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Describe to Picker

Analyze a photo with a vision model and fill the Person, Styling, Framing, Lens and Camera / Film Stock pickers you connect with valid catalog choices.

The Describe to Picker node analyzes a photo and fills the picker nodes you connect to it. A vision model looks at the main subject and the scene. It returns choices that exist in each picker's catalog, such as the person's age and hair, the makeup, the shot size or the lens. One run fills every connected picker.

When to use it

  • Turn a reference portrait into a full casting brief: connect Person, Styling and Framing, then feed them into Generate Image or Generate Video.
  • Set up a recurring character, with its styling and its lens look, from a single photo.
  • Match the camera of a reference image: detect its shot size, angle, lens and film stock.

Quick start

Add the node

Press Tab on the canvas and choose Image › Understand › Describe to Picker.

Connect the photo

Drag from an image node, such as Upload Image, to the Image input.

Connect the pickers to fill

Drag from the Picker JSON output to the Picker JSON input of each picker you want filled. The settings panel lists them under Analyzing:.

Run it and apply the result

Click Run on the node. Each picker receives its own part of the result. By default, click Update from injected on each picker to apply it.

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One photo fills the Person, Styling and Framing pickers, which then shape a new image.

Inputs

InputAcceptsWhat it does
ImageImage nodes, such as Upload Image and Generate ImageThe photo to analyze. Required.

The output, Picker JSON, is structured data with one part for each connected picker. Only picker nodes can read it: it does not connect to text inputs.

What it fills

The node analyzes exactly the pickers wired to its output, and no others. There is no picker setting to choose: the wiring is the choice.

PickerWhat it detects
PersonTraits such as type, age, ethnicity, build, hair, eyes and skin
StylingStyling choices from the picker's catalog, such as makeup, eyewear and jewelry
FramingShot size, angle and composition
LensThe lens
Camera / Film StockThe camera or the film format

Every value is a real choice from the picker's own catalog, so a picker never receives a value it does not know. A trait that is not visible in the photo is left out.

How pickers apply the result

Each picker decides how to use its part of the result, with two settings in its settings panel.

When image JSON is injected chooses how new values merge with the picker's current choices:

ModeWhat it does
Full override (clear undetected)The default. Writes every detected value and clears every value that was not detected. Use it when the photo should fully define the picker.
Overwrite detected (keep rest)Writes only the detected values and keeps your other choices.
Fill empty onlyWrites a detected value only where the field is empty. It never overwrites a choice you made.

Auto-apply on change is off by default. When it is off, the picker shows an Update from injected button when a new result differs from what it last applied. Otherwise it shows Up to date. When it is on, every new result is applied at once, with the chosen mode. Running the analysis again with the same result does not mark the picker as changed.

In every mode, only the picker's choices change. The picker's label, its pre and post text and its layout stay as they are.

Settings

SettingWhat it does
Analyzing:Read only. The connected pickers that the next run will fill. Change it by wiring or unwiring pickers.
AI ModelThe vision model. The default is Claude Opus 5, chosen for accurate details such as skin tone. The list offers only vision models that can return this structured result reliably, from the Claude, Gemini, GPT and Grok families.
Reasoning EffortHow much the model reasons before it answers, on models that support it. The default is Auto (model default).
Advanced modeGemini models only. Runs the model on the provider directly, so that Temperature, Max Tokens and the full range of reasoning depth take effect.
Extra guidance (optional)Your own instructions for the analysis, up to 2,000 characters, for example focus on the foreground subject.

Credits

Every run costs a flat 10 credits, whatever the model and however many pickers you connect. The whole analysis is one call to the model. The credits are reserved when the run starts and refunded if the analysis fails.

Troubleshooting

The run is refused with a message to connect a picker node. Nothing that the node can fill is wired to its output. Connect at least one Person, Styling, Framing, Lens or Camera / Film Stock picker.

A picker did not change after the run. Auto-apply on change is off by default. Click Update from injected on the picker, or turn on Auto-apply on change.

The node described the wrong person. When a photo has several people or a busy background, add Extra guidance (optional), such as describe the woman in the red coat.

Tips

  • Fill several pickers in one run. Person, Styling and Framing together turn one photo into a casting, look and shot brief, for the same price as one picker.
  • Protect your own choices. Use Fill empty only when you have chosen a few defining traits by hand and want the photo to fill in the rest.
  • Refresh without losing extras. Use Overwrite detected (keep rest) to update what the photo shows and keep the choices you added by hand.
  • Recast from scratch. Use Full override (clear undetected) for a clean, photo-driven version of the picker.

Frequently asked questions

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