How to cut out food from a photo, on iPhone and Android.

iPhone

On iPhone: touch and hold.

Apple calls this “lift a subject”. It works in Photos, Safari, Quick Look and more.

1. Open the photoOpen it full screen in Photos (or pause a video on the frame you want).
2. Touch and hold the dishPress on the food and keep holding until a glowing outline appears around it.
3. Copy itTap Copy (or Copy Subject), then paste it into a message, a note or an email.
4. Or drag itKeep holding, and with another finger open another app, then drop the cut-out into a document there.
5. Or share itTap Share to send it by AirDrop, Messages or Mail.

Android

On Android: Google Photos or Samsung Gallery.

Android has no single built-in tool for every phone; it depends on your photo app.

• Google Photos (most Android phones, including Pixel): open the photo and look for a shimmer around the subject. Press and hold it, then tap Copy or Share. Google says this needs the latest app update and at least 4 GB of RAM; it is also in Google Photos on iPhone with iOS 17 or later.
• Samsung Galaxy (Gallery app): open the photo in Gallery and press and hold the dish. When the outline appears you can copy or share it, or use the three-dot menu to save it as a separate image. Samsung lists Android 14 or later, and not every model supports it.
• Samsung, when it can’t find the dish: open the photo, tap Tools, then Lasso, and draw around the food yourself (Freeform) or pick a shape. You can edit the selected area before saving.
• To paste on another photo (Samsung): clip the dish, open the photo you want it on, open More options and choose Paste from clipboard.

Troubleshooting

Why lift subject isn’t working on your food photo.

Subject detection is trained mostly on people, pets and objects with clear edges. Food breaks its assumptions in a few predictable ways:

• It grabs the plate, not the food. A plate is a clean circle with a sharp edge, so it looks like the subject. Usually you get dish and plate together — which looks good anyway.
• It grabs everything, or nothing. On a crowded table with dishes touching, there is no single subject. Crop the photo tight around one dish first, then try again.
• The dish matches the table. Brown curry in a brown bowl on a wooden table has no edge to find. Shoot on a lighter or contrasting surface if you can.
• Glass and drinks. Clear glasses take on the colours behind them; expect rough edges on drinks.
• Low light and blur. Dim restaurant photos lose the fine edges. A sharp photo matters more than a bright one.
• Old phone or old app. Update iOS or Google Photos. On iPhone the feature needs iOS 16 or later; on Samsung, Android 14 or later.

Shoot for it

How to take a photo that cuts out cleanly.

• Shoot from above. A top-down photo shows each dish as a clean shape with little overlap.
• Leave a gap. Nudge plates apart by a finger’s width before you shoot.
• Contrast wins. Light dishes on dark tables, dark dishes on light ones.
• Avoid the flash. Flash glare on sauces and glazes reads as an edge. Use window light or a friend’s phone torch held to one side.
• Hold still for a beat. The sharper the outline of the bowl, the better the cut.

All at once

Every dish on the table, in one go.

The built-in tools cut out one subject at a time, so a table of six dishes means six rounds of press, crop and copy. PlateDiary, which we make, is built for exactly this: snap one photo of the table and it cuts out every dish and drink into its own save, on your phone, in about a second — Apple’s Vision on iPhone, Google’s ML Kit on Android, both working offline.

If it misses one, the cut-out editor lets you draw around a dish, tap it, or pick a shape, for up to 15 cuts from one photo. Each save keeps the place and the night it came from, so your cut-outs turn into a food journal instead of a camera-roll clutter.

Then what

What to do with your food cut-outs.

• Drop them on a plain background for a menu-style post of everything you ate on a trip.
• Make a collage of the month’s best dishes — see food collage ideas.
• Paste them into a digital journal page next to the receipt and a note.
• Send a friend the cut-out of the cake from their birthday, a year later.
• In PlateDiary, the free share sheet arranges your saves on a coloured or transparent background; the Premium Share Studio adds templates, outlines, text and a looping video — see the cut-out collage maker.