What is 'inpainting' in AI product photography and when should I use it?

Quick Answer

Inpainting is the technique of regenerating only a specific part of an image while leaving the rest untouched. It is the right tool when one detail is wrong but the rest of the image is good. In Nightjar, there is no separate mask or brush tool: the Edit tab handles the same intent through plain-English instructions like "fix the hand on the left" or "remove the watermark in the corner," and the surrounding image is preserved.

When to use inpainting

• Glitch fixes: an awkward hand, a stray reflection, a misshapen logo on an otherwise strong image.
• Prop or detail swaps: change one object in a styled scene without re-rolling the whole composition.
• Cleanup: removing a distraction, fixing a label, brightening a reflection, tidying a shadow edge.

It is the AI equivalent of the Photoshop Healing Brush, driven by natural-language prompts instead of manual selection.

How it works in Nightjar

Most AI tools require the user to paint a mask over the region they want regenerated. Nightjar does not expose that mask UI. The Edit tab is a multi-image, plain-English editing surface: add the source image to the board, reference it directly inside the prompt with @image1, and describe the change. The model keeps everything outside the described region intact.

For common edits, Nightjar provides Edit Shortcuts: pre-filled prompts in the Edit tab for tasks like Recolor, Reframe, Try On, Product Placement, and Change Format. Region-level fixes (a stray object, a bad hand, a small text artifact) do not have a dedicated shortcut. Just describe the fix in the prompt:

• "Remove the price sticker from the bottle in @image1."
• "Fix the fingers on the model's right hand in @image1."
• "Replace the apple on the table in @image1 with a small ceramic vase, keep everything else identical."

If the surrounding image starts to drift on a tricky region, narrow the prompt to the smallest change that solves the problem and re-run.