You photograph someone against a bright sky or a window. The background looks right, but the face is in shadow. That happens because the camera measures the bright background and sets the exposure too dark for the face. If you raise the whole photo, the background turns white. A face mask selects only the face, so you can brighten the face and leave the background alone.
Face masks work best on RAW photos, and Chobial shoots RAW by default. A face that looks muddy on screen still has plenty of detail in the RAW file. A HEIF has already lost most of that detail. The RAW vs HEIF post compares the two.
Select the face
- Open the photo, tap edit, and choose the Masks tool.
- Tap New mask. Found in this photo shows the subject, sky, people, and each person and face Chobial detected. Each one is a small picture of what it covers. A photo with no masks yet opens straight onto these choices.
- Tap the face you want. Faces are listed as Face 1, Face 2 and so on, up to six.
- The mask opens on the Adjustments tab. To see the mask in red, tap the layers button at the top of the panel.
The face mask is a soft oval from forehead to chin, trimmed to the person's outline. It stops at the edge of the face, so the wall or sky behind the person isn't brightened.
Brighten the face from the RAW data
These are starting points for a backlit portrait.
| Face mask, backlit portrait | Setting |
|---|---|
| Exposure | +0.5 to +1.0 EV |
| Shadows | +20 to +40 |
| Contrast | −10 |
| Temperature | +200 to +400 K, if the shade made the skin blue |
- Raise Exposure first, until you can see the eyes clearly. If you go further, the face starts to glow.
- Raise Shadows to brighten the eye sockets and the area under the chin. Shadows doesn't make the brighter parts of the face shiny.
- Lower Contrast a little to keep the skin soft.
- If the face looks blue, warm it slightly with Temperature. Shade on a sunny day is blue, so a warmer face matches the rest of the photo better.
Stop before the face looks lit. To compare, choose Turn Effect Off from the mask's ••• menu, then Turn Effect On. The face should look as if the camera exposed it properly. If it looks like a spotlight is on the face, you've gone too far. If you can see the edge of the mask, lower Exposure and raise Shadows instead.
More than one person
- Group photo: make the first face mask. Then, on the Selection tab, tap Add and choose Face 2, Face 3 and so on. One set of sliders brightens all the faces.
- Body in shadow too: use Subject or People instead of Face to gently brighten the whole person. Then add a Face mask on top for the last half stop.
- Face not found: Chobial may miss faces that are turned away, very small or deep in shadow. Use a radial gradient instead. Drag an oval over the face and raise Softness. The masks help page shows how.
Fix the sky at the same time
In a backlit photo, the sky is often too bright as well. Add a sky mask with Highlights lowered. Then both the dark face and the bright sky are fixed. The steps are on the masks help page.
The face mask only selects the face, so ordinary sliders like Exposure and Shadows apply there. Chobial doesn't retouch, reshape or generate anything, and the analysis stays on your iPhone.
Free to try
Masks work on any photo without Pro. Saving or sharing a photo with masks needs Chobial Pro. Without Pro, the photo still saves for free, but without its masks. To clean up spots on the face as well, see heal and clone.