Why do my images drift after many rounds of edits?

Each edit is a fresh pass of the model over the image. Even with a clear instruction, parts you did not mention can be reinterpreted slightly. One small shift is hard to see; ten in a row can change a face, soften a texture or move the crop.

Masks help but do not freeze an area completely: OpenAI's documentation says masking with its image model is prompt-based and the model may not follow the mask's exact shape with complete precision.

Three habits keep drift down: one change per edit, an explicit list of what stays ("keep the face, hands, crop and background"), and comparing each new version with the last approved one. When drift has crept in, go back to the version before it started and make the remaining change from there.

ImageQuarry keeps every earlier version, so the last good image is always there to compare against and branch from.