qwen Image 2.1 is not a simple image generation model. As a **tool that edits real images**, it can replace Photoshop's core features with a single AI prompt line. Here are the results from a week of grinding through tests.

---

## 1. A Roundup of 12 Core Editing Features

### Feature 1: Extreme Background Removal

```
Prompt: "Isolate the main subject, remove the background"
```

**Result:** Shocking. It even correctly recognizes the alpha channel values of smoke to separate the background.

| Item | Performance |
|------|------|
| Simple background | Perfect |
| Complex background | Excellent |
| Semi-transparent objects (smoke, glass) | **Works** (an area even Photoshop struggles with) |
| Hair detail | Good |

> It is on par with Photoshop's "Select Subject" feature.

### Feature 2: Color Control (Hex Color Recognition)

```
Prompt: "Change the dress color to #7F7F7F and boots to #8B0000 (burgundy)"
```

**Result:** It recognizes the hex code (#XXXXXX) precisely and changes the color.

| Item | Performance |
|------|------|
| Color change | Accurate |
| Hex code recognition | Perfect |
| Texture preservation | Excellent |
| Lighting consistency | Good |

> "Change the dress to RGB(127, 127, 127) and the boots to burgundy" — that one line is all it takes.

### Feature 3: Object Replacement

```
Prompt: "Replace the round tennis balls with sharp, square blue diamonds"
```

**Key finding:**
- If you write only the name: it outputs **garbage** that just applies texture over the round shape
- If you add a shape description: it outputs a refined result

| Prompt | Result |
|----------|--------|
| "tennis balls to diamonds" | Failure (keeps the round shape, changes only the texture) |
| "round tennis balls to sharp, square blue diamonds" | **Success** |

> **Lesson:** For Qwen Image, a **shape description is mandatory**. You must say "replace with what shape/texture of what," not just "replace it with what."

### Feature 4: Character Sheet — The Webtoon Artist's Cheat Code

```
Prompt: portrait2charref-qwen-image-21
```

**Result:** After about 1 minute 30 seconds of computation:
- Front view
- Three-quarter view
- Full side view

A character sheet is generated with **perfectly maintained facial consistency**.

> It can fully control the so-called "AI-looking features." **For webtoon/comic artists, this will be the most powerful tool.**

### Feature 5: Resolution Upscale + Wiping Out Illicit Watermarks

A feature that raises resolution while removing illicit watermarks embedded in existing AI images.

### Feature 6: Camera Low Angle and Space Restructuring

```
Prompt: "Change to low-angle shot, restructure the space"
```

It changes the angle of a photo and restructures the spatial arrangement.

### Feature 7: Background Integrity Preserved + Person Swap

```
Prompt: "Replace the person while keeping the background intact"
```

| Item | Performance |
|------|------|
| Person replacement | Refined |
| Background preservation | Perfect |
| Lighting unification | Excellent |
| Even the sofa's leather wrinkles | Kept in fine detail |

> It feels like an **extremely advanced** version of ControlNet's inpaint feature.

### Features 8-12: Other Tests

| Feature | Result | Notes |
|------|--------|-------|
| Text insertion | Fair | Korean is a limit |
| Style transfer | Excellent | Various art styles |
| Image expansion (Outpainting) | Good | Natural boundaries |
| Detail correction | Good | Suited to small edits |
| Multi-object editing | Fair | Limit at 3 or more |

### Feature 13: Pose Transfer — The One Fatal Weakness

```
Result: ❌ Failure
```

In transferring the pose from image A to image B, **this model's one fatal weakness** showed itself. It is too much of a stretch to use in production.

---

## 2. Weaknesses Found Over a Week of Grinding, and Tips to Overcome Them

### Weakness 1: Plastic/Clay Skin Texture (A Chronic Qwen Ailment)

A phenomenon where the skin of a person generated or edited by AI looks **like plastic or clay**.

**Tips to overcome:**
- Add "realistic skin texture, pores, natural skin" to the prompt
- Add noise/grain in post-processing
- Using a reference image greatly improves the texture

### Weakness 2: The Stress of Matching KSampler Resolution and Megapixels

The model has a specific megapixel specification it was trained on. If you feed it an ambiguous custom-size image outside of that:
- Broken resolution
- Distorted aspect ratio
- Sharp drop in quality

**Tips to overcome:**
- Match the input to the trained specifications (512x512, 768x768, 1024x1024, etc.)
- Pre-process with Upscale LatentCrop before feeding it in

### Weakness 3: Text Rendering

English text is good, but non-English text such as Korean/Japanese is error-prone.

---

## 3. Overall Assessment and Recommended System Specs

### Overall Assessment

| Item | Rating | Notes |
|------|------|-------|
| Background removal | ★★★★★ | Photoshop-grade |
| Color control | ★★★★★ | Perfect hex recognition |
| Object swap | ★★★★☆ | Shape description required |
| Character sheet | ★★★★★ | A must-have for webtoon artists |
| Person swap | ★★★★☆ | Excellent background preservation |
| Pose transfer | ★☆☆☆☆ | Currently unusable |
| Skin texture | ★★★☆☆ | A chronic Qwen ailment, post-processing needed |
| **Overall** | **★★★★☆ (4/5)** | Top-class as an editing tool |

### Recommended System Specs

| Item | Minimum | Recommended |
|------|-----------|-----------|
| GPU | NVIDIA 8GB VRAM | NVIDIA 12GB+ VRAM |
| RAM | 16GB | 32GB+ |
| Inference engine | ComfyUI | ComfyUI + KSampler |
| Model load | Q4 quantization | FP16 or Q8 |

### Core ComfyUI Workflow Nodes

```
Load Image → Qwen Image 2.1 → KSampler → VAE Decode → Save Image
```

---

## Conclusion

> **Qwen Image 2.1 is currently top-class as an image "editing" tool.**

Background removal, color control, and character sheet generation are faster and more accurate than Photoshop. However, because of the limits of skin texture and pose transfer, **it is the best as an editing tool but not yet a complete replacement for Photoshop.**

For webtoon artists, illustrators, and bloggers, it is worth adopting right now.

---

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