We’ll cover a few of them in this guide and talk briefly about some others. Options for Blurring Background in PhotoshopĪs with many editing effects, there are multiple different options for blurring background in Photoshop. As part of Adobe’s Creative Cloud Plan, you get Photoshop and Lightroom both for only $9.99/month. If you don’t have it yet, you can get Photoshop from Adobe’s site. Steps to blurring background in Photoshop.Effects of blurring background in Photoshop.Different options for blurring background in Photoshop.Practicing your technique will help you better - and more quickly - employ it in future editing projects. Try experimenting with both of the methods, and even combine some of the elements from both to work on your images. This article will show you two different methods for achieving a blurry background in Photoshop. Fix unintentional foreground or background details.Allow for a dreamier or more creative look.Here are some of the ways a blur effect can enhance your images: You may decide to try adding a blur effect to your image backgrounds in Photoshop for several different reasons. If the background in your image is distracting, blurring it out can solve your problem! So, how do you best blur background in Photoshop? Though you can achieve this effect in camera as you photograph, you might want to add it to an image that you’ve already shot. Many great images use background separation or a blurry background as a composition tool. If you do 1 of these things – you’re on the right track, 2 of them – you’re almost there and 3 of them – you’ll be in BLUR heaven. So, separate your subject from the background as much as you possibly can. If your subject is right up against the background, it will be much harder to not have it in focus. The further your subject is from the background, the more blur you will get. Position Your Subject Away from the Background I can get amazing background blur with my 85, 1.2 or my 70-200mm, 2.8.ģ. The longer your lens, the more background blur you can get! A longer lens allows you to get further away from your subject and zoom in, which will create greater amounts of blur. So, if you focus on your subject’s eyes with a very shallow depth of field, the focus will not cover the background – and wahla – you gots da BLUR! Woo! Depth of field is the amount of the photo that will be in focus. The wider your f-stop is, the smaller the depth of field will be. Try these 3 easy steps and see how you do! I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the results.Ī very large part of a blurry background is caused by a wide f-stop like 1.8, 2.8 or as wide as your lens will go be it 3.5 or even 4. Any time you can make your subject pop out from the background to be the “star of the show” this is a veeerrrrry GOOD THING! You will constantly be impressing friends or on-lookers with your stealth photo skills.īesides impressing people, which is always fun – you will also get drastically better photos. It will allow you to create photos that the human eye cannot see. It can take a busy, despicable background and make it tolerable or dare I say, fabulous! Instead of feeling like an amateur you can feel like a magician with a camera. This is a technique that can take an “ehhhh” photo and make it fabulous. Although, bokeh really is kind of fun to say. But, if you’re like me – you just say blurry – because that’s what it is. Background blur…you want it, I want it, we all want it, right? If you’re a fancy pants you might call it bokeh.
