diff --git a/app.py b/app.py
index 4fa2504..5b6ca61 100644
--- a/app.py
+++ b/app.py
@@ -58,8 +58,9 @@ def bleh_image_from_url(url, dithering, mode):
     out, err = bleh.communicate(resp.content)
     if bleh.returncode != 0:
         raise RuntimeError(f"Driver failed: {err.decode()}")
-    img = Image.open(io.BytesIO(out)).convert("L")
+    img = Image.open(io.BytesIO(out))
     img = remove_alpha(img)
+    img = img.convert("L")
     # Optionally check width, pad/resize if needed
     if img.width != IMAGE_WIDTH:
         img = img.resize((IMAGE_WIDTH, img.height), Image.LANCZOS)
@@ -73,8 +74,9 @@ def bleh_image_from_bytes(image_bytes, dithering, mode):
     out, err = bleh.communicate(image_bytes)
     if bleh.returncode != 0:
         raise RuntimeError(f"Driver failed: {err.decode()}")
-    img = Image.open(io.BytesIO(out)).convert("L")
+    img = Image.open(io.BytesIO(out))
     img = remove_alpha(img)
+    img = img.convert("L")
     if img.width != IMAGE_WIDTH:
         img = img.resize((IMAGE_WIDTH, img.height), Image.LANCZOS)
     return img