Change a background in Photoshop on iPhone

Replace the background of an image for a fresh look.

Published January 12, 2026

00:01

Introduction

When working in Photoshop on the iPhone, you may want to swap out the backgrounds of your photos, and with selections and masks, you can do just that.

I'm Howard Pinsky, and in this video, I'm going to show you how to easily swap out your backgrounds using Photoshop on iPhone.

Here's an image I loaded in from my camera roll,

00:15

Selecting and masking the main subject

and I want to start by isolating our subject.

So, I'll first tap into Select area.

Then in a second or two you'll see in this list of thumbnails that Photoshop has automatically detected our subject.

From here, you can either tap on the thumbnail or directly on your canvas to select what you want.

I'll tap the subject on my canvas.

With our subject now chosen, tapping the Checkmark will finalize our selection.

Then, to hide everything outside the selection, we'll turn our selection into a mask by tapping Apply as mask down at the bottom.

Look how well the mask cut out the background, even around the complex edges of the subject's hair.

This is a great example of the precision editing you get with Photoshop on iPhone.

Beautiful.

With our subject looking great, we need a new background.

01:00

Adding a new background image

Tapping on the Add button at the bottom will let me bring in a new Image layer, not just from our camera roll, but also from Adobe Stock.

And there's a ton of free content we can use.

I'll search for something like vertical sky, then scroll through until I find something I like.

Now that we have our new image on the canvas, tapping on it will allow us to transform it to fit the space.

And I'd suggest tapping on this button before pulling on the handles, so the new image doesn't get distorted as you transform it.

Perfect.

Almost.

01:35

Reordering layers to place the background correctly

Since our background is on top of our subject, we need to shift it behind.

And there are two ways you can do that.

Tapping on the layers thumbnail at the bottom right will expand the stack, so that you can now tap, hold and drag your various layers up or down, just like I'm doing now to move the background layer behind my subject.

Or, if you'd like to work in a more detailed view of your layers, you can swipe the layers stack over to the left.

Here you can also rearrange the layers by tapping on one and dragging it up or down.

And that's how you can quickly change the background of your images using Photoshop on iPhone.

I'll catch you all in the next one.

What you’ll learn

Swap out an image background

Give an image a new look by replacing its background with another image like a free Adobe Stock image, a photo from your camera roll, an image you generate, or a photo you take.

Start by selecting your subject with an effortless tool like Tap Select. Apply that selection as a mask that hides everything except the subject. Then add an image layer with a new background and drag it below the subject layer. Transform the layer to fit, and you’re done!

Instruction by: Howard Pinsky
Adobe Stock Contributors: Ixpert; nicholas felix/peopleimages.com

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