Setting up face placement on a template

This tutorial walks you through turning on face placement for a photo layer in a template, detecting a face, and setting the two on-canvas controls — the face-target box and the max content line — so every photo dropped into the layer comes out consistent.

Before you start

• Open the template in the editor and select the photo layer you want to control.
• In the layer's properties, set the fit mode to Top Fill — face placement is an option of this fit mode and the Face placement checkbox only appears when it's selected.
• Upload a sample photo into the layer if it doesn't have one. Face placement needs a real photo with a visible face to detect and preview against — a typical player photo from the kind of shoot this template will serve works best.

Step 1 — Turn on face placement

1. In the photo layer's properties, check Face placement.
2. If the layer already has a photo and no face has been detected yet, detection runs automatically. Otherwise, click Detect Face. (On a fresh layer, Detect Face is available before the checkbox too — running it turns face placement on for you.)
3. On success you'll see a Face detected confirmation, and the editor drops you straight into face-placement editing with the photo positioned to a clean default — the overlays appear on the canvas, ready to drag.

You can enter or leave this editing mode at any time with the Edit face placement button in the properties panel (it reads Editing face placement… while active).

Step 2 — Understand the overlays

• Face-target box — the rectangle on the subject's face. Every photo placed in this layer is scaled and positioned so its detected face fills this box. Its position sets where the face sits; its size sets how large the face appears.
• Max content line — a horizontal line with a translucent band. It's a ceiling: no part of the photo's content (hair, hat, a raised arm) will extend above the line. The band makes the line easy to spot and grab against a busy photo.

Step 3 — Set the face-target box

1. Drag the face-target box to where you want faces to land — for a team-photo slot that's usually the upper portion of the frame.
2. Resize the box to set face size. A bigger box means a bigger face (and a bigger photo) in every render; smaller means smaller.
3. Check the preview as you drag — the photo updates live so you can judge the result with your sample photo in place.

You can drag the box past the edge of the layer's frame; the photo follows your cursor rather than stopping at the boundary.

Step 4 — Set the max content line

1. Drag the line to the highest point you want any photo's content to reach — for example just below a name banner or the frame above.
2. The line can go all the way up to the top of the canvas if you want to allow tall poses free rein.

The line matters most for photos with raised arms, bats, or sticks: without it, a tall pose could push content into the design elements above the slot.

Step 5 — Save

Save the template. Your face-target box and max content line are now part of the layer — every photo added to this layer from now on, in any design made from this template, conforms automatically. Re-uploading a different photo later won't reset your tuning.

Related articles

• Consistent team faces: what face placement does and when to use it
• Detecting faces and tuning placement
• "Show full photo" vs crop: controlling what shows
• Building a team photo: align, distribute, arrange