Make a photo background semi-transparent

When fading beats removing

Removing a background throws away context. Fading keeps it. A faded scene tells the viewer where the photo was taken while leaving no doubt about what matters. It is useful for slides and posters that need text over the background, for event photos where the venue is part of the story, and for product shots where a hint of the setting helps.

It also works as a gentler alternative to blur. Blur hides detail by smearing it; fading hides it by lowering its strength, so lines and shapes stay crisp but quiet. Try both on the same cutout and compare them in History. The mask is shared, so switching costs nothing.

The two controls

Opacity runs from 0 to 100 percent. At 100 the background is untouched. At 0 it is gone completely, the same result as Background remover. In between, the scene fades in proportion.

You also choose what the background fades over. Over transparency, the faded pixels become partly see-through, so whatever you place the image on later shows through. Over white, the scene is mixed with white and looks washed out, like a pale print.

• Pick transparency when the image will be placed over another color or picture in a design app or on a web page.
• Pick white when you want a finished image that looks the same everywhere, or when you need a JPEG.
• Around 20 to 40 percent keeps the scene readable but clearly secondary. Below 15 percent it reads as a faint texture.
• Around 60 to 80 percent gives a light fade that keeps most of the scene's color.

File types and transparency

If you fade over transparency, export as PNG or WebP. Those keep partial transparency pixel by pixel. JPEG cannot, so it would flatten the result onto a solid color. If you faded over white, any format works, and JPEG gives the smallest file.

Edges and subjects

A faded background is more forgiving than a removed one, because small leftovers blend into the remaining scene. Still, glance at Mask view, which shows the kept subject in red. The Erase and Restore brushes fix individual spots, Edge softness feathers the border from 0 to 10 px, and Shrink/grow edge moves it by up to 6 px.

Person, the 25.9 MB default, is for people. Any subject, 88.1 MB and opt-in, handles products, pets and objects. A mask made in another background tool for this version is reused here, so changing your mind about removing versus fading costs no extra run.

What it will not do

• Partial transparency survives only in PNG or WebP exports; JPEG flattens it.
• Fine hair, glass, smoke and semi-transparent objects can come out imperfect; the brushes help.
• The whole background fades evenly. You cannot fade one part of the scene more than another.
• The mask is computed on a copy of at most 4096 px on the long side and scaled up to the full photo.

Devices and downloads

The cutout needs the Person model, a 25.9 MB first-time download, or Any subject at 88.1 MB if you pick it; both are Apache-2.0 licensed and cached in your browser. They run in a background worker, on WebGPU where available and on WebAssembly otherwise. Any subject takes around 17 seconds per photo on WebAssembly and a second or two with WebGPU. The fade itself is ordinary image arithmetic.

On-device AI: A small neural network that runs on this device after a one-time download. See what is stored on this device.

Step by step

1. Open your photo. Drop, paste or choose the picture to work on.
2. Separate the subject. Person for people, Any subject for other things.
3. Set the fade. Move Opacity and choose whether the background fades over transparency or white.
4. Export. PNG or WebP for transparency; any format if you faded over white.

Questions about background opacity