Retouch a headshot

A profile photo is the picture people will compare with you on a video call. The values here are prepared low for that reason: skin at 15 per cent, which leaves most of the pore band, and eyes at 10. Neither layer is on when the photo opens — turn on what the picture needs and nothing else.

The Light group fixes the two things that most often let a phone headshot down: it is a third of a stop dark, or the white balance from an office ceiling has turned it green. Exposure moves luminance only, up to one stop either way; temperature and tint move colour, by at most eight units of Cb/Cr.

Most profile slots crop to a square or a circle. With square framing on, the export takes a 1:1 crop centred on the face region, sized so the face fills about half the frame across, and writes it at 512, 800 or 1024 pixels, or a size you type. Move it across or down in the Save panel. The frame never pads: it stays inside the picture.

We do not list sizes for particular platforms; they change, and a square at 800 or 1024 pixels is accepted almost everywhere. Check the site you are uploading to if it states a size.

What this mode runs on

Skin

prepared at 15%, off on open

Eyes

prepared at 10%, off on open

Exposure

±1 stop, luminance only

White balance

≤ 8 Cb/Cr units

Square

512 · 800 · 1024 · custom, centred on the face

• It will not make a headshot look like someone else. No reshaping, no makeup, no age or beauty filters.
• It does not replace the background. This desk works on the face and the light, not on what is behind it.
• It is not a passport photo tool. Document rules forbid retouching; the passport and ID page explains what is allowed.

• Passport and ID photosAppearance locked with the reasons shown, a red-eye check, and a JPG fitted to a form's KB limit.
• Retouching a headshot without changing the personUse local, reversible portrait corrections while preserving texture, shape and identity.
• Face editorEvery layer for one face in one panel, with the values beside them. Nothing reshapes a face.
• How far is too farWhere the caps sit, why they are there, and what the distance readout is measuring.
• Why nothing here reshapes a faceThe one exclusion that is a decision rather than a boundary, and the reasoning behind it.