Before we start covering what Subject Masking is, what it does, and how it works in Aftershoot, you need to make sure you have one of three things: a Professional AI Profile, a pre-built AI Style/Creator Style, or an Instant AI Profile.

Learn how to create and train your Professional AI Profile here, how to create an Instant AI Profile here, and how to download a pre-built AI Style or Creator style here.
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Image Masking is the process of isolating a specific part of an image to perform more in-depth and detailed editing. In other words, you are "masking" the part that you don't want to manipulate, separating it from the parts that will undergo editing.

Subject Masking works the same way, except it is focused solely on the people who are in the foreground of the image.

When you edit an image with Aftershoot, be it with your Professional AI Profile, AI Style, or Creator Style, the adjustments are made to the image as a whole.

While using Aftershoot’s AI Subject Masking during an editing session, the AI will detect the people, or subjects, in the image and mask them.

Masked subjects can have another layer of editing added on top, with up to 7 different sliders being adjusted. Alternatively, the edits to the subject can be added by you, with the rest of the image remaining the same.

You decide which suits you better, by choosing between Subject Mask with Edits and Subject Mask Only when enabling AI Masking.

After you run an AI Edit, you can make further editing and masking adjustments through manual editing. Found out more about manual editing in this article.

Several things to keep in mind when using Aftershoot's Subject Masking:

We made sure that this feature is extremely simple and intuitive to use. First, create a new album and upload your images. Then either run a Culling session if you need to do so, or proceed straight to the Edit Tab.

Then, proceed to the right side of the screen and select your editing preferences and AI Profile as usual. There, you can enable AI Masking by simply clicking on the toggle next to its name.

Now, you need to choose from the dropdown menu. Subject Mask with Edits will apply AI-based edits to the generated subject masks. Subject Mask Only will only generate AI-based subject masks without any edits.

With that out of the way, all that's left to do is to run your editing session as you usually would.

Note: You can also subject mask without editing, by selecting Crop & Straighten only instead of an AI Profile. But keep in mind that this is limited to Subject Mask Only, and you won’t be able to use Subject Mask with Edits.

After your AI Edit is finished, you can proceed with manual adjustments. To do that, on the Edit tab, press the L or Enter keys to switch to Loupe View.

Here you can begin to make manual editing adjustments to your images. You can learn more about that in our article on Aftershoot Manual Editing.

To switch to manual Subject Masking, click on the third tab in the upper-right corner of the screen or use the M key shortcut.

On this screen, you will see a red overlay covering your subjects. Adjusting the editing sliders while in Subject Masking will only affect the areas of the image covered by this overlay.

By default, you begin with only your subjects being masked. You can switch to the background by inverting the mask. To do that, click on the first icon on the mask’s tab.

After that, the mask will become inverted, and the slider adjustments you make will only affect the background.

In case the mask is bothering you, it can be hidden by unchecking the Show Overlay checkbox or by using the O key shortcut.

The mask can be manually adjusted through the toolbar controls on the right side of the image.

The first tool allows you to add to the mask. Simply click on it and apply it by clicking on the area of the image you want to cover. You can also enable it by using the K key shortcut.

In case you covered a part of the image that you don’t want to be masked, you can fix that by using the Eraser Tool. To use it, click on the second icon and then click on the part of the mask you want to erase.

The third tool allows you to change the Brush Size, Softness, and Opacity of the brush for more precise masking control.

If you want to revert your changes to the Mask and return it to it’s original state, click on the fourth tool.

Once you have finished applying editing adjustments to the masks, you can compare the results of your work with the original. To do that, click and hold the second icon on the Masks tab.

We hope this article was useful, and if you still experience difficulties or have questions, feel free to contact us at [email protected] - it will be our pleasure to help you out!