How to fix and upscale AI-generated images

By Ali Ghafori · 3 min read

An AI image generator rarely gives you a finished image. The composition might be perfect while a hand has six fingers, text is gibberish, or the resolution is too low for print. The skill that separates usable AI work from obvious AI work is the finishing: fixing errors and upscaling cleanly. Here's my process.

Step 1: Choose the right base image

Fixing is easier when you start with the best candidate. When reviewing a batch of generations, judge them in this order:

1. Composition and pose — the hardest things to change later.
2. Lighting and mood.
3. Overall style matching your project.
4. Small errors — fingers, eyes, text, background objects. These are the easiest to fix, so don't reject a great image only because of them.

Step 2: Inspect for common AI errors

View the image at 100% and check these problem areas systematically:

• Hands and fingers: wrong count, merged fingers, impossible joints.
• Eyes and teeth: mismatched pupils, odd reflections, too many teeth.
• Text and logos: usually nonsense letters.
• Edges and intersections: where hair meets background, where objects touch, jewelry, glasses frames.
• Repeating patterns: windows, tiles and fences that don't line up.
• Background logic: stairs to nowhere, warped buildings, floating objects.

Step 3: Fix problems with inpainting

Inpainting regenerates only a selected area while leaving the rest of the image unchanged. Most AI image tools and modern image editors include it (often called generative fill, inpaint, or vary region).

• Select a bit more than the problem area so the new content blends in.
• Prompt for what should be there, not the error: "relaxed hand resting on the table, five fingers" rather than "fix hand".
• Generate several options and pick the most natural one.
• Fix one region at a time.

For small blemishes, a classic healing brush or clone stamp is often faster and more predictable than regenerating.

Step 4: Replace text manually

Even when AI text looks almost right, it's usually slightly wrong. For signs, labels and product names, remove the AI text with inpainting or healing, then add real text in an image editor using an appropriate font. Match perspective and add a little texture or blur so it sits naturally in the scene.

Step 5: Upscale

Generated images are often around 1–2 megapixels, which is fine for social media but too small for large displays or print. There are two kinds of upscaling:

• Conventional upscaling (bicubic, Lanczos) just enlarges pixels. It's faithful but soft.
• AI upscaling predicts new detail as it enlarges. It looks much sharper, but can invent textures — skin can turn plasticky, and text and fine patterns can change.

Practical tips:

• Fix errors before upscaling — it's easier on a smaller image, and the upscaler won't amplify the mistakes.
• Upscale in steps (2× then 2×) rather than one big jump if results look artificial.
• Use a lower "creativity" or "detail" setting for faces and products, higher for landscapes and textures.
• Compare at 100% with the original to make sure nothing important changed.

Step 6: Final color and finishing

A final pass in an image editor makes AI images look intentional and helps them match the rest of a project:

• Adjust levels or curves for contrast.
• Correct color casts and unify the palette with your brand or other images.
• Add a light, uniform film grain. AI images are often unnaturally smooth, and fine grain makes them feel more photographic and hides small artifacts.
• Sharpen lightly for the final output size only.

Exporting

• Web: WebP or JPEG at quality 80–90, sized to how it will actually be displayed.
• Print: high-quality JPEG or TIFF at the required pixel dimensions (often 300 pixels per inch of print size).
• Keep a layered master file so you can make changes later without redoing everything.

Summary

Pick the base image for composition, not perfection. Inspect systematically, fix with inpainting and retouching, replace text manually, upscale carefully, and finish with color and grain. Those steps turn a promising generation into an image you can confidently use.

← Back to all articles