Blur the background in Photoshop. The best background blur and bokeh apps for Android and iOS phones

How do professional photographers manage to take such stunning portraits where the subject is perfectly in focus and the background is blurred? There are several techniques you can use to blur the background of a photo - adjusting the aperture and shutter speed settings, using portrait mode and autofocus, editing the image in Photoshop.

Steps

Blurring the background with the aperture setting

Set your camera to aperture priority mode. On the top of the camera body, you will find a dial with different shooting modes, such as "Auto". Rotate it to select aperture priority.

Keep a distance between the camera, the subject and the background.

• To better blur the background in a photo, you need enough distance between the camera and the subject. Then you can use the zoom to bring the foreground into focus.
• In addition, the farther the subject is from the background, the easier it is to achieve a beautiful blur effect. Depending on the characteristics of the lens, try placing the model at a distance of one and a half, 3 or 4.5 meters from the background (back).

1. Get your subject in a medium shot. In other words, let the person be seen approximately to the waist. To take a portrait, you'll probably want to get up close or zoom in so that only the head and shoulders are in the frame. But start at a greater distance to better compose the shot and adjust your settings.

   • Focus on the eyes.
   • Note that the nose, ears and hair will be more or less in focus. When the aperture is closed (high value), the background will also be in focus. If the aperture is wide open (low value), it will be blurry.

2. Use zoom. Reduce the depth of field by zooming in closer to the image. To achieve the smallest possible depth of field, use a telephoto lens or use the maximum zoom setting. Get as close to the subject as you need to.

   • If you are using a telephoto lens, you will have to stand quite far from the model.
   • If you are using the lens that the camera was originally equipped with, you may need to get closer to the model. You should still zoom in as far as the lens allows, and the distance between you and the subject will be less than between the subject and the background. A simple rule: it is better to stand far away and use the zoom than to get too close.
   • Try different zooms and take some test shots to see if you get close to your desired result.

3. Move the camera behind a moving object. If your subject is in motion, follow the camera to keep it sharp and blur the background.

   • Try shooting at different shutter speeds to strike a balance: only the background should be blurry, not the subject.
   • First, set your shutter speed to 1/125 second.
   • Try to keep your body and camera as stable as possible. Follow your subject through the viewfinder and make sure you focus correctly. Shoot confidently with a steady hand.
   • This technique uses the background blur effect to emphasize the movement of the subject, while blurring the shallower depth of field adds volume to the photo, separating the subject from its surroundings.

   Using Other Camera Settings

   1. Install automatic settings and shoot in portrait mode. If you don't have a very "advanced" camera, you can still blur the background of the photo using other settings, such as portrait mode, which will automatically achieve the desired effect.

      • You'll find the portrait mode on the camera's mode dial, usually indicated by a female head icon. Turn the dial to this mode to let the camera automatically adjust aperture and exposure.

   2. Change the autofocus settings in the menu. Press the "Menu" button and select focus settings. On many cameras this will look like a frame of dots, from which the center one is selected (filled with color).

      • By moving the cursor between points, stop the selection at the place closest to where the model's eyes will be in the frame.
      • This will allow the camera to automatically focus on the selected area. The farther away from it, the more the image will be blurred.
   3. • If you are shooting a portrait against, say, a wall, ask the model to stand about three meters away from her (if space allows). In portrait mode, the camera will have to blur the background itself.

   4. Take advantage of the maximum zoom. If you are using the lens that came with the kit, you should use the zoom to zoom in. focal length, that is, the distance from the lens to the subject.

      Blur in Photoshop

      1. Use the Blur Tool in Photoshop to blur the background of the photo. Select the drop icon in the toolbar on the left - that's his Blur tool.

         • At the top of the screen, you'll see brush size and intensity settings. Install them as you wish. Since the background takes up quite a lot of space in a portrait, you should choose a larger brush diameter.
         • Hold down the left mouse button and apply the blur to the desired areas.
         • Keep in mind that this technique will not give true depth - all objects in the background will be blurred evenly, regardless of their distance from the lens. The image, the background of which is blurred during shooting, was obtained in the process of direct processing of visual information (the camera "sees" close and distant objects); the image obtained in Photoshop does not contain such data. Therefore, blurring the background right at the moment of photographing gives a deeper and more natural frame.

      2. Use layers to blur. To do this, you need to create a duplicate layer: Layers> Duplicate layers (Layers> Duplicate layer if you use Russified Photoshop). While in this new layer, select Filters> Blur> Gaussian Blur (Filter> Blur> Gaussian Blur).

         • Your image will now be completely blurred. However, below it is the layer with the original image, which means you can use the Eraser tool to erase the blurred layer in areas that should be clear.
         • Having finished this procedure, use the command Layer\u003e Flatten Image (Layers\u003e Run Flatten). This will merge the two layers - the original one and the one with the blurred background - into one.

      3. Blur the background by converting the image into a Smart Object. This will allow you to apply aperture blur to keep your subject in focus and blur the background.

         If you use enough new version Photoshop, try using the Smart Blur filter (Smart Blur). It evaluates the range of pixels related to the front and to background, and gives you more control over the image. The settings of this filter can be changed, which gives more more possibilities for photo processing.

      • Download the depth of field table and choose the appropriate aperture value for the given distance from the subject to the background according to it. Ideally, the subject should be one third of the actual focal length.
      • This effect is due to the shallow depth of field. In addition to the aspect ratio and open aperture (f / 1.8-2.8), other factors affect the depth of field, including a) the focal length of the lens; b) distance to the subject.
      • Due to the small size of the photo sensor, film (type 110 with a frame size of 13 x 17 mm, Super 8 and others) and digital (1/3 format) compact cameras, or "soap dishes", make it difficult to achieve this result. The easiest way to achieve it is on film camera 35 mm and above (frame size 24 x 36 mm for standard photography), SLR digital camera or a professional camcorder (2/3") equipped with the included lens or a telephoto lens. A large zoom (6x-12x) camera can also capture a picture with a fairly blurred background. Use the zoom and open the aperture as wide as possible (try shooting in aperture priority mode).
      • Depending on the type of camera and lens you have, you will need to vary the distance between the camera, the subject, and the background.
      • You can combine all the mentioned methods to achieve the desired result.

      What will you need

      • A camera with a full-frame sensor equivalent to 35mm film.
      • "Fast" lens with maximum value(opening) f/2.8 or wider. The smaller the f-number, the more the aperture is opened. An open aperture combined with a full-frame image achieves a very shallow depth of field, blurring areas closer to the lens than the subject and further away from it.

This Photoshop tutorial will show you how to add a blur effect to the background of a photo.

In this tutorial, we will use such a type of blur as radial or radiant. And we will apply it only to the background.

So, open your photo in photoshop:

First we need to separate the main image from the background.

1. To make the selection better use the quick mask tool (Quick Mask Mode)
Make sure the colors are set to this position black/white

Take the brush tool and start painting over the part you want to separate from the background (in our case it's the girl)

After you have fully selected the girl, click on the button to the left of the "quick mask" button - it will return you to normal mode. You will see that there are highlights.

2. Press the combination Ctrl + J to copy the selected background to a separate layer.

The panel with layers will look like this:

3. Now apply the "radial blur" filter to the new background layer.
Filter > Blur > Radial Blur .

Set the following options in the window that appears:

Amount: 20 (set this parameter at your discretion)
Method: Zoom

Once all the settings are in place, click OK to see the result!

Hi all. Sergey is in touch.

If you have some beautiful photos and want to blur the background in Photoshop to shift the focus on a certain object or person, then this instruction will definitely help you. I will blur the background on one of my photos. Repeat after me and you will succeed!

Blur the background in Photoshop

We launch Photoshop. Click the menu File - Open and select the photo on the computer whose background you want to blur.

Here's a great photo I chose:

The next step is to choose a selection tool. One of the best is Perot. But it is difficult to select an object with them, and to speed up the process, I will use the Magnetic Lasso tool.

Select a tool and start selecting an object that will not need to be blurred further. By using magnetic lasso you need to click in the place of the object where it is on the border with the background, for example, in the head area. A dot is created and we start tracing people.

Thus, we need to completely select the object. We move the mouse around these people and the tool automatically creates points. If suddenly it messes up somewhere, then we can manually create a point by clicking the left mouse button or delete the extra one by pressing Delete on the keyboard.

After we select the object, I suggest immediately correcting it a bit. We press the menu Image - Correction - Levels.

In the new window, move the left slider 2-15 points to the right, and move the right slider to the left also 2-15 points, depending on the photo.

On the this moment we have these little men. But since we will be blurring the background, we need to highlight nature. Therefore, we press the menu Selection - Invert.

And that's it! The background is now selected.

To blur the background in Photoshop, you need to use filters. Click the menu Filter - Blur - Gaussian blur.

In the window that opens, set the radius. We put approximately the number 7. The main thing is not to overdo it, otherwise the photo will not turn out natural. In general, increase the radius and immediately see the final result. See how much the background blurs.

At the moment I got it like this:

But that's not all. There are still some adjustments to be made here. Let's take the Loupe Tool and zoom in on the photo. You need to pay attention to the border where a person ends and begins blurred background. There may be untreated areas like this one:

It is very easy to fix such small jambs. Select the Blur tool and draw several times over the place that is not blurred.

16.02.2015 27.01.2018

Open the photo in Photoshop. I'll show you how to blur the background behind this girl, and not all of it, but in some places to make it beautiful effect. You can blur your own photo in the same way. The main thing is to select an object that remains in its sharpness. And allocate to the conscience.

Use the Polygonal Lasso Tool to select the object.

Press CTRL + J - this action will automatically cut out what you have selected and place it on a separate new layer. It will be a girl.

Go back to the photo layer and make a copy of it by pressing CTRL+J.

Apply to this copy Filter – Blur – Tilt Offset (Filter – Blur – Tilt-Shift).

Here you can adjust the settings as you wish. Where there is a circle, the place remains sharp. The lines indicate the scope of the background blur, you can move them as you like and even tilt them. You can also adjust the blur strength - for this there is a regulator strip in the circle.

Click OK when done and the background will be blurry.

What is the problem here? If you look closely, you will see that the outline around the girl is nothing more than a girl blurred behind. It is clear that this does not happen in life, and hence it is clear that Photoshop was used as a processing tool in the photo. Our task is to get rid of this jamb.

How this problem is solved in one of the possible ways.

Delete this blurred background layer - we won't need it. You should have two layers - one with the girl, the other - the whole photo. Click with CTRL pressed on the layer with the girl - this way you will get a selection.

Go to the photo layer, and for now turn off the girl layer from visibility (click on the eye opposite the girl layer).

The selection will remain. Press DEL on your keyboard to delete the selection on the photo. Press CTRL+D to deselect. We removed the girl, so in her place there will be an empty image - a white background.

Our task is to paint over this place. For this I used the Clone Tool. I tried to draw it as if the girl was not in the photo, although it’s not necessary to try hard, the main thing is that the shades of the colors in the area being painted over coincide with those lying nearby - that’s the whole point.

Now turn on the layer with the girl in visibility, and blur the background with the same filter as we did before. Now the result is quite different. In this case, only the background behind is really blurred, and not the background with the girl. It is much more pleasant to look at and the work looks much better.

In this photo, I'll show an example of a completely blurred background. Just apply the Gaussian Blur filter. This effect is also in fashion now, because it looks gorgeous. The technique is the same, only a different filter is applied.

The only problem that may arise here is how to select such complex parts of the image as hair. For this, I have a special free video course -.

Such a blurred background is perfect for inscriptions.

Unfortunately, ordinary compacts and smartphones most often do not know how to create beautiful bokeh. This is due to the fact that a smaller matrix is ​​​​embedded in such devices. What should owners of budget cameras do? You can recommend them to use the Photoshop program, where it is easy to make a blurry background. All you need is the appropriate practice, which you will now receive.

How to blur the background in Photoshop?

First you need to clarify that not every photo is suitable for blurring the background. It is best to choose a shot in which the person's legs are not visible, as well as closely spaced objects. In our case, a person is standing against the background of a forest, this frame is ideal for processing. If there were also a bush or a tree in the foreground of the photo, then great difficulties would arise.

Immediately, you should remember that the desired effect is achieved using the Gaussian Blur function. If you apply it to any picture, you get the feeling that the photographer forgot to focus his camera. But we need to understand how to blur the background in Photoshop, not the whole image. Therefore, you should first select the object that remains in the sharpness zone. There are several ways to do this. The easiest is to use the Magnetic Lasso tool. If you already know how to use it (in one of the previous lessons we talked in detail about its work) - this is very good. If you do not have enough skills, then you have to sweat. But in this lesson we will only touch briefly this method. First of all, it is worth talking about how you can get a blurry the background with the help of a mask. For a beginner it is difficult, but the result is impressive. It may take you 15-20 minutes to process one photo.

Blurred background in Photoshop CS5

First you need to create a copy of the existing layer. This is done in the Layers panel. Just open this palette and press Ctrl+J. You can also drag the Background layer onto the Create New Layer button. This will also cause a copy of it to appear.

The newly appeared layer needs to be blurred. As mentioned above, the Gaussian Blur filter is used for this. It is on the path "Filter-Blur-Gaussian Blur". The filter is adjusted by dragging the slider that affects the blur radius. Focus on the background at this moment. It should be blurry as if you were taking a picture with a SLR camera at a wide aperture. Do not overdo it, otherwise the picture will not look realistic. If the changes are not displayed on the photo, then check the box next to the “View” item. This creates a blurry background in Photoshop CS5 later.


When the degree of blur suits you, click the "OK" button. Now we need to apply a layer mask to this layer. To do this, go to the path "Layers-Layer-Mask-Show All". You will not notice any external changes after clicking on this item. But in the Layers panel you will see a white rectangle.

And now the hardest part begins. Masks in Photoshop allow you to remove the effect of the applied filter from the specified areas. Therefore, you need to tell the program that the person in the photo should remain sharp. To do this, you will have to completely paint over it with black. This is tricky, so zoom in on the image to 100%.

Select black, then switch to the brush tool. Set the hardness to 20%. The diameter depends on the resolution of your photo and the size of the person. When the diameter suits you, start painting in black on the subject.

Make a Blurred Background in Photoshop

Gradually, you need to make the whole figure of a person sharp. It is not scary that you will slightly go beyond its edges. At any time, you can press the Latin key X. This will change the black color to white. Now all that remains is to pass the brush over those places that have inadvertently become sharp. The filter action will be applied to them immediately.


Walk in white along the contour of a person. You must ensure that even a piece of the background is not sharp. For accuracy, you can reduce the brush size and zoom in to 200-300%.

Most of the work is ready: we have already succeeded in making a blurry background in Photoshop. But around a person now there is a kind of halo with its blurred outline. You need to get rid of him. For this, the stamp tool is used.

Merge both layers into one. To do this, go to the path "Layers - Flatten". The background layer needs to be unlocked. To do this, double click on it in the Layers panel and give it some name. Next, use the stamp tool. Set the pressure to 10%. It remains only to remove all existing artifacts. How to work with this tool - you should already know. If this is not the case, then Photoshop will explain everything to you. In short, this tool copies one area of ​​the image to another location. The area to be copied is selected by pressing the Alt key and the left mouse button. Then click next to the outline of the person so that a stamp in the form of a copied circle appears on it. Do not forget to adjust the diameter of the brush, otherwise you run the risk of climbing too hard on the figure of a person or taking too long.

As a result, we get a very good image. Some may get the impression that it was obtained with a good lens and a SLR camera. But in fact, it is enough just to take a closer look at how some artifacts will become noticeable. Only very painstaking processing of a photo, which sometimes takes an hour, will help get rid of them. That is why experienced photographers use high-aperture optics. It is better to spend a decent amount, but then save a large number of time.

How to blur background in Photoshop CS6?

As for the second way to blur the background in Photoshop, it is very similar to the first. A copy of the background layer is also created, and the unlocked background layer is blurred using the above method. Then you must go to the top layer and select the person with any convenient way. The most commonly used tool for this is the Magnetic Lasso tool. Then it remains only to invert the selection and enjoy the result. This way you can also blur the background in Photoshop CS6 and later versions of the graphic editor.

This concludes our lesson. Today you learned another useful skill that you can then apply to almost any portrait shot. Now you know how to blur the background in Photoshop, which should only make your photos look better.