Change Photo Background Put yourself somewhere new.

Browsing the preset library

Presets are grouped into Studio, Abstract, Portrait, Product, Social and Seasonal sets, and you can search or filter them by name. Clicking one slots it in behind the subject without touching the cutout, so you can flick through a dozen in a minute and compare.

If you keep coming back to a few, mark them as favorites. Favorites are stored in this browser only, so they will be waiting the next time you visit on the same device.

Using a background of your own

Upload background accepts the same file types as the main photo. That picture is read locally, just like your subject, and is never sent off for processing. Once it is in place, decide how it fills the canvas:

• Fill covers the canvas completely and crops whatever overhangs.
• Fit shows the whole picture, leaving bands if the shapes differ.
• Stretch forces it to the canvas shape, which can distort it.
• Original size places it at its own pixel dimensions.

Making the subject belong in the new scene

A cutout dropped onto a new scene can look pasted on. The usual giveaway is a backdrop that is sharper than the subject, so a touch of background blur often helps. Background brightness, contrast, saturation, temperature and tint let you bring its mood closer to the light in your original photo.

In the Finish stage you can also adjust the subject's own brightness, contrast, saturation and warmth, and add a contact shadow where it meets the ground. Small moves go further than big ones. If the subject still looks off, notice which way the light falls in the backdrop and angle the shadow to agree with it.

Positioning and canvas shape

The Compose stage lets you drag, scale, rotate and flip the subject, center it with one click, or have it fit or fill the frame. Alignment guides appear as you move it near the middle or the edges. When the new backdrop has a different shape from your photo, change the canvas to square, 4:5, 4:3, 16:9, 9:16 or a custom size.

Scale matters as much as position. A person standing in a landscape looks odd if they are taller than the trees, and a mug on a kitchen counter looks wrong if it is the size of the kettle. Glance at a familiar object in the new backdrop and size the subject against it. Placing the feet or base on a visible surface, rather than letting the subject hover mid-frame, also does a lot for realism.

When the swap looks wrong

If a thin outline of the old scene clings to the subject, go back to Cut out and use Remove fringe or Shift edge. Hair is the usual trouble spot when the original was busy; Hair detail and the smart Restore brush recover strands without dragging the old backdrop back in.

Perspective is the other common mismatch. A photo taken from above will never sit comfortably on a backdrop shot at eye level, however carefully the edges are cleaned. If a swap keeps looking wrong, try a backdrop photographed from a similar height and angle, or fall back to a plain studio preset, which has no horizon to disagree with.

Step by step

1. Add your subject photo. Open the picture whose background you want to swap.
2. Let detection finish. The subject is separated from its original scene.
3. Choose a backdrop. Click a preset, or use Upload background to add a picture of your own.
4. Fit and position. Pick Fill, Fit, Stretch or Original size, then place the subject.
5. Blend and export. Match the lighting, add a shadow if needed and save the file.

Questions people ask