Combinatorial shape regression is described as a technique for face alignment and facial landmark detection in images. As described stages of regression may be built for multiple ferns for a facial landmark detection system. In one example a regression is performed on a training set of images using face shapes, using facial component groups, and using individual face point pairs to learn shape increments for each respective image in the set of images. A fern is built based on this regression. Additional regressions are performed for building additional ferns. The ferns are then combined to build the facial landmark detection system.