# FlashFace: Human Image Personalization with High-fidelity Identity Preservation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.17008 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.17008/

## Key facts

- Cited by 31 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 37 of its 48 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 25 Mar 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 37)

- [Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6980/) (2014)
- [Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.00020/) (2021)
- [Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11239/) (2020)
- [U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1505.04597/) (2015)
- [High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10752/) (2021)
- [LoRA: Low-Rank Adaptation of Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.09685/) (2021)
- [Denoising Diffusion Implicit Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.02502/) (2020)
- [Diffusion Models Beat GANs on Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.05233/) (2021)
- [Deep Unsupervised Learning using Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1503.03585/) (2015)
- [Hierarchical Text-Conditional Image Generation with CLIP Latents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.06125/) (2022)
- [Photorealistic Text-to-Image Diffusion Models with Deep Language Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.11487/) (2022)
- [A Style-Based Generator Architecture for Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.04948/) (2018)
- [Classifier-Free Diffusion Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.12598/) (2022)
- [SDXL: Improving Latent Diffusion Models for High-Resolution Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.01952/) (2023)
- [Zero-Shot Text-to-Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.12092/) (2021)
- [LAION-5B: An open large-scale dataset for training next generation image-text models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.08402/) (2022)
- [Generative Modeling by Estimating Gradients of the Data Distribution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.05600/) (2019)
- [DreamBooth: Fine Tuning Text-to-Image Diffusion Models for Subject-Driven Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.12242/) (2022)
- [An Image is Worth One Word: Personalizing Text-to-Image Generation using Textual Inversion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.01618/) (2022)
- [Qwen-VL: A Versatile Vision-Language Model for Understanding, Localization, Text Reading, and Beyond](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.12966/) (2023)
- [Unsupervised Representation Learning with Deep Convolutional Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1511.06434/) (2015)
- [IP-Adapter: Text Compatible Image Prompt Adapter for Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.06721/) (2023)
- [Multi-Concept Customization of Text-to-Image Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.04488/) (2022)
- [Muse: Text-To-Image Generation via Masked Generative Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.00704/) (2023)
- [Scaling up GANs for Text-to-Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.05511/) (2023)
- [Generative Multimodal Models are In-Context Learners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.13286/) (2023)
- [InstantID: Zero-shot Identity-Preserving Generation in Seconds](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.07519/) (2024)
- [ELITE: Encoding Visual Concepts into Textual Embeddings for Customized Text-to-Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.13848/) (2023)
- [AnyDoor: Zero-shot Object-level Image Customization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.09481/) (2023)
- [PhotoMaker: Customizing Realistic Human Photos via Stacked ID Embedding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.04461/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 31)

- [PuLID: Pure and Lightning ID Customization via Contrastive Alignment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.16022/) (2024)
- [UniReal: Universal Image Generation and Editing via Learning Real-world Dynamics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.07774/) (2024)
- [Zero-shot Image Editing with Reference Imitation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.07547/) (2024)
- [UniPortrait: A Unified Framework for Identity-Preserving Single- and Multi-Human Image Personalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.05939/) (2024)
- [Stable-Hair: Real-World Hair Transfer via Diffusion Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.14078/) (2024)
- [InfiniteYou: Flexible Photo Recrafting While Preserving Your Identity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.16418/) (2025)
- [StoryMaker: Towards Holistic Consistent Characters in Text-to-image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.12576/) (2024)
- [Personalize Anything for Free with Diffusion Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.12590/) (2025)
- [Personalized Image Generation with Deep Generative Models: A Decade Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.13081/) (2025)
- [Cut2Next: Generating Next Shot via In-Context Tuning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.08244/) (2025)
- [Towards Localized Fine-Grained Control for Facial Expression Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.20175/) (2024)
- [DynamicID: Zero-Shot Multi-ID Image Personalization with Flexible Facial Editability](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.06505/) (2025)
- [AudCast: Audio-Driven Human Video Generation by Cascaded Diffusion Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.19824/) (2025)
- [Text-to-Image Synthesis: A Decade Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.16164/) (2024)
- [EditID: Training-Free Editable ID Customization for Text-to-Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.12526/) (2025)
- [MagicFace: Training-free Universal-Style Human Image Customized Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.07433/) (2024)
- [HiFi-Portrait: Zero-shot Identity-preserved Portrait Generation with High-fidelity Multi-face Fusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.14542/) (2025)
- [FaceCrafter: Identity-Conditional Diffusion with Disentangled Control over Facial Pose, Expression, and Emotion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.15313/) (2025)
- [OpenSubject: Leveraging Video-Derived Identity and Diversity Priors for Subject-driven Image Generation and Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.08294/) (2025)
- [UIFace: Unleashing Inherent Model Capabilities to Enhance Intra-Class Diversity in Synthetic Face Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.19803/) (2025)
- [AgeBooth: Controllable Facial Aging and Rejuvenation via Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.05715/) (2025)
- [FPGA: Flexible Portrait Generation Approach](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.09248/) (2024)
- [Foundation Cures Personalization: Improving Personalized Models' Prompt Consistency via Hidden Foundation Knowledge](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.15277/) (2024)
- [Stable-Hair v2: Real-World Hair Transfer via Multiple-View Diffusion Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.07591/) (2025)
- [ImageGem: In-the-wild Generative Image Interaction Dataset for Generative Model Personalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.18433/) (2025)
- [RealisID: Scale-Robust and Fine-Controllable Identity Customization via Local and Global Complementation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.16832/) (2024)
- [RoomEditor++: A Parameter-Sharing Diffusion Architecture for High-Fidelity Furniture Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.17573/) (2025)
- [Beyond Facial Consistency: Personalized Person Image Generation with Holistic Identity Preservation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.25622/) (2026)
- [FashionComposer: Compositional Fashion Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.14168/) (2024)
- [Training for Identity, Inference for Controllability: A Unified Approach to Tuning-Free Face Personalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.03964/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This work presents FlashFace, a practical tool with which users can easily personalize their own photos on the fly by providing one or a few reference face images and a text prompt. Our approach is distinguishable from existing human photo customization methods by higher-fidelity identity preservation and better instruction following, benefiting from two subtle designs. First, we encode the face identity into a series of feature maps instead of one image token as in prior arts, allowing the model to retain more details of the reference faces (e.g., scars, tattoos, and face shape ). Second, we introduce a disentangled integration strategy to balance the text and image guidance during the text-to-image generation process, alleviating the conflict between the reference faces and the text prompts (e.g., personalizing an adult into a "child" or an "elder"). Extensive experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our method on various applications, including human image personalization, face swapping under language prompts, making virtual characters into real people, etc. Project Page: https://jshilong.github.io/flashface-page.