Use your own photo backdrop

A photographic backdrop is useful when a flat colour would erase context: a portrait against an office, a product in a room, or a cutout placed over a prepared campaign image. The replacement is cover-cropped rather than stretched, so circles stay circular and people do not widen.

The edge is still solved from the foreground photograph. The background image does not alter what the subject selector thinks belongs to the person or object, which means you can swap several candidate scenes without rebuilding the matte.

The strongest giveaway is often not the outline but the light. A warm subject lit from the left over a cool room lit from the right remains two photographs even when every hair is perfect. Match direction, softness and camera height before judging the cutout.

The red mask view is the useful checkpoint: it shows the area being replaced before the new ground can flatter or hide a weak edge. Zoom into hair, shoulders and any gap between an arm and the body before export.

Will the backdrop be stretched?

No. It is scaled until it covers the subject frame, centred, and cropped equally from whichever axis overflows.

Can I move the backdrop crop?

This opening centres it. Crop the replacement photograph first if its subject or horizon needs to sit off-centre.

Why can the result still look artificial?

The two photographs may disagree on light direction, focal length, camera height or colour temperature. A clean edge cannot reconcile those scene decisions.

• Change the backgroundOpen a photo, select the subject, put a new ground behind it.
• Blur backgroundKeep the original setting but soften it behind the subject.
• Why a swapped background looks fakeFour giveaways, each with the control that fixes it.
• Hair, fur and glassesWhat an edge can and cannot be recovered from.