Tips & Ideas

Jun 22, 2022

How To Blur The Background Of A Photo Like A Pro

Have you ever wondered if you can get the background of your photo to blur without investing in a super expensive DSLR?  Or perhaps you have a great photo already, and there’s an ugly background you’d just love to blur out? Then, we’ve got you covered.

With remove.bg, you can blur a photo's background in seconds — and it’s completely free.

We’re going to walk you through the steps below and show you the four different blurring options you have, and how you can take your pics from this:

To these, in seconds:

Why blur the background of a photo?

Blurring the background of a photo is helpful for many reasons; the main ones we’ve found are to:

  • put the focus on the main subject

  • eliminate any distracting elements in the background

  • give your photo a more professional look and feel 

  • allow for more depth and texture — which makes it more exciting and intriguing to the viewer

It’s a fantastic technique — a simple edit you can try out on your photos in just a few seconds to take things to the next level.

How to blur background of a photo already taken with remove.bg

With remove.bg, you can blur the background of your photo in just a few clicks — both on your desktop and your phone giving you outstanding results. And all that without even touching a complicated tool like Photoshop, to get a really professional look. Let’s dive in:

1. First, select a photo of your choice.

2. Open up remove.bg and simply drag and drop your image onto the platform; remove.bg will have removed your background in just a few seconds. Although this is the platform's main feature, we’re going to show you the neat little trick hidden behind the > Edit button so you can just blur the background you already have.

3. Go ahead and click on > Edit.

4. remove.bg will automatically detect the people in your photo. Then, by clicking on one of the three options in the ‘Blur’ tab on top, the tool will instantly blur the background of your photo. The one to the left applies the least amount of blur, and the one to the right the most. Here’s what that can look like:

5. You'll see a preview of the final image with a default blur effect applied to the background of your image — once you’re done, you can click on > Download > Download image. The image will download and save to your device.

Blur photo background on your phone

You can also blur the background of a photo using remove.bg on your phone:

1. Simply open up remove.bg in your browser

2. Go ahead and upload your photo.

3. Once the tool has removed the background, click on > Edit.

4. You can now select different blur settings.

Once you are happy with the results just download the photo and save it to your device.

How to blur the background of a photo in Lightroom

Blurring the background of a photo using a photo editing software like Lightroom is slightly more complicated than using remove.bg — but it definitely makes sense if you’re already using the tool or want to make exact adjustments. Here’s how you can blur the background of a photo in Lightroom:

  1. Import your image into Lightroom.

  2. Make sure you have activated the to-develop module.

  3. Your next step is to create a mask.

  4. Now go ahead and paint over the background part you would like to blur with the adjustment brush, such as the brush tool.

  5. Next, click on the masks icon in the toolbar.

  6. Now you can manually adjust the blur by dialing down the ‘Sharpness’ and ‘Clarity’; play around with these settings until you’re happy.

You can of course also blur the background using remove.bg and import it into Lightroom to speed up your workflow too.

How to blur the background of a photo in Photoshop

If you’re already using Photoshop, you might also want to use it to blur the background of your photo. Watch this step-by-step tutorial on how to do just that.

The same goes for Photoshop as for Lightroom, if you want to speed up the process you can integrate remove.bg into your workflow and import the photo with the blurred background into the software after following the steps above.

That's it on how to blur a photo's background.

Getting that professional look and feel doesn’t have to be complicated. You can blur the background of a photo you’ve already taken on your computer, your phone, or iPad — all you need is a browser and an internet connection, and it’s completely free. Remove.bg is by far the quickest way to blur any photo and it's bound to be the next tool you’re gonna integrate into your workflow. 

Try it for yourself right away!

All blog posts

Comments

No comments so far.

  • Learn more

  • Magic Brush
  • Individuals
  • Photographers
  • Marketing
  • Developers
  • Ecommerce
  • Media
  • Car Dealerships
  • Enterprise
  • Tools & API

  • API Documentation
  • Integrations, tools & apps
  • Photoshop Extension
  • Windows / Mac / Linux
  • Android App
  • Design Templates
  • Support

  • Help & FAQs
  • Contact us
  • Refunds
  • Platform Status
  • Company

  • Blog
  • Affiliate Program
  • Create automatic designs
  • Video Background Removal
  • Careers
  • About us
  • Press
  • Terms of Service
  • General Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Imprint
Made with love by kaleido.ai
© Kaleido AI GmbH 2023

Thanks for your feedback!

Want to help us improve? (optional)

  • Contribute this image & help us make remove.bg better
  • Teach the Artificial Intelligence
  • Get better results for similar images in the future
Choose if you want us to use this image for quality improvements.
Choose if you do NOT want us to use this image for quality improvements.

Your image will be used for future improvements of remove.bg.

Your image will NOT be used for future improvements of remove.bg.