GPT-Image-2.6 Flare

Introduction

A product image on a storefront rarely keeps its own background. The same serum bottle lands on a category tile and inside a promo banner, and each of those has a different color behind it. Generating the bottle on white and cutting it out afterward adds a step to the pipeline, and it leaves a pale fringe wherever the cut was not perfect.

settings.background removes that step. Set it to transparent and GPT-Image-2.6 Flare renders the subject onto an alpha channel, so the file it returns has nothing behind the bottle at all.

A single skincare serum bottle in opaque matte blush-pink glass with a brushed gold collar and a black rubber dropper bulb, a slim white label on the front reading "HYALURONIC SERUM" in small black sans-serif, upright in a straight front view, floating with no background, no surface and no shadow, clean crisp edges all the way around. Photoreal product rendering, soft studio lighting from the front left.

Everything outside the bottle is empty in the file. A category tile fills that space with its own color, the same way the checkerboard fills it here.

This guide covers the setting and the formats it needs, prompting for a clean cut-out, matching icon sets, contact shadows, checking a file on light and dark tiles, and semi-transparent materials such as frosted glass.

The request

Transparency is one field, settings.background, and one of its three values changes the rest of the request.

import { createClient } from '@runware/sdk'

const client = await createClient({ apiKey: process.env.RUNWARE_API_KEY })
await client.connect()

const [result] = await client.run({
  model: 'openai:gpt-image@2.6-flare',
  positivePrompt: 'A single skincare serum bottle in opaque matte blush-pink glass with a brushed gold collar and a black rubber dropper bulb, a slim white label on the front reading "HYALURONIC SERUM" in small black sans-serif, upright in a straight front view, floating with no background, no surface and no shadow, clean crisp edges all the way around. Photoreal product rendering, soft studio lighting from the front left.',
  settings: {
    background: 'transparent'
  },
  outputFormat: 'PNG',
  width: 1024,
  height: 1280
})

import asyncio
import os

from runware import Runware


async def main():
    async with Runware(api_key=os.environ["RUNWARE_API_KEY"]) as client:
        results = await client.run({
            "model": "openai:gpt-image@2.6-flare",
            "positivePrompt": "A single skincare serum bottle in opaque matte blush-pink glass with a brushed gold collar and a black rubber dropper bulb, a slim white label on the front reading \"HYALURONIC SERUM\" in small black sans-serif, upright in a straight front view, floating with no background, no surface and no shadow, clean crisp edges all the way around. Photoreal product rendering, soft studio lighting from the front left.",
            "settings": {
                "background": "transparent"
            },
            "outputFormat": "PNG",
            "width": 1024,
            "height": 1280
        })


asyncio.run(main())

curl https://api.runware.ai/v1 \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $RUNWARE_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '[
    {
      "taskType": "imageInference",
      "taskUUID": "7e2c4a91-5b3d-4f68-a0c7-2d9e1b6f8a35",
      "model": "openai:gpt-image@2.6-flare",
      "positivePrompt": "A single skincare serum bottle in opaque matte blush-pink glass with a brushed gold collar and a black rubber dropper bulb, a slim white label on the front reading \"HYALURONIC SERUM\" in small black sans-serif, upright in a straight front view, floating with no background, no surface and no shadow, clean crisp edges all the way around. Photoreal product rendering, soft studio lighting from the front left.",
      "settings": {
        "background": "transparent"
      },
      "outputFormat": "PNG",
      "width": 1024,
      "height": 1280
    }
  ]'

runware run openai:gpt-image@2.6-flare \
  positivePrompt="A single skincare serum bottle in opaque matte blush-pink glass with a brushed gold collar and a black rubber dropper bulb, a slim white label on the front reading \"HYALURONIC SERUM\" in small black sans-serif, upright in a straight front view, floating with no background, no surface and no shadow, clean crisp edges all the way around. Photoreal product rendering, soft studio lighting from the front left." \
  settings.background=transparent \
  outputFormat=PNG \
  width=1024 \
  height=1280

{
  "taskType": "imageInference",
  "taskUUID": "7e2c4a91-5b3d-4f68-a0c7-2d9e1b6f8a35",
  "model": "openai:gpt-image@2.6-flare",
  "positivePrompt": "A single skincare serum bottle in opaque matte blush-pink glass with a brushed gold collar and a black rubber dropper bulb, a slim white label on the front reading \"HYALURONIC SERUM\" in small black sans-serif, upright in a straight front view, floating with no background, no surface and no shadow, clean crisp edges all the way around. Photoreal product rendering, soft studio lighting from the front left.",
  "settings": {
    "background": "transparent"
  },
  "outputFormat": "PNG",
  "width": 1024,
  "height": 1280
}

[
  {
    "taskType": "imageInference",
    "taskUUID": "7e2c4a91-5b3d-4f68-a0c7-2d9e1b6f8a35",
    "imageUUID": "c41f8e2a-9d73-4b06-8e5a-1f7b3c9d2e64",
    "imageURL": "https://im.runware.ai/image/os/a14d18/ws/2/ii/c41f8e2a-9d73-4b06-8e5a-1f7b3c9d2e64.png"
  }
]

• auto is the default and leaves the choice to the model, based on the prompt.
• opaque always returns a solid background, whatever the prompt says.
• transparent returns the subject on an alpha channel.

The same rule keeps animated GIFs opaque, since GIF is not one of the two formats. For a flat icon that has to scale to any size, SVG output is the other route to a clean asset: a vector file instead of a raster cut-out.

Prompting for a clean cut-out

The setting gives the file an alpha channel. The prompt decides what ends up inside it, and a prompt that still reads like a photo shoot brings parts of the shoot along.

Name what is absent. A product photo usually has a surface and a shadow, so a prompt that does not rule them out leaves the model room to add them. "No background, no surface and no shadow" is the clause that keeps a faint floor and a gray smudge out of the file.

Describe the object and its light, not a room. Put the bottle on a bathroom shelf next to a window and the model has a scene to light it from, so the reflections and color cast of that scene can end up on the glass even when the shelf is cut away. Give the light in studio terms instead: a direction and a softness.

The hero prompt, clause by clause:

Every clause either describes the bottle or rules something out. None of them names a place.

Matching sets

A set of icons has to read as one family on the same screen. Write the style once and append it to every subject, word for word, so the palette, the hexagon frame and the absent-list carry over to every file. The three achievement badges below share this clause:

inside a hexagonal frame with a thick rounded border, flat vector style, bold clean outlines, four flat colors in electric violet, mint green, white and deep navy, no gradients, no text, floating with no background, no surface and no shadow, crisp edges all the way around. Modern fitness app achievement icon.

A fitness app achievement badge showing a running shoe with three speed lines trailing behind it, inside a hexagonal frame with a thick rounded border, flat vector style, bold clean outlines, four flat colors in electric violet, mint green, white and deep navy, no gradients, no text, floating with no background, no surface and no shadow, crisp edges all the way around. Modern fitness app achievement icon.

A fitness app achievement badge showing a flame rising from an open calendar page, inside a hexagonal frame with a thick rounded border, flat vector style, bold clean outlines, four flat colors in electric violet, mint green, white and deep navy, no gradients, no text, floating with no background, no surface and no shadow, crisp edges all the way around. Modern fitness app achievement icon.

A fitness app achievement badge showing a dumbbell inside a laurel wreath, inside a hexagonal frame with a thick rounded border, flat vector style, bold clean outlines, four flat colors in electric violet, mint green, white and deep navy, no gradients, no text, floating with no background, no surface and no shadow, crisp edges all the way around. Modern fitness app achievement icon.

Only the object changes from one prompt to the next. The clause also carries "no text", because the app sets the badge names itself, in its own font and language, under the art.

Contact shadows

The soft shadow where an object meets the floor is what makes it look like it rests on something. In a transparent file that shadow becomes a band of semi-transparent gray that travels with the asset onto every layout it is placed in.

The jacket below is a flat-lay, a format normally shot on a board or a bedsheet. Both prompts keep the arrangement and drop the surface: laid flat, seen from directly above, sleeves folded in at the elbows, no visible surface. Only the second asks for the shadow.

A single light-wash denim trucker jacket laid flat and seen from directly above, sleeves folded in at the elbows, copper buttons done up, collar spread open, floating with no background, no surface beneath it and no shadow, clean crisp edges all the way around. Photoreal e-commerce product photography, even soft overhead lighting.

A single light-wash denim trucker jacket laid flat and seen from directly above, sleeves folded in at the elbows, copper buttons done up, collar spread open, with a soft contact shadow hugging its edges as if it rests on a surface, no background and no visible surface, clean crisp edges. Photoreal e-commerce product photography, soft overhead lighting from the upper left.

Leave the shadow out when the asset goes somewhere you do not control. A drop shadow added in CSS or in the compositing step costs nothing and can match each layout, while a baked-in one takes another render to remove. Keep it for light backgrounds you own, where it stops a flat garment from looking pasted onto the tile.

Checking on light and dark tiles

The no-shadow jacket, placed on two product tiles:

The dark tile is the check that matters. A fringe of light pixels left along an edge vanishes against an off-white tile and shows up as a thin outline against charcoal. On the jacket, look at the cuffs and the collar points, where the outline turns sharpest.

Run the check with the tile colors of the layouts the asset ships into, and against both themes when the interface has a dark mode.

Semi-transparent materials

The alpha channel separates the subject from what is behind it, and inside the subject it comes back solid. The candle jar below was briefed with softly translucent frosted glass and a fully opaque lid and label. In the file the whole jar is opaque: the frosted look is painted in as a pale color, so the checkerboard stops at the edge of the glass.

A single scented candle in a frosted glass jar, a wide straight-sided jar with a solid oak lid resting on top and a small blank kraft paper label on the front, three-quarter view, the frosted glass softly translucent so light passes through it and the cream wax inside shows as a soft glow, the lid and the label fully opaque, floating with no background, no surface and no shadow, clean crisp edges all the way around. Photoreal product rendering, soft studio lighting from behind and to the left.

Plan see-through materials as opaque. A frosted or tinted surface keeps the color it was rendered with on every tile, so the pale glass that suits an off-white tile reads as a frosted sticker on charcoal. Run glass through the dark-tile check and keep it for the backgrounds where its color works.

Tips

1. Send PNG or WEBP with every transparent request. Any other output format, or none at all, is rejected.

2. List what is absent. "No background, no surface and no shadow" keeps the floor and the shadow of a product shoot out of the file.

3. Light the object, not a room. Give a direction and a softness. A room in the prompt can leave its reflections on the subject.

4. Share one style clause across a set. Append it word for word and change only the object.

5. Leave the shadow out unless you own the layout. Add it per layout in CSS or in the compositing step instead.

6. Check every asset on a dark tile. A fringe that disappears on white shows as an outline on charcoal.

7. Plan glass as opaque. Frosted and tinted materials come back solid in the alpha channel, so check them on every tile they ship into.