Use AI to Edit Images for Pleasure or Business
Over the past week or so, my Instagram feed was filled with 3D models of superheroes, musicians, actors among other daily objects, some with their own toy-like packaging and I thought to myself “why the sudden surge in 3D printed models?” A few Google searches later and what I thought were photos of 3D-printed models were actually 3D graphic renderings created by the all new AI-inspired image-generating model from Google (as part of their AI app, Gemini). And trust Google to give it an ever-so amusing (if not accurate) name of Nano Banana.
With the ability to quickly and easily create and edit photos, the online forums are buzzing about Nano Banana being the new Photoshop-Killer…. hinting at the AI model’s possible domination in the world of photo editing and touch-ups. I had a chat with one of our IT solutions specialists in the office, who had explored this new AI trend and his verdict is that while Photoshop has nothing to fear, Nano Banana does generate “unbelievably high-quality images, almost instantaneously” and is free (at least for the first few images you want to generate).
In this blog post we are going to introduce Nano Banana to you, outline a few pros and cons and then let you experiment, play around and decide for yourself if this is the future of AI image generation or is it just a passing fad.
What is Nano Banana?
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It’s an AI model for editing and generating images.
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It is part of Google’s Gemini suite of tools, available through the Gemini app, Google AI Studio, and for developers/enterprise via Vertex AI.
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The name “Nano Banana” is a nickname / codename that caught on; the official name is Gemini 2.5 Flash Image.
What can Nano Banana Do?
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Maintain character consistency: if you edit images of people (or pets, objects), their appearance stays recognizable across different transformed versions.
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Multi-image fusion: combine multiple photos together into a single coherent image.
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Targeted image edits using natural language prompts: change background, style, poses, remove or add elements, etc.
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It benefits from “world knowledge” so it better understands realistic contexts, scenes, or items, which helps in making edits more plausible.
Why is Nano Banana Significant & What Can People Do With It?
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It has gone viral / become very popular for “figurine-style” images: turning selfies or pets into images that look like collectible toy figurines on stands or in display boxes.
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It’s praised for giving users more creative control, and for being more faithful in preserving identity (so edits don’t distort who people are).
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It includes watermarking (visible + invisible SynthID) so it’s clear when images are AI-generated/edited.
Limitations of Nano Banana & Things People Should Watch Out For
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Sometimes edits still have issues—distortions, especially after multiple rounds of edits.
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Some tasks aren’t perfect yet (for example, precise cropping or absolute consistency under difficult conditions).
Right, now that all the technical stuff is out of the way, let’s see what Nano Banana can really do. I uploaded some photos to the Google AI Studio, entered some short and concise prompts and in a matter of mere seconds the AI did its thing and gave me some very realistic-looking 3D images!
Here’s a photo from our company Christmas party last yearthat I asked Nano Banana to use and create a 3D-rendered figurine in packaging.
Here’s a photo I took that I asked Nano Banana to convert to a 3D model jigsaw puzzle
And finally, a photo of a T-rex model that I asked Nano Banana to recreate in a “cool, retro, anime-style”
While this is all fun and exciting – playing with this new technology – Nano Banana is, as my colleague put it, just the latest iteration of AI-assisted image generation. And it’s just a matter of time before another company releases a more improved version. Who knows, maybe in 5-years’ time Photoshop might shake in its boots but for now these AI gimmicks might be just that, gimmicks that are fun for us to use and play with, but with no real-world impact. But then again, it’s a lot more real than we’d like to believe.
Prompt: “Generate a scary AI version of Nano Banana”…..
