Blur Photo Background Soft background, sharp you.

How the effect is built

The editor separates the subject, then uses a copy of your own photo as the backdrop and blurs only that layer. The subject sits on top untouched, which gives the shallow-focus look a wide-aperture lens produces.

The person model is preferred here, because portraits are the usual reason for blurring a scene. For a product, plant or pet, switch to Object in the Cut out stage.

The controls and what they do

A moderate blur often looks more believable than the maximum. Real lenses keep some sense of the setting, and a scene smeared beyond recognition can make the subject look cut out.

• Blur runs from 0, which leaves the scene sharp, to 100, which reduces it to soft shapes and color.
• Brightness and contrast lift or deepen the backdrop without touching the subject.
• Saturation drains or boosts the backdrop's color.
• Dim darkens the scene as a whole, pushing attention toward the subject.
• Vignette shades the corners for a gentle frame.
• Black-and-white turns the backdrop monochrome while the subject keeps its color.
• Tint washes the scene with a single hue, useful for echoing a brand color.

Where blurred edges give themselves away

Blur spreads color, so any part of the subject the mask left behind gets smeared into the backdrop and forms a glow around the outline. Before pushing the blur high, check Mask view for gaps around shoulders, fingers and hair, and fill them with the Restore brush.

The opposite problem turns up too: a sliver of background still attached to the subject stays sharp while everything near it softens. Erase or Shift edge takes it away.

Hair is where this effect gets judged most. A slight feather on the edge, with Hair detail turned up, keeps loose strands from looking clipped against the blur.

Everyday uses

Softening the room behind you tidies up a video-call snapshot or a profile photo taken at home. Sellers use it to keep a sense of place in a lifestyle shot while drawing the eye to the item. It can also obscure details you would rather not share, such as house numbers or paperwork; use a strong setting for that, and for anything truly sensitive, a solid color is the safer choice.

Scenes that need extra care

People standing close together, a subject leaning on furniture, or a dim room with little separation can confuse detection, and blur exposes whichever side of the line is wrong. A glass held in a hand and anything caught mid-motion need care as well. Sort out the mask first, then add the blur.

Busy foregrounds deserve a mention as well. If something sits in front of the subject, such as a railing, a branch or a coffee cup, detection has to decide whether it belongs to the subject or the scene. Whatever it decides, that object will be either sharp or soft, and you can paint it into or out of the mask to get the version you want.

Step by step

1. Open the photo. Add a picture whose setting you want to keep but soften.
2. Let the subject separate. The person model is used by default; switch to Object for things and animals.
3. Set the blur strength. Drag the slider between 0 and 100 until the scene recedes.
4. Adjust the backdrop's mood. Use brightness, dim, vignette, black-and-white or tint as you like.
5. Export. Save the full-resolution result as JPEG, PNG or WebP.

Questions people ask