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AI Background Changer: How to Swap Photo Backgrounds That Look Real

Change the background of product photos and portraits with a prompt: what to write, how to keep edges, light and shadows natural, using a background reference image, and what this site can't do (no transparent PNG).

Upload your photo, write "Replace the background with ___. Keep [the subject] exactly the same.", leave the aspect ratio on auto and generate. What makes the result look real is the light: describe a background whose light matches your subject's, and ask for a shadow where the subject touches the ground.

The AI background changer opens the editor with a starting prompt. This guide covers what to write for products and people, and the limits worth knowing first.

The prompt

Replace the background with [the new place or backdrop], [light that
matches the subject]. Keep [the subject] exactly the same.

Three parts:

  1. The new background, concrete: "a marble kitchen counter with a blurred window behind", not "a nice kitchen".
  2. The light: its direction, softness and colour. This is what blends the subject in.
  3. The keep line: name the subject and the details that must not change.

Product photos

Products are the most common use, and the easiest to get right: the object is rigid and the light is simple.

Clean studio background

Replace the background with a seamless light-grey studio backdrop. Soft
light from the front left, a soft shadow under the product. Keep the
product, its label and its colours exactly the same.

Pure white for a shop listing

Replace the background with pure white (#FFFFFF), evenly lit, with a
faint natural shadow under the shoe. Keep the shoe exactly the same.

If a marketplace has strict background rules, check the result against them before you upload it.

Lifestyle scene

Place the coffee bag on a rustic wooden table in a sunny café, coffee
beans scattered around it, warm morning light from the right, background
softly out of focus. Keep the bag's shape, colours and printed text
exactly the same.

Tips for products:

  • Match the camera angle. A bottle shot at eye level looks wrong on a table seen from above. Say "seen at eye level" or "seen from slightly above", matching your photo.
  • Ask for contact shadows. "A soft shadow where the bottle meets the table" anchors the object. Without one it can look like it floats.
  • Glossy and glass products reflect their surroundings. Add "with subtle reflections of the new background" for bottles, jewellery and phones.
  • Labels and small text. Add "keep the label text exactly as it is" and zoom in on the result. If the lettering changes, try Nano Banana Pro or GPT Image 2, which handle text best.

Portraits

Replace the background with a softly blurred city street at dusk, warm
shop lights behind her. Keep her face, hair, expression, pose and
clothes exactly the same.
Replace the background with a plain mid-grey wall for a professional
headshot, soft even light. Keep his face, hair, glasses and suit
exactly the same.

Tips for people:

  • Name the face and hair in the keep line. Hair is the hardest edge; it comes out cleaner from a sharp original photo than from a soft or small one.
  • Keep the light direction. If the sun hits the person from the left, ask for a background lit from the left. Light that disagrees with the subject is the most common reason an edit looks pasted.
  • Use depth of field. A slightly blurred background ("softly out of focus") hides small mismatches and looks like a real portrait lens.
  • Render at 2K when the person fills only part of the frame. More pixels means more detail in the face and hair.

Using a background photo

To put the subject into a specific place, upload the place as a second image:

Place the person from Image 1 into the scene from Image 2, standing on
the path in the centre. Match the late-afternoon light of Image 2. Keep
the person's face, hair and clothes from Image 1.

Put the subject first. With the aspect ratio on auto, the result takes the shape of Image 1; choose a ratio if you want the background photo's shape instead.

Keeping edges and shadows natural

  • Start with a good original: a sharp subject and even light. A subject that is blurred or lost in shadow gives the model less to keep.
  • Describe the light as you'd see it: "soft overcast light", "low warm sun from the right", "bright studio light from above".
  • Ask for the shadow and say where it falls.
  • Match colour temperature: a subject shot under warm indoor light looks off on a cold blue beach. Pick a background with similar light, or ask to "adjust the subject's colour to match the new light" (it will change the subject slightly).
  • One background change per pass. Then make other edits on the result.

More prompt patterns are in our image-to-image prompt guide.

Limits

  • No transparent PNG. Every result is a full image with a background; this site doesn't export cut-outs with transparency. If you need one, generate the subject on a plain white or solid-colour background and remove it with a cut-out tool.
  • The whole image is regenerated. There is no brush or mask; the prompt decides what changes. Small details on the subject (a logo, the text on a label, a ring) can shift, so check them at full size.
  • Uploads: JPEG, PNG or WebP, up to 10 MB each.
  • Resolution: up to 4K on Nano Banana 2, Nano Banana Pro and GPT Image 2; up to 2K on Seedream 5.0 Flash.
  • Your photos only. Use images you have the rights to, and photos of people who agreed to it.

Which model and what it costs

Nano Banana 2 is the default and works well for most product and portrait backgrounds: 2 credits at 1K, 3 at 2K, 4 at 4K. Use Nano Banana Pro (4–6 credits) when packaging text must stay exact, and Seedream 5.0 Flash (2 credits up to 2K) to try several backgrounds cheaply. The model comparison has the details.

New accounts get 10 free credits, and failed images are refunded. Change a background now.

Read more

Image-to-Image Prompt Guide: How to Write Edit Prompts That Work

Lead with the change, name what to keep, refer to uploads as Image 1 and Image 2, and leave the aspect ratio on auto. Recipes and 10 example prompts for background swaps, restyles, outfits, product scenes, object removal and colorizing.

Nano Banana 2 vs Nano Banana Pro vs GPT Image 2 vs Seedream 5.0 Flash

Which image model to pick for faces, products, text and posters: speed, resolution, reference images and price per image in credits and dollars, with links to Google, OpenAI and ByteDance's own pages.