Photo to oil painting with a style reference: Ideogram 4.5 edit

To paint a photo in the manner of a specific oil painting on Sume, call ideogram/ideogram-v4.5 with two input_references: your photo first and the painting second. Sume's docs say that with references the first image is the one edited and up to 4 more are used as references, 5 in total. Leave aspect_ratio off and the edit keeps the shape of the photo. Quality sets the price: low, medium and high are $0.0375, $0.075 and $0.275 per image in the catalog I read.

Why does the order of the references matter?

On this row the first reference is the source and the rest are references, which is not true of every Sume row. If you swap them, the model edits the painting in the manner of the photo. Put the photo at index 0 and say so in the prompt: "repaint the first image in the brushwork and palette of the second."

Use a painting you have the right to reuse as a style reference. A public-domain museum image works, and Sume only requires that every reference URL is public HTTPS.

What does a cheap comparison run cost?

Keep the photo fixed and swap the second reference across three candidate paintings, all at low. Three drafts cost 3 x $0.0375 = $0.1125 at the catalog rates above. Pick the painting whose palette you like, then rerun only that pair at high for $0.275, so the full exploration totals $0.3875. Running all three at high would be $0.825, more than double. The cheapest tier is good enough to judge brushwork scale and palette; it is the finer texture you pay the premium for.

What does each quality cost?

The Sume docs give fal's list prices of $0.03, $0.06 and $0.22 per image for the three qualities, the same for all sizes, and the endpoint price adds the house margin. If you omit quality, the value is medium. resolution takes 1K or 2K, and the row does not accept output_format: the provider chooses it.

How do I send it?

Draft at low to check composition and the likeness of the brushwork, then spend high on the keeper.

import os
import requests

def ref(url):
    return {"type": "image_url", "image_url": {"url": url}}

body = {
    "model": "ideogram/ideogram-v4.5",
    "prompt": "Repaint the first image in the brushwork and palette "
              "of the second: thick oil, visible strokes",
    "input_references": [ref("https://example.com/photo.jpg"),
                         ref("https://example.com/painting.jpg")],
    "quality": "low",
    "resolution": "1K",
}
r = requests.post("https://api.sume.com/v1/images",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['SUME_API_KEY']}"},
    json=body, timeout=60)
if r.status_code != 200:
    raise SystemExit(f"{r.status_code}: {r.text[:200]}")
print(r.json()["data"][0]["url"])

What if the answer is a 202?

A high-quality edit can pass the 30-second wait. Sume then returns a job envelope, and you fetch the image from the job result as described in Jobs and results.