How to Swap Faces in Photoshop

Last Updated: September 15, 2021 Tested

This wikiHow teaches you how to swap one person's face onto another by taking the facial features of one face and blending it onto another person's face in Photoshop. For this tutorial, you will need two different images of people that have similarly sized faces, where both faces are looking in the same direction. This requires Photoshop CS6 or later.

Part 1

Part 1 of 3:

Outlining the Face

1
Open Photoshop. It's the app with a light-blue "Ps" on a dark background.
2
Open the two images. To open both images of the faces you want to blend;
- Click File
- Click Open
- Hold down Ctrl (PC) or command (Mac)
- Click both images.
- Click Open.
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3
Select the first picture. Click the tab at the top to select the picture you want to start with. This will be the picture of the person you want to borrow the facial features from.
4
Select the Lasso Tool. Click the lasso icon the top of the toolbar on the left of the screen. If you don't see the Lasso Tool, you may need to first click and hold on the Polygonal Lasso Tool and then select the lasso tool.
- You can also press L to instantly switch to the currently selected Lasso Tool.
5
Trace an outline of the facial features. Click and drag the Lasso Tool around the eyebrows and eyes, the nose, the mouth, and include any wrinkles that are connected. Make sure the end of the lasso selection meets back up to where you started. A flashing dotted line will highlight your selection.
6
Copy the selection. You can do this several ways:
- Click Edit then Copy.
- Press Ctrl+C (PC) or command+C (Mac).

Part 2

Part 2 of 3:

Combining the Faces

1
Select the second picture. Click the tab at the top to select the second picture that contains the face we are going to blend the first one with.
2
Unlock the background layer. To do this you can:
- Click the padlock icon.
- Right-click the layer and select Layer from background.
3
Paste the selection. This will paste the outline you just copied from the first picture onto a new layer on the second picture. To paste:
- Click Edit then Paste.
- Press Ctrl+V (PC) or command+V (Mac).
4
Lower the opacity. Click the
next to the Opacity percentage (the default should be 100%) located in the Layers window in the bottom-right of the screen. Drag the slider to the left until you can see both the face and the image underneath it.
- 60% is probably ideal.
5
Click Edit, then Free Transform. This will put the face layer into free transform mode, allowing up to manipulate it further.
- You can also press Ctrl+T (PC) or command+T.
6
Transform the face to match the background face. Warp or stretch the picture to line up the eyes and mouth with the facial features of the background image. You can:
- Grow or shrink the image by dragging the corners.
- Stretch or squeeze the image by dragging the sides.
- Rotate the image by holding the mouse outside the corners and dragging.
- Move the image by clicking inside the box and dragging it.
7
Press ↵ Enter to apply the changes to the image. When you have the image lined up to your liking, pressing Enter will save the change and apply them to the image.
8
Turn the opacity back to 100%. Click the
next to the Opacity percentage and move the slider back up to 100%.
9
Hold Ctrl (PC) or ⌘ Command (Mac) and click the thumbnail of the face layer. This selects the visible pixels in the layer.
10
Click Select then Modify, and then click Contract. This will open a new dialogue window.
11
Type in 6 pixels and click OK . This will make the selection overlap the face a bit.
12
Select the bottom layer and then press Delete. Click the name of the bottom layer to select it, then press Delete. This will delete the face on the bottom layer, leaving a 6-pixel overlap.

Part 3

Part 3 of 3:

Blending the Faces

1
Select both layers. Hold Ctrl (PC) or Command (Mac) and click the name of both layers.
- When a layer is selected, it will be highlighted in gray.
2
Click Edit, then Auto-Blend Layers. This will open a new settings window.
3
Select Panorama and make sure the box for "Seamless Tones and Colors" is checked.
4
Click OK. Your faces have now been blended!

Community Q&A

Question

I've been attempting to do this and it keeps popping up with an error alert. What am I doing wrong?

Community Answer

Maybe your image resolution is not good. Try using a higher quality photo, so you have more pixels.
Question

How do I make Photoshop tools colorful?

Boulaabi Krayem

Community Answer

Use adjustment layers or to edit in Adobe Camera Raw with adjustment layers, you apply edits on a separate layer in the image file, leaving the original image (background layer) intact. The easiest way to access the adjustment layer tools is clicking an icon in the Adjustments panel.
Question

What do I do if the modify option is grayed out and I can't click on it when trying to swap faces in Photoshop?

Community Answer

Use the quick-selection tool and select the face. The modify option should be available once the object is selected.