Things have been quiet on my blog for years, but over the holidays, I cleared some cruft and did very light customization of the default template, which included adding an About page, with an image of your author.
Getting the image to a satisfactory place took me far longer than expected. I’m a neophyte in AI tools and workflows, but I was starting with the visual equivalent of Hello World. Or so I imagined.
Bottom line
- Claude (Pro) completed the task, but I couldn’t see the output file. Reported bug, after trying in desktop app, Safari, and Chrome.
- Original prompt: “Remove background from this image of a person wearing a red t-shirt with lettering on it.”
- See the whole Claude chat if you want.
- ChatGPT (free) didn’t work well at first, and went too far (see below), but one of the intermediate images is what I’ve published on the About page.
- Original prompt: “remove background from this image”
- See the whole ChatGPT chat if you want.
I’ll walk backwards through the process because I was surprised this took so long, and images are mildly amusing.
Final published version, 1 January 2026
Yes, it’s a PNG where I haven’t filled the transparency with a color. I may fix that in the future on the About page, so I’ll keep this as an artifact here.
Original
The crop I started with, as a JPG.
Claude attempt
Nothing to show; that’s the bug. Something to do, probably, with present_files or thereabouts. With no output visible I can’t judge the effort.
ChatGPT first try – Polar Express?
I hated this. The entire prompt was “remove background from this image” but somehow the default output was to do more, with a Polar Express vibe.
ChatGPT second try – abstract art?
My response: “That’s terrible. I wanted the existing image as is, without the background. Don’t alter the rest of the image.”
This was wrong in entirely different ways.
My feedback: “That’s not what I expected. The original image is of a man with a red t-shirt with white lettering, in front of another person, obscured in the background. The output you shared removes far more than the background, and altered the colors.”
ChatGPT third try – not sure anything happened
The more conservative attempt didn’t change anything. Not useful.
ChatGPT fourth try – worked
The response that accompanied the third try was long-winded and gave me several options to improve the outcome, and I chose this one (ChatGPT wording):
Remove the person behind him instead
This can be done cleanly and predictably.
The outcome from that option is what I decided to use. You can see it above. I gave this feedback in chat.
“This image matches my goal with the original prompt.”
ChatGPT fifth try – regression!
Despite my approval, ChatGPT recommended one more try, to improve, and asked me to make one more choice. I chose “A) Transparent background” from the options.
And, we’re back to abstract art. (At least my face isn’t blue?)
That’s enough.