How do I offset the crop position when cropping around a face?

The question

"I'm cropping around a face with c_crop,g_face and adding x and y to offset the crop, but the face stays in the center. How do I move the crop position relative to the face?"

You want a crop that's based on the detected face, but with the face placed off-center, or with more or less of the surrounding area visible.

The original asset

The examples use this photo of a woman:

Why x and y don't offset the crop

With c_crop, the x and y parameters set fixed coordinates for the top-left corner of the crop rectangle. When you also set g_face, the gravity and the explicit coordinates conflict, and the x and y values don't offset the crop relative to the detected face. The face stays centered regardless of the values you specify.

For example, this transformation crops around the detected face:

Adding x_50,y_50 or x_200,y_200 doesn't shift the crop from the face:

For details on how x and y work with c_crop, see fixed coordinates cropping.

The solution

There are two ways to get the result you want. Choose one, depending on what you need to adjust:

• Option 1: Adjust the crop tightness with zoom: for simple adjustments to how much of the surrounding area is visible. The face stays centered.
• Option 2: Shift the face with a two-step crop: for precise directional control over where the face appears in the image.

Option 1: Adjust the crop tightness with zoom

To control how tightly the crop frames the face without shifting its position, combine z (zoom) with c_crop,g_face. Values less than 1.0 zoom out, showing more context around the face. Values greater than 1.0 zoom in for a tighter crop.

With c_crop and an aspect ratio

Using ar_1.0 keeps a square crop while z adjusts how much surrounding area the crop includes:

Default zoom (ar_1.0,c_crop,g_face):

Zoomed out (ar_1.0,c_crop,g_face,z_0.5):

Zoomed in (ar_1.0,c_crop,g_face,z_1.5):

With c_thumb for resolution-independent sizing

When you need a specific output size that's the same across source images of different resolutions, use c_thumb. The z parameter keeps working even with w and h set:

Default zoom (c_thumb,g_face,h_300,w_300):

Zoomed in (c_thumb,g_face,h_300,w_300,z_2.0):

For more details, see c_crop, c_thumb, and z (zoom) in the Transformation Reference.

Option 2: Shift the face with a two-step crop

If you need precise directional control over where the face appears in the final image, use a two-step crop:

1. First step: Use c_thumb with g_face and dimensions larger than your target size. The c_thumb crop mode scales the cropped region proportionally to the detected face, so the technique gives consistent results across source images of different resolutions.
2. Second step: Apply c_crop with x and y to shift the crop window within the region from step 1.

Because the second c_crop operates on the already-cropped intermediate image, x and y work as expected, since there's no gravity to conflict with.

In the second step, x and y set the top-left corner of the final crop rectangle within the intermediate image:

• Increasing x: Moves the crop window to the right, which shifts the face to the left in the output.
• Increasing y: Moves the crop window down, which shifts the face up in the output.

This example first extracts a 600x600 region proportional to the detected face, and then crops a 400x400 region with different offsets.

x=0, y=0 (top-left of the face region):

x=150, y=0 (face shifted left):

x=0, y=150 (face shifted up):

Focus on objects other than faces

If your images feature subjects other than people (products, animals, or specific objects), replace g_face with object-detection gravity from the Cloudinary AI Content Analysis add-on. Use g_auto:<object> (for example, g_auto:cat), or g_<object> (for example, g_cat), with any of the techniques on this page to center and nudge the crop around that subject.

Related topics

• Face-detection based transformations
• Image crop modes
• Image gravity for crops