Remove the background from a photo, free and on your device

What this background remover does and who it’s for

The Lightframes background remover separates the main subject of a photo from its background and lets you make the background transparent, replace it with a solid colour, or blur it. It is useful for product shots on a clean backdrop, profile pictures, stickers and cut-outs for designs, or a shallow depth-of-field look on a phone photo. Unlike most online removers, it doesn’t ask for an account or credits and it doesn’t send your photo anywhere. It is part of a full photo editor, so you can adjust exposure and colour in the same place.

How the on-device AI works

The subject is detected by an AI model that runs in your browser, on your device’s processor, so the photo never leaves your computer or phone. Step by step:

1. The first time you choose a background mode, the editor downloads the IS-Net segmentation model (45 MB). The download is checked against a SHA-256 hash and stored in the browser’s cache, so it only happens once.
2. The model runs with ONNX Runtime Web inside a Web Worker, so the editor stays responsive while it works. It looks at the photo scaled to 1024 × 1024 and returns a mask of the main subject.
3. Lightframes cleans the mask, dropping small floating specks the model may leave in busy backgrounds while keeping a soft margin so hair and fuzzy edges survive.
4. The mask is computed once per photo and reused for the preview, the export and any crop, so changing the framing doesn’t run the model again.

After that first download, background removal works offline. The edit is non-destructive: the original file is untouched, and switching back to Original restores the photo.

Background modes and options

Mode	Result	Options
Original	Photo unchanged	—
Remove	Subject on transparency	Exports as PNG (or WebP)
Color	Subject on a solid colour	White, off-white, black, light blue, or any custom colour
Blur	Original background, blurred	Amount 0–100

Fix the cutout appears whenever a mode other than Original is active:

• Brush toggles a refine brush you paint with directly on the photo.
• Keep paints parts of the subject back in, such as a hand or the edge of a product.
• Erase paints away background the model kept.
• Size sets the brush size, and Reset clears all your brush fixes.

The same subject detection powers the Subject mask in the Local tab, so you can also brighten or recolour just the subject without removing anything.

Tips for cleaner cutouts

• Photos with one clear subject against a distinct background give the best results.
• Do colour and exposure edits as usual; they apply to the subject and, in Blur mode, to the background too.
• Use Color with white for marketplace-style product photos, then export at Web size.
• For a batch, paste the Background setting before using the brush. Brush fixes are copied with it and only fit the photo they were painted on.
• To remove a distracting object instead of the whole background, use remove objects from photos. To enlarge a small cut-out, use the AI image upscaler.

Limitations

• The model sees the photo at 1024 × 1024, so on very large photos fine detail like individual hairs is approximated and may need the brush.
• It finds the most prominent subject. Groups, busy scenes and subjects that blend into the background can need manual fixes.
• It runs on the CPU, so the first detection on a slow phone can take a while.
• The first use needs an internet connection for the 45 MB download, and clearing site data removes the cached model.
• The fixed social-media export sizes (IG 4:5, IG 1:1, Story) add a solid border, so use Original, Web or a custom size for transparent output.

Questions about privacy, offline use and browser support are answered in the FAQ.