You have a photo with two people in it and you want to separate them, maybe to keep one on their own as a sticker, or to use each of them in a collage. Your iPhone can do this on its own, in about a second, for free, without uploading the photo anywhere. The trick is knowing where to press, and understanding why a few photos give you both people at once instead of just the one.
TL;DR: Open the photo in Jodu, press and hold on the exact person you want, and tap Remove BG. Jodu isolates that one person on-device and leaves the rest behind. If two people are standing apart, press whichever one you want. If they're touching with their backs to the camera, they come out together as a single cutout, which is the honest result when the photo shows no clear line between them.
The short version
Add the group photo. Open Jodu, start a project, and drop in the photo. Tap it once to select it.
Press and hold on the person you want. The spot you press is what decides the cut. Hold on the face or body of the one person you're after, and a small toolbar appears.
Tap Remove BG. Jodu lifts that person off the photo in about a second, all on your iPhone. The rest of the group falls away.
Add an edge and place them. Tap Border for a clean sticker outline, or Effects for a torn-paper look. Now you can move, resize, and layer the cutout into a collage.
That's the whole flow. The interesting part is what happens behind that one press, because the result depends on what the photo actually shows.
Why some photos cut cleanly and others don't
Every cutout runs through the same steps on-device. Jodu shrinks the photo for fast analysis, looks for distinct foreground shapes, checks for faces, builds a mask of the person you pressed, and trims to the result. What changes from photo to photo is how many separate people the photo lets it see.
There are three cases worth knowing, and they cover almost everything you'll throw at it.
One person, clear background
The easy case. There's a single subject standing out from the background, so Jodu finds one shape, cuts along its edge, and hands you a clean cutout. Nothing to choose. This is the same behavior as our guide to removing a background from a single photo.
Two people with a gap between them
When two people stand with visible space between them, Jodu sees two separate shapes. This is the case people most want and don't realize is possible: press the person on the left and you get just the left person, press the right and you get the right. The gap is what makes it work. It gives the on-device model a clear line to cut along.
Two people touching, backs turned
Here's the one that surprises people. Two people sitting shoulder to shoulder, especially with their backs to the camera, read as a single shape. There's no gap and no visible faces to tell them apart, so Jodu cuts them out together as one cutout.
This isn't a bug, and Jodu won't pretend otherwise. When people overlap, drawing a straight line between them slices through a body and leaves you with half a head stuck to the wrong person. Offering one honest "both of them" cutout beats handing you a mangled half. The rule Jodu follows is simple: split when the photo genuinely shows two separable people, and fall back to the combined cutout when it doesn't.
What each photo gives you
| Your photo | What you get |
|---|---|
| One person, clear background | A clean cutout of that person |
| Two or more people with space between them | Press any one of them to lift just that person |
| People touching with no faces visible | They come out together as a single cutout |
How it works under the hood
Jodu does all of this with Apple's Vision framework, the same on-device image models built into iOS. It first asks Vision for a foreground instance mask, which finds the distinct foreground shapes in the photo. When two people land in the same shape, Jodu looks for faces with face detection and tries to split them along the line between their faces. If the faces are missing, or the bodies overlap too much for a clean line, it keeps them as one.
The whole thing runs on your phone. The photo never uploads, and it works with no signal. That matters most with photos of people, which is exactly what group shots are.
Tips for cutting out one person cleanly
- Press directly on the person you want. The press point is what picks the subject, so aim for the middle of their body or face.
- A little space helps. If two people are touching, even a small visible gap gives the cut a line to follow.
- Faces forward beats backs turned. Visible faces are what let Jodu tell two overlapping people apart.
- Hair is the hard part for any tool. A border or torn-paper edge hides small rough spots and usually looks better anyway.
- If the photo is dense, crop in first so the person you want is the clear main subject.
What to do with the cutout
Once you've lifted one person, the fun starts. Turn them into a sticker with a clean border, drop them onto a new background, or build a few cutouts into a collage. Cutouts are the backbone of most aesthetic collage apps, and they line up nicely into a seamless Instagram carousel.
FAQ
How do you separate two people in a photo on iPhone?
In a free app like Jodu, open the photo, press and hold on the person you want, and tap Remove BG. Jodu isolates that one person on-device, so you can lift each of them separately. If the two stand apart, you can pick either one; if they overlap with no visible faces, they come out together as one cutout.
How do I choose which person gets cut out?
The spot you press decides it. Press and hold directly on the person you want to keep, and Jodu lifts the subject at that point rather than the whole group.
Why does Jodu cut out both people instead of one?
Because the photo shows them as one shape. Two people touching, especially with their backs to the camera, have no visible gap or faces to split along. Rather than slice through a body and produce a broken cutout, Jodu keeps them together as one clean cutout.
Does cutting out a person upload my photo anywhere?
No. Jodu runs the entire cutout on your iPhone using Apple's Vision framework, so the photo never leaves your device and it works with no signal.
Is it free to cut people out of photos?
Yes. Jodu does one-tap on-device cutouts for free. Free exports carry a small watermark, which a Pro upgrade removes.