GFX-201a · Module 2

Revision Loops

3 min read

Revision is where most people lose what they gained. You have an image that is 80% right — the composition is beautiful, the color palette is perfect, but the lighting is flat and the subject's expression is wrong. The instinct is to rewrite the entire prompt and try again. That is a mistake. A full rewrite throws away the 80% that worked and gambles on getting it all back plus fixing the 20% that did not. Surgical revision — changing only the elements that failed — preserves what works while fixing what does not.

The revision loop has three rules. First, change one thing at a time. If lighting and expression both failed, fix lighting first, evaluate, then fix expression. Changing both simultaneously means you cannot tell which change caused which effect. Second, lock what works. If you have a seed that produced a great composition, lock that seed. If you have a style reference that nailed the color palette, keep it. Third, know when to pivot. If three rounds of surgical revision have not fixed the problem, the issue is structural — the prompt concept itself needs to change, not the details.

Do This

  • Change one prompt element per revision cycle and evaluate the isolated effect
  • Lock seeds, style references, and prompt sections that are working well
  • Pivot after three failed revision rounds — the concept may need to change

Avoid This

  • Rewrite the entire prompt because one element is off
  • Change multiple elements simultaneously and hope for the best
  • Polish endlessly — diminishing returns set in after four to five rounds

Inpainting and outpainting are the precision tools of the revision toolkit. When the overall image is right but a specific region needs work — a face, a hand, a background element — inpainting lets you regenerate just that region while keeping everything else frozen. Not every tool supports it natively, but the ones that do (Stable Diffusion, DALL-E, Midjourney's vary region) turn what would be a full regeneration into a targeted fix. Learn your tool's regional editing capabilities. They are the difference between "start over" and "fix this corner."