glu
Studio
Join the waitlist
All comparisons
By scene · 25 models

Best AI image generator for cinematic portraits

25 models compared (November 2026)

Best for cinematic portraits: Recraft V4.1 Pro (8.8 out of 10), ahead of Muse Image and Seedream 4.5, from our scores for prompt adherence, realism and film look.

We sent the same prompt, word for word, to the 25 best-ranked AI image models and put every result side by side. One image each, no retouching, no picking the best of several. Each card shows the model, its maker and its benchmark score.

The prompt

Cinematic close-up portrait of a weathered fishing-boat captain in his sixties on deck at first light, rain-soaked oilskin coat collar turned up, salt crusted in his grey beard, eyes fixed just past the lens on a storm he has already decided to sail into. Warm sodium glow from the wheelhouse window as the key light, cold blue dawn sea light as fill, rain droplets catching the light in the air between him and the camera. 85mm anamorphic, shallow depth of field, a film still from a prestige drama, Kodak Vision3 500T grain, true-to-life skin texture. No text, no logos.

Shape
16:9, or the nearest a model offers
Made
Models
25
How we ran it and ranked it

Every model got the prompt exactly as written above. Where a model can rewrite or expand a prompt before it draws, that was switched off, so each one worked from the same words. We made one image per model at 16:9; a model that cannot make 16:9 made its nearest shape, and its picture is trimmed slightly at the edges to fill the frame. Where a model drew black cinema bars into its picture, the bars are cut off for display. Nothing was retouched or chosen from several tries. A model that failed was tried once more; if it failed again, its card says so and why.

The order is the models' benchmark rank, not our opinion: their score in the Artificial Analysis text-to-image arena (human preference Elo, checked 8 November 2026), or, for a model Artificial Analysis does not score, the Arena text-to-image leaderboard (checked 6 November 2026). The two boards use different scales, so each score is placed by the share of its own board it beats. A model sold under two names is one model, shown once under both.

Only models whose pictures may be used commercially are included.

The answer at the top and the notes under What we noticed come from our own scores, not the benchmark. Each picture was scored 1 to 10 on prompt adherence, realism and film look, and the scores were checked by an independent cross-review.

The 25 results

Ranked by benchmark. Select a picture to see it full size, then use the arrows or your arrow keys to compare.

  1. #1

    Nano Banana 2

    · Google· AA Elo 1142
  2. #2

    Muse Image

    · Meta· AA Elo 1128
  3. #3

    Nano Banana Pro

    · Google· AA Elo 1119
  4. #4

    Qwen Image 3.0 Pro

    · Alibaba· AA Elo 1095
  5. #5

    Qwen Image 3.0

    · Alibaba· AA Elo 1073
  6. #6

    FLUX.3 Klein

    · Black Forest Labs· AA Elo 1043
  7. #7

    FIBO 2.0

    · Bria· AA Elo 1039
  8. #8

    Seedream 4.5

    · ByteDance· AA Elo 1030
  9. #9

    FLUX.2 [flex]

    · Black Forest Labs· AA Elo 1028
  10. #10

    Recraft V4.1 Utility

    · Recraft· AA Elo 1028
  11. #11

    Luma Uni-1 Max

    · Luma AI· AA Elo 1026
  12. #12

    Grok Imagine Image

    · xAI· AA Elo 1024
  13. #13

    FLUX.2 [max]

    · Black Forest Labs· AA Elo 1021
  14. #14

    Seedream 5.0 Lite

    · ByteDance· AA Elo 1019
  15. #15

    Recraft V4.1 Utility Pro

    · Recraft· AA Elo 1018
  16. #16

    Wan 2.6

    · Alibaba· AA Elo 1018
  17. #17

    FLUX.2 [pro]

    · Black Forest Labs· AA Elo 1003
  18. #18

    FLUX.2 [dev]

    · Black Forest Labs· AA Elo 1000
  19. #19

    FLUX.2 [dev] Turbo

    · Black Forest Labs· AA Elo 996
  20. #20

    Luma Uni-1

    · Luma AI· AA Elo 994
  21. #21

    Recraft V4.1 Pro

    · Recraft· Arena 1132
  22. #22

    FLUX.2 [dev] Flash

    · Black Forest Labs· AA Elo 989
  23. #23

    HunyuanImage 3.0 Instruct

    · Tencent· AA Elo 988
  24. #24

    Wan 2.7 Image

    · Alibaba· AA Elo 988
  25. #25

    Cosmos 3 Super

    · NVIDIA· AA Elo 987

What we noticed

Our read of these 25 pictures. It's one image per model, so treat it as a snapshot, not a verdict.

  • Strongest: Recraft V4.1 Pro. Weakest: Wan 2.6.

    Recraft V4.1 Pro made the shot the prompt describes: a tight close-up, the warm wheelhouse light actually on his face, cold blue around him, rain in the air and his eyes just off the lens. It came back at about 3:2, not 16:9. Wan 2.6 missed most of the brief: a glossy coat with sticker-like beads, harsh HDR skin, a straight look into the camera, little rain in the air and a flat stock-photo grade.

  • Few models got the light right

    The prompt asks for warm sodium light from the wheelhouse window as the key and cold dawn light as fill. Recraft V4.1 Pro, Recraft V4.1 Utility Pro, HunyuanImage 3.0 Instruct and both Luma Uni-1 models put that warm light on the face. Most others show the glowing window behind him and light his face with flat blue daylight, among them Nano Banana Pro, FIBO 2.0 and FLUX.2 [dev].

  • Rain and salt split the field

    Muse Image, Seedream 5.0 Lite and Recraft V4.1 Pro put rain in the air between him and the camera; many others only bead it on the coat. Salt in the beard ranged from nothing at all (Nano Banana 2, Qwen Image 3.0) to heavy crusts. HunyuanImage 3.0 Instruct is the most believable, Seedream 4.5 reads as white curd-like clumps, and Luma Uni-1 Max and Seedream 5.0 Lite take it so far it reads as frost.

  • Many added what the prompt didn't ask for

    The prompt says collar turned up. FLUX.2 [max] added a beanie, FLUX.2 [dev] Turbo and Flash a bucket hat, Cosmos 3 Super a cap, and Seedream 5.0 Lite, Recraft V4.1 Utility Pro and FLUX.2 [pro] put his hood up. Grok Imagine Image set him on a sailing boat with a sail and boom. Qwen Image 3.0 and 3.0 Pro stood a ship's wheel out on the open deck.

  • Framing and grain

    Nano Banana 2, FIBO 2.0 and FLUX.2 [flex] made a medium shot, not a close-up, and the FLUX.2 [dev] models, Grok Imagine Image, Wan 2.6, Qwen Image 3.0 Pro and Cosmos 3 Super look straight into the lens. Only the two Luma Uni-1 models show real film grain. FLUX.3 Klein also stood out: a faithful close-up with true skin texture and rain in the air.

See how these models rank across all 10 scenes

Head to heads featuring these models

Two of the models above on the same film scenes, judged pair by pair.

Other scenes

The same 25 models on another film shot.

Join the waitlist

Sign in once. If you don't have an invite yet, that puts you on the waitlist, and we'll email you when your invite is ready. For people 18 or over.

Join the waitlist

Sold under more than one name, shown once: Nano Banana 2 (Nano Banana 2, Gemini 3.1 Flash Image Preview); Nano Banana Pro (Nano Banana Pro, Gemini 3 Pro Image Preview).