Remove Tan Lines from a Photo

A beach afternoon, two days before the photo

A bride spends an afternoon at the beach and, two days later, her shoulders carry a bright red mark exactly where her dress straps sit, and the back of her neck is red. In this portrait she looks back over her shoulder with a natural smile, the best expression of the set, but the sharp edge of the sunburn pulls the eye away from her face.

Who uses this

• Anyone with a strap mark or sunburn in a photo they want to keep: a ceremony, a graduation, a family reunion or a vacation portrait
• Photographers asked by a client to soften a temporary skin mark in a favorite portrait
• People with a red neck, nose or shoulders after a day outdoors, in an otherwise good photo

How the edit is handled

A human editor, with AI tools assisting where they help, softens the red band and the red neck so the skin of the neck, shoulders and back moves smoothly into the tone of her face and arms. In this example the skin of her back is evened out at the same time, so most of the small freckles on her shoulders fade along with the red; if you want every freckle and mole kept, say so in your order and the editor will work around them. Her face, her hair, the dress and the deck stay as shot, and are checked at full size.

This is a cosmetic color edit for a temporary mark. It does not judge anything about her skin health, and because the tone of the whole portrait is balanced together, the shade of her face can move slightly along with the shoulders.

What to upload

Send the original photo and say which marks to soften. Shots in even light make the transition easiest to match. If you want the tan line left in place, tell us.

Private: recreated on our own images, not customer photos

The before/after shown here is recreated on images created or licensed for this site — never a real customer's photo. Your upload is seen only by the editor working on it, and the edit comes with free revisions within 14 days of delivery if anything needs adjusting.