Bytedance recently released Seedream 4, and I wanted to compare it directly to Flux Kontext Pro on three practical image tasks: realistic colorization of black-and-white photos, creative upscaling of blurred images, and generating different-angle views from a single photo.
The rule was simple: upload one image and ask the model to preserve the original attributes while performing the requested transformation. Below are the experiments, prompts, and results — cleaned up and explained for clarity.
Test 1 — Colorizing Black & White Photographs
Prompt : You are given a black-and-white photograph. Please colorize it realistically while preserving historical accuracy (if it looks vintage) and natural skin tones, hair, clothing, and background elements. Maintain shadows, highlights, and original details without over-saturation. Output a high-resolution, colorized version that looks natural and true-to-life
Result from SEEDREAM 4
The results are clear
Seedream 4: Preserved the original facial features, proportions, and fine details. Color tones looked natural and historically plausible. The output stayed faithful to the source without changing identity or expression.
Flux Kontext Pro: Produced a colorization that altered the subject’s appearance in subtle but noticeable ways — changing facial detail and overall look. The result felt less faithful to the original.
Takeaway: For faithful, historically accurate colorization that keeps the subject intact, Seedream 4 performed better in this test.
Converting Blur image into high qulaity image
This image was to be upscaled to 4k resolution by the AI models
prompt : “creatively upscale this image to 4k quality resolution”
Result
Seedream 4: Delivered a sharper upscale with pleasing detail, but with a slightly painterly or oil-painting texture in places. Overall perceived resolution and clarity were improved.
Flux Kontext Pro: The upscaled image still felt somewhat blurry and soft; details remained less crisp than Seedream’s output.
Takeaway: Seedream 4 offered a more convincing upscale in clarity and detail, though its texture leaned slightly artistic. Flux Kontext Pro struggled more with recovering fine detail from heavy blur.
Test 3 — Generating Different Angles from One Photo
This time , models needed to generate images from different angles like top angle , side angle etc
This ensured how the model understands the prompt
Prompt : ” Generate different angle views of the uploaded model image, including:
Top view (looking down directly from above)
Left side view (profile of the left side)
Right side view (profile of the right side)
Front view (head-on) Back view (from behind) 45-degree angled views from front-left and front-right
Ensure the images maintain the original model’s proportions, lighting, and details while realistically representing each perspective. “
Results :
Seedream 4: Produced the requested angles and maintained consistent proportions and lighting across views. All the specified angles were present and recognizably the same subject.
Flux Kontext Pro: Returned some useful angles, but repeated similar images and missed a few requested perspectives. There was also greater variation in proportions between generated views.
Takeaway: Seedream 4 handled multi-angle generation more reliably and delivered a broader, more consistent set of perspectives.
Overall Verdict
Across these three focused tasks—colorization, upscaling, and multi-angle generation—Seedream 4 demonstrated:
- Better preservation of original identity and fine detail during colorization.
- Stronger perceptual upscaling results (with a slightly painterly finish).
- More consistent and complete multi-angle generation.
Flux Kontext Pro produced some solid images but tended to:
- Alter or drift from the original subject during colorization.
- Deliver softer upscales from heavily blurred inputs.
- Repeat outputs or miss requested angles when asked for multiple perspectives.
Bottom line: In my hands-on comparison, Seedream 4 came out ahead for tasks that require fidelity to the original image and consistent multi-view generation. Flux Kontext Pro still produces usable results, but it felt less faithful and less consistent in these specific tests.
Practical tips when choosing a model
- If realism and fidelity (keeping identity, historic tones, and proportions) are your priority, prefer a model that emphasizes preservation — Seedream 4 performed well here.
- If you need creative stylization or are okay with painterly/artistic results, some upscalers (including Seedream’s output in my test) can produce appealing artistic textures.
- For batch multi-angle generation, test for consistency: ask for multiple named views in one prompt and inspect whether the subject remains recognizably the same across outputs.
All the comparison’s were done in LLM Arena.
