Blur the background of a photo from a computer. Blur the background in the photo online

Hello to all those who came to my blog. Today is such a great weather. Finally feel the spring. And with such a spring mood, I would like to tell you about one thing. Now many people already have cameras with which we can make beautiful portrait photographs with a clear display of the main characters and background blur.

But still, not every camera has such a function yet (mostly only SLR cameras), and most people use smartphones, which also cannot shoot with a blurry background, but you want to beautiful photo. Am I saying right? There is a way out, as usual, and today I will tell you how to do it in Photoshop blurred background. It's not difficult at all.

Archive brush

The easiest way to do this is to use the familiar . But first, let's open the image in Photoshop where we want to blur the background. I chose a photo of a girl on Red Square.

Do it carefully. If you suddenly hurt too much, then always. But don't do it all in one click. It is better to periodically release the mouse so that in case of an error you do not return to the beginning.

Well, that's about all. Looks beautiful. But let's look at a couple of other ways to broaden our horizons.

Eraser

In principle, everything here is the same as in the previous example, but with a small exception.

Many people prefer to use a layer mask in these cases, although I do without it in such cases. But just in case, I'll show you anyway. It won't take much time.

Layer mask

That seems to be all. Whichever way you choose, the result will be the same: Our friend is depicted with normal clarity, and the background is blurred. That is, it immediately becomes more beautiful and spectacular. see for yourself. By the way, which method do you like best? Write, I'm interested.

No, Photoshop is still a great tool for working with images. I am still surprised - what a powerful, convenient and interesting editor it is. And at least knowing the basics will always come in handy in Everyday life.

By the way, if you want to learn Adobe Photoshop in the shortest possible time, then be sure to check out this wonderful video. All lessons are built in order, no extra water, everything is on the shelves. And most importantly, everything is shown on live examples and told in human language. It will be clear to any user level.

Well, that concludes my lesson today. I really hope that it was interesting and useful for you. Therefore, I recommend that you subscribe to blog updates to keep abreast of everything interesting. Well, I say goodbye to you for today, see you in other articles. Bye bye!

Sincerely, Dmitry Kostin

Greetings, dear reader! I'm in touch with you, Timur Mustaev. I am often asked how to make a blurred background on a camera, and I always answer them that this cannot be done on a camera, it can be done using a camera and an adjacent lens. This is what will be discussed today in this article.

Of course, you can get a beautiful blur, but only on the image itself. And do it with a camera (not on it). Correct staging question or problem is half the answer. So before you experiment with photography, you should understand the terminology.

What is bokeh?

Today's lesson will be interesting, as always, and creative. I'll show you how to make an attractive background blur in a photo. In another way it is called bokeh. As you may have guessed, the main object remains untouched, and around it the objects and the landscape disappear from the field of view, turning into a color spot, somewhat reminiscent of fog.

It all looks very impressive, many people love bokeh for its ability to highlight the main character of the frame and enhance the sense of perspective of the entire photo. The first moment is significant for portrait shooting, the second - more for landscape.

I often notice blurry backgrounds in commercial shots, including famous wedding photographers. But, perhaps, earlier this technique was more popular, but now it is losing its originality. Bokeh, natural or artificial, is pleasing to the eye, but they no longer surprise anyone.

Technical highlights

It doesn’t matter what kind of camera you have, Canon, Nikon or, for example, Sony, you can make a beautifully blurred background on any of them, because the principle is the same. The main thing is to be able to use the capabilities of the camera. To a greater extent, this effect does not depend on the company or the internal structure of the camera body, but on the optics, in particular on the aperture value (f). There are several ways to easily blur the background. Let's distinguish two groups:

Using camera settings

Diaphragm: you set the minimum value of f, i.e. 3.5, 2, 1.8…, thereby reducing the depth of space in the image and reducing the number of clearly visible objects.
Focal length. Turn your zoom as far as possible on the lens to achieve blur. Or use long lenses where the focal length is 105mm, 200mm, etc. Wide-angle lenses will not give the desired effect.
Physical distance to the object (in meters). Take a few steps towards your subject. BUT: You can get close to the subject, but the camera will not want to shoot. This means that you overdid it and exceeded the allowed minimum distance for photographing your optics - step back slightly.
Focus ring, spot focus. The camera lens has an outer ring for manual focus adjustment. Adjust it if otherwise blurry background cannot be achieved. Also, choose in the settings not auto, but 1-point focusing, pointing it at the desired object. With the automatic option, the device itself will determine which parts of the image to make clear, but this situation does not suit us at all.

I note that all of the above methods work for one indicator - depth of field in photography. This is the depth of field of the entire surrounding space that falls within the boundaries of the frame. And we need to work to reduce it. Subject to specified points only one area, usually in the center of the viewfinder and hence the picture, will be perfectly sharp, while the rest will become increasingly blurred as it approaches the edges.

External accessories and items (special nozzles, cardboard, etc.)

Very successfully, you can use a translucent scarf for these purposes. It will enliven the photo with brightness or add tenderness with pastel colors. Lights look interesting and funny, for this an ordinary garland located near the lens is suitable. It is not necessary to place these objects symmetrically with respect to the main object: fill the empty space with them on one side, and balance the composition with the main object on the other. With special attachments, everything is easier - put it on and take a photo.

Making a blurry background

I remind you that you can “play” with the background not on the camera itself, but on the image with the direct participation of the camera and setting the settings. The only thing that we can do on the device is a device like an external nozzle, in order to end up with bokeh in the picture. For those who still have a bad idea of how to achieve the effect of blurring or blurring the background of a photo, I outlined a few simple steps:

Select a subject to shoot. Let's say it's a person. Decide on the place where it will be located. Let the character be removed from the background.
Fix the device for blurring the background (bag, light scarf, etc.) on the lens in such a way that it partially, along the edges, covers the glass. It's so useful for enhancing bokeh and creative experiences.
Set the minimum aperture that is possible on your optics. You need manual mode, you can select aperture priority.
Set the focus to single point and focus the main point on the person. Shoot.

By the way, you can use the services of graphic editors to create the desired blur. If your technique is of poor quality, you will hardly notice any blurring in the image. This is where Photoshop knowledge comes in handy.

In the filters section there is such a Gaussian Blur tab. Choose the area you want and you're done! Beauty, and nothing more, and without the hassle of shooting. This is also convenient if there is no blur on the original photo, and you decide that it is necessary there after photographing.

or My first MIRROR- very competent and useful course, especially for a beginner. They describe in more detail and examples how to make a beautiful blurred background. They contain a large number of lessons in all areas of photography. After watching, you will appreciate the effectiveness of video courses.

My first MIRROR- for adherents of the CANON SLR camera.

Digital SLR for beginners 2.0- for adherents of the NIKON SLR camera.

- a video course, more aimed at post-processing photos using the powerful Lightroom program. There are a lot of useful tricks for high-quality photo processing in the course.

Lightroom is an indispensable tool for the modern photographer.

You are probably wondering why these courses, because there are many others on the Internet? I will say right away that there are a lot of others, a whole bunch of them, but the question is, are they of high quality? Not always. I have looked at many other courses, but they are very far from the quality that I recommend. But as they say, the choice is always yours! My job is to recommend quality!

Happy readers! If you have not yet been familiar with such a great way to diversify your work, then by all means give it a try. Experiment with both people and non-living objects. Notice how moving away from something, someone, or closing the aperture changes the blur zone. Good luck! And remember that you can easily subscribe to my blog, where there are many more useful information for photographers.

All the best to you, Timur Mustaev.

I used to think that the only way to blur the background of a photo was with Photoshop. But in reality, everything turned out to be much faster and easier. Today I want to teach you how to blur the background with reflex camera.

How to make a blurry background?

1. Position your subject correctly.

2. Switch to aperture priority mode

3. Set the maximum zoom on the lens

4. Use fast lens(if possible)

This is enough to blur the background of the photo using a reflex camera. If you want to know the details, read on.

1. Position your subject correctly

Firstly, if you want to get a beautiful background blur, then you should not take pictures against garbage containers, dirty cars, benches, and even more so against a brick wall. Try to find a suitable background for shooting, so that the photo turns out to be artistic.

ATTENTION! The background you choose should be about 50-100 meters behind the person you are photographing. And you should be as close to the person as possible.

For example, consider two photographs taken on a Nikon d5300 with an 18-55 lens. Both photographs were taken at a maximum magnification of 55mm.

A) There are two mistakes here, firstly, the photographer is standing far away, even the maximum magnification of 55 mm cannot compensate for this distance. Secondly, the photographer positioned the model incorrectly. Even if you blur the background of the photo, it will be angular and uninteresting.

B) Everything is done right here, great choice background and professional positioning of the model.

2. Choose aperture priority.

To switch to Aperture mode, turn the wheel to the letter "A".

By using this mode, we can control aperture to blur the background of the photo. Other settings will be set automatically, such as white balance, exposure and shutter speed, so you can fully concentrate on your work.

In order to blur the background with aperture, you need to know the following:

1. Aperture values look like this: F / 3.5 (maximum), F / 4, F / 5 (minimum) and more for an 18-55 lens

2. If you have a fast lens, then the values will start from: F / 1.2, F / 1.8 and higher

3. Photo will be brighter and blurry at f/1.2 (maximum)

4. Photo will be darker and sharper at f/11 (minimum)

5. Blurring the background in a photograph using a diaphragm can only be done with a fast lens.

6. You will not be able to blur the background beautifully if you take pictures on wide angle lens or at focal lengths up to 55mm.

Take a look at the example, Nikon d5300, 18mm focal length, aperture 3.5:

And another example, Nikon d5300, 50mm, aperture 1.8:

ATTENTION! If you have a lens with multiple focal lengths, such as 18-55, 18-135, 18-300, etc., then the further you zoom in, the more limited your choice of aperture. For example, let's take an 18-55mm lens and set it to its maximum value of 55mm, so the aperture selection will start at f/5.6.

3. Set the maximum zoom on the lens.

Tele lenses with a maximum focal length of 135mm, 200mm, 300mm are the fastest and easy way to blur the background of a photo. All that is needed is to fulfill the two previous points, i.e. correctly position the subject, set the aperture value to the maximum (f / 1.8, f / 3.5, f / 5.6 - depends on the light power of the lens) and increase the focal length to the maximum, for example, by 135mm. If you don't have a telephoto lens and you are using a standard 18-55mm. Then shoot only at 55mm, and get as close to the subject as possible.

Another advantage of a telephoto lens is the quality of the background blur, depending on the aperture and quality, you can get amazing artistic photos.

For example, a 70-200mm VR F/2.8 lens was used for this photo:

A 300mm VR F/2.8 lens was used here:

4. Use a fast lens.

Many people buy cheap lenses because they don’t see much difference, here 200 mm and there 200mm, so why pay more? As a rule, the price of such lenses depends on the quality of the design, assembly and aperture. The coolest and highest quality lenses are marked with the letter "L". These are professional, fast lenses.

What is the difference between a fast lens and a regular lens?

You can write about this for a very long time, and so that you do not have to read a lot of text, I decided to show it with an example. Let's take a look at the photos to appreciate the difference.

As you can see, the fast lens blurred the background, while the regular lens blurred it a bit. So the differences are obvious, if you want to know how to blur the background in a photo, just attach a fast lens, set the aperture to maximum (f/1.4) and take the picture.

How to blur the background of a photo using Photoshop?

If you have already taken a picture and want to blur the background on your computer using photoshop. Then I will tell you how to do it.

1. Open the photo in Photoshop

2. Duplicate the layer

3. Blur the duplicated layer by gauss (choose the value yourself to your taste)

4. Then hide the blurry layer using the eye icon.

5. Take the Magnetic Lasso and outline a person or object (what should be in sharpness)

6. Without dropping the selection, display the blurred layer again, and press the Del button.

After we opened the photo in Photoshop, we need to duplicate the layer, to do this, transfer it to the leaf icon, see the image: As a result, you should get two layers.

Set the value as you see fit. I set 9.6:

Then click OK, and in the toolbar, select Magnetic Lasso, as I have in the image below:

After that, hide the blurry layer using the eye icon, see image below:

Switch to the first layer (if you did everything right, it should glow blue, see image below):

Using the magnetic lasso, select the person or object that should be in focus:

Once you're done, turn on the blur layer and switch to it.

Now it's very simple press the Del button on the keyboard and the job is done. You get the following result, see below:

I didn’t try too hard, it could have been much more accurate, but I did it as an example, I’m sure you will achieve excellent results if you practice.

If you have any questions, ask in the comments, we are always happy to answer.

In addition to sharpening and detailing, you can use other techniques to get a unique, memorable shot, for example, the opposite effect - blurring and blurring individual details. This approach will allow you to focus on the central figure of the entire composition, add emotional coloring, movement, volume to the picture, add a little mystery to the story. By using correct settings camera, simple techniques and the capabilities of a graphic editor, you can make a blurry background, foreground, vignette along the contours of a photo, contrast the sharpness of individual elements and the blurring of individual details.

Blurring the background in an image can be done in three ways:

Use the capabilities of the lens, the maximum open aperture, the minimum depth of field and other equipment settings;
The "Blur" tool of the Adobe Photoshop graphics editor and its variants;
Mobile applications and smartphone camera capabilities;

For a professional photographer, “power” will not be enough mobile applications. It is better to use the first 2 methods individually or in combination. Any of these options will require you to have knowledge and understanding of the process. Let's consider each of them in more detail.

Camera lens to blur the background

The technical characteristics of the camera and the matrix will not affect the ability to blur individual details, the lens will be responsible for this moment. It is better to take a fast lens, with it it will be easier to fulfill the other prerequisites for obtaining beautiful bokeh.

Bokeh is an optical effect in a photograph, the blurring of individual elements, light sources, as well as artistic highlights and reflections in the picture, which make up a harmonious picture with the rest of the details. Bokeh is an interesting tool that gives a photo a fairy-tale mood, adding attractiveness to objects and the background of the image.

When setting up the camera to get a blurry background, you need to pay attention to the following important parameters:

Aperture opening degree;
Distance to the object;
Focal length;
IPIG;
Macro mode.

Aperture settings. To get a blurry background, you need to narrow the distance where the objects in focus will be as narrow as possible so that the foreground and background do not fall into it. This achieves blur or blur in the picture. To do this, select the manual adjustment mode and set the maximum possible opening of the aperture flaps in this situation. In numbers, the value will be, on the contrary, small - f / 1.8, for example. In this case, by placing the focus point on the subject, you will automatically bring the details far behind it into the blur zone. The more the aperture is opened and the f-value is smaller, the more objects around the subject will be blurred.

Depth of Field of View, or DOF. In fact, this is the parameter for which other settings are selected. DOF - an area in which all objects are sharp, the rest are blurry. To put it simply, at a certain distance from the photographer there is an imaginary line of the beginning of the sharpness zone, a little further - the end line.

The range and extent of the depth of field depends on focal length lens, the distance of the photographer and the degree of opening of the aperture. With a decrease in the value of f, that is, opening the aperture, the depth of field narrows, as with an increase in the focal length. To get the most blurry background, reduce the sharpness zone.

Focal length. Speaking roughly, the parameter is responsible for the sharpness of the object when approaching. The higher the focal length of the lens, the farther the object can be located. Standard standard lenses are in the range of 18-50mm. To create a blurred background, you will need the longest possible optics that can bring a very distant object closer, while narrowing the depth of field to the minimum values. This will give excellent uniform blurring of both the foreground and distant areas.

The distance from the photographer to the subject. Blurred background brings the subject closer to the camera and away from the background. Being at a close distance, the lens gives the minimum depth of field, with the aperture open and maximum focus. Moreover, the foreground will not be so blurred, and behind all objects will be as blurred as possible. For example, to get a clear portrait against a blurred background, the distance to the model from the standard "fifty kopeck" should be 2-3 meters, and the background should be at least 7-10 meters away. Then you will not need additional manipulations with the image to achieve the desired effect.

The macro mode among the standard camera settings allows you to focus on an object located in close proximity to the lens. It allows you to automatically focus on the subject, without taking into account the background and surrounding objects. For a beginner photographer in conditions subject shooting it can be used, but portrait and landscape will still require you to know the above parameters.

How to make a blurry background in Photoshop?

The second way to get a blurry background is to use the program - Adobe Photoshop, even in a standard shell without plugins. Blur effects, layers, and various brushes are nested in the basic tools.
Any photograph of an object with a background is taken as a basis, opened in the program. You can blur in two ways:

Magnetic Lasso Tool.
Layers and the Blur tool.

The magnetic lasso is suitable for small objects with smooth edges, it needs to be selected using dots. Then blur the background through the appropriate tool, excluding the selected area.

The second method is more complicated, but more effective, especially if the selected object has uneven edges, a lot of details, and it is quite difficult to select it with dots evenly. First of all, we copy the layer with the keyboard shortcut "Ctrl + J" or by creating a new layer. If everything is done correctly, then a copy of the original image will appear in the layers column on the right. The work must be carried out with a copy, and the effect is superimposed on it.

In the "Filters" tab located on the top panel, in the drop-down list we find "Blur". There are several options, they differ in the direction of the “strokes”, the location of the blurred area, and so on.

The Gaussian Blur effect is suitable for uniform filling of the image; in its settings, you can change the intensity and radius using the corresponding buttons on the panel. If the result is satisfactory, then accept it and continue working with the layer.

In the "Layers" - "Layer Mask" tab, select the "Show All" item. If done right, blurry shot will be highlighted with a white rectangle in the layer list. Next, take a suitable brush and begin to gently erase the layer with blur in those places where the image should be sharp. That is, we remove it to the original image. Using different brushes in size, shape, hardness, you get different artistic effects, limited only by your imagination. Where the brush did not go through, there will be a blur.

After completing the design, you need to connect the layers, for this, select the "Layers" item in the menu, select "Perform mixing" in the drop-down list, the two pictures become one, now you can save and use them further for their intended purpose.
Such actions will be enough to blur any part of the picture, you can do several levels, repeat the process more than once to achieve the effect of a multilayer blur. Over time, experience will allow you to create more and more daring pictures and combinations using the "Layers" technique or any other.

Blurred background using smartphone

The creators of smartphones, tablets, as well as application developers do not stand still in terms of processing images obtained with mobile devices. For both operating systems, options for standard settings, free and paid programs installed on all known phone models have been developed. Image processing using a blurred background is also present in many of them. The effect of blur or blurred background can be created at the time of shooting or on already finished photos.

In the first case, in the process of focusing on an object, you can choose the direction, intensity and location of the blur, most often its dependence on the size and location of the object being shot is adjusted. To do this, buttons are provided that are displayed in the camera menu. The disadvantage of this option is a decrease in the quality of the image and the inability to bring it back to its original form.
In the second case, the frame is saved in the normal mode, and then the application offers options for its design and editing. These editors are automatically preinstalled in Instagram networks When you add a photo to your account, you get access to tools for working with photography. Or the settings are stored in the phone's memory along with the original picture and can be used for any other purpose.

Of course, such images are not suitable for large format printing and are used mainly for home viewing and for placement in in social networks. But the growth of their popularity could not but affect photography in general. Many applications are created specifically for active bloggers, for those who like to lay out beautiful pictures to the network to collect “like” marks. For photography, as an art, this approach no longer applies.

Smartphone Apps:

Camera MX offers an excellent set of features for taking semi-professional-level shots. Users can use filters, manual settings, all kinds of tools for processing;
Z Camera offers you to use various filters at the time of shooting, as well as edit them from the gallery.
Google Camera is installed on smartphones of some models and is available for download. The application allows you to use the phone cameras at the level good cameras, process pictures immediately and create collages.
BestMe Selfie Camera allows you to see the effects for shooting and choose an interesting option in real time. Great app for lovers of quality selfies.

Cymer offers filters and stickers, captions and various tools for changing the color of hair, eyes, clothes, as well as an intuitive interface when creating collages.
Footej Camera- an application for those who want to always have at hand cool camera. It allows you to shoot in RAW format and adjust the settings for shooting, just like in a real camera.
candy camera, created specifically for the beautiful half of humanity, obsessed with selfies. Here you can apply various effects, pictures, stickers, assemble a collage or even make yourself a makeover.

These applications are available for the Android OS, but manufacturers have created a considerable number of different assistants for owners of apple smartphones. Of course, by installing them on a smartphone, you will not make it a good camera with optics, but you will get decent pictures for posting on social networks. their networks will be enough.

Summing up the topic

Blurred background in a photo is great artistic technique suitable for both professional and amateur photography. You can create it in two ways: during the shooting process and by working on the finished image. In the first case, you will need:

Long lens;
Maximum open aperture;
The minimum distance to the subject of filming;
The maximum distance to the background behind the object.

To get a better picture without interference, you need to use a tripod. Of course, if the shooting mode allows the photographer to stay in one place for a while. Choose a situation where you can shoot as close as possible without losing quality. This trick will allow you to move the background and focus on the object, the rest will become unsharp, as intended.

The degree of aperture opening and the distance to the object can also control the intensity of the blur. Closing the shutters will increase the sharpness of the background, the same will happen if you get closer to the subject or model.

Blurring the background is an excellent tool for focusing the viewer's attention on important details, reducing the impact on the overall picture of background elements that do not always fit harmoniously into the photographer's idea. This is especially true for reportage and street photography, when people, cars and numerous details create a lot of noise in the picture.

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 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.