How to ‘Lift’ a Subject From the Background in iOS 16

With iOS 16 (and iPadOS 16 and macOS Ventura),  Apple introduced a cool system-wide feature that lets you “lift” a subject free from photos. Let’s look at how it works.

With the feature you can copy subjects from photos found in screenshots, Quick Look, and Safari. You can copy the subject to your clipboard and past it anywhere. Here’s how:

In Photos

° Launch Photos.

° Choose an image and press and hold on the subject until it “ripples.” This works best if the subject is clearly defined from the background. 

° You’ll see Copy and Share options. Select Copy to copy to the macOS clipboard. Select Share to, well, share the image via FaceTime, Mail, Messages, etc.

This feature also works with paused frames for videos in the ‌Photos‌ app. However, it requires advanced machine learning and image analysis, so is only available on iPhones with the A12 Bionic and newer — in other words, the iPhone XS and later.

You can access the feature in Photos, Screenshot, Quick Look, Safari, the Files app, Mail, and more using pretty much same process. Just long-press on the subject and instantly remove it from the background