Guides · Photos of yourself

Didn't like the photo? How to retake it after you've left

Updated 12 November 2026 · 4 min read

You are home, scrolling through the trip, and there it is: the one photo of you from that place, and you hate it. Eyes half shut, a strange angle, the selfie arm. You can't go back. Here is what you can still do.

What editing can fix

• Brightness and colour. Lift the shadows, warm it up, bring back a blown sky a little.
• Crop. Cut the selfie arm out, move yourself off centre, straighten the horizon.
• Small distractions. A bin, a stranger at the edge: most phone editors can remove them now.
• Pick a better frame. If it was a Live Photo or a burst, a different frame may have your eyes open.

What it can't

The angle you were shot from, how you were standing, your expression, and the part of the place that was never in the frame. A selfie stays a selfie however well you edit it. If that is the problem, editing is the wrong tool.

Start from a photo of the place

Most people take more photos of places than of themselves. Somewhere in your camera roll there is probably a picture of that view, that café, that street, with nobody in it. That is the photo to start from.

In BackPix, choose that photo from your library instead of framing the place live. With the selfie you have saved, it makes new photos of you in that view, generated with AI, and you keep the ones you like. A plain photo of the place works much better than one where you already fill the frame.

Next time: take the place, too

A habit worth having: wherever you would like a photo of yourself, also take one of the place on its own, from where someone would stand to photograph you. It costs one tap, and it means you can always make the photo of you later, even if nobody took one at the time.