A Remini alternative that keeps your face your own
Remini is built to enhance and rebuild faces. If your photo is already sharp and only the moment is wrong, a blink or a stiff smile, here's a tool that changes less.
Remini became popular for one thing it does very well: taking a blurry, low-resolution or old photo and making the face look sharp. It does that by rebuilding detail the original photo doesn't have. For a scanned photo of your grandparents, that can feel like a small miracle.
For a recent photo that's already sharp, the problem is usually different. The light is right, the focus is right, and you blinked. Or the smile was held too long. Rebuilding the face won't fix that, and it can change the parts that were already fine.
Enhancing a face vs. fixing a moment
An enhancer like Remini redraws the face at higher detail. Because it has to invent detail it can't see, the result can come out smoother, sharper or slightly different from the person: a new texture to the skin, a different shape to the eyes. Many people like the look. Others find that the photo no longer quite looks like them.
A moment fix like Glowly does almost the opposite. It assumes the photo is fine and changes only what went wrong:
- Eyes opens closed or half-closed eyes.
- Smile softens a forced smile or adds a natural one.
- Look turns your eyes toward the camera.
Everything else stays pixel for pixel the same: your hair, your clothes, the background, the grain of the photo.
Before
AfterWhich one do you need?
Use an enhancer when the photo itself is the problem: it's blurry, tiny, old, scanned or heavily compressed.
Use Glowly when the moment is the problem: the photo is sharp and well lit, but you blinked, your smile looks forced, you looked away, or someone else's perfect group photo caught you with your eyes closed.
If you're not sure, look at the photo at full size. If your face looks sharp and the only thing you'd change is the expression, you don't need an enhancer.
Why "still looks like you" matters
Photos of yourself are often for people who will meet you: a dating profile, a work profile, a photo for family. A photo that looks a little better than real is fine. A photo that looks like someone else isn't. Our take on where the line is is simple: fix the moment, not the person.
Trying Glowly
Open the web editor in any browser and choose a photo. Trying touches is free. Saving the full-size photo uses 1 credit or Glowly Plus ($29.99 a year with a 3-day free trial, or $4.99 a week); credits start at $4.99 for 10. Originals and unsaved edits are deleted from our servers after 7 days.
Comparing other apps? We've also written about Facetune and FaceApp, and about how to tell whether any editor changes your face.
Keep reading
- How to brighten a dark photo of your faceYour face is in shadow but the photo is otherwise good? Free ways to brighten it on iPhone, why it often looks worse, and how to fix the light itself.
- How to fix a photo without changing your faceMany AI photo editors redraw the whole photo, and your face drifts with it. Here's how to tell a tool that fixes one thing from one that regenerates everything.
- How to fix eyes not looking at the camera in a photoLooked at the screen, at a friend or just past the lens? Why it happens, how to avoid it, and how to fix where your eyes look in a photo you already have.