How do you handle artifacts or blurriness in generated images?

Handling artifacts or blurriness in generated images typically involves a combination of model architecture adjustments, training data improvements, and post-processing techniques. These issues often arise due to limitations in the model’s ability to capture fine details, overfitting to noisy data, or insufficient resolution during training. Addressing them requires targeted optimizations at different stages of the image generation pipeline.

First, model architecture plays a critical role. For example, using higher-resolution training data and avoiding aggressive downsampling layers can preserve details. Architectures like U-Net with skip connections help maintain spatial information by combining low-level features from early layers with high-level features from deeper layers. Additionally, incorporating attention mechanisms or transformer-based components can improve the model’s ability to focus on specific regions, reducing artifacts. Loss functions also matter: combining pixel-level loss (e.g., L1/L2) with perceptual loss (using pre-trained networks like VGG) encourages outputs to align with human perception, penalizing blurry or unnatural patterns. For adversarial training, GAN-based approaches with discriminators that emphasize texture and edges can force generators to produce sharper images.

Second, training data quality and preprocessing are essential. Artifacts often stem from biases or noise in the dataset. Curating a diverse, high-quality dataset with minimal compression artifacts is foundational. Augmentations like random crops, rotations, or color jittering can help the model generalize better. If blurriness persists, progressive training strategies—where the model first learns low-resolution structures and gradually shifts to higher resolutions—can stabilize learning. For instance, StyleGAN’s progressive growing approach reduces artifacts by incrementally increasing resolution during training. Additionally, balancing the dataset to avoid overrepresenting certain textures or patterns prevents the model from generating inconsistent outputs. Data normalization and proper input scaling (e.g., ensuring pixel values are in a suitable range) also minimize noise amplification during training.

Finally, post-processing can refine outputs. Techniques like super-resolution models (e.g., ESRGAN) or non-machine-learning methods (e.g., sharpening filters in OpenCV) enhance details after generation. For blurry outputs, applying edge-aware filters or diffusion-based refinement can recover lost textures. However, over-processing risks introducing new artifacts, so iterative testing is necessary. For persistent issues, hybrid approaches—like feeding the generated image back into the model for iterative refinement—can help. For example, diffusion models gradually denoise images, allowing finer control over output quality. Combining these steps—optimizing architectures, improving data, and applying targeted post-processing—provides a practical framework for reducing artifacts and blurriness in generated images.