How to blur the background in Photoshop (8 Easy Steps)?

Do you have an old picture of yourself and want to blur everything in the background? You have arrived at the right spot if you were searching for how to blur the background in Photoshop. In this tutorial, you will learn how to blur the background of any picture in Photoshop using very simple steps. For a clear understanding, we have given screenshots of each step.

8 Easy Steps to Blur the Background in Photoshop

Following these eight easy steps will help you blur the background in Photoshop. In order to give you a good understanding of the process, we have added screenshots of each step.

Step 1: Load the picture in Photoshop

First of all, load the picture for which you want to blur the background. The image will be on the background layer. You can also resize the image if you think that the size should also be adjusted.

Step 2: Use Select and Mask to select the area in focus

The area in focus is the area you don’t want to blur. Click on the select tool and pick select and mask. Select the area in focus using any selection tool that you feel comfortable with.

Scroll down to “Output to” and select the “new layer with layer mask” option from the drop-down menu.

New layer with layer mask in Photoshop

Your layers will now look like this.

Layer panel of Photoshop

Step 3: Fill the black color in the focus area

Take on a new layer. Use a foreground or background color to fill in the black color in the selected area. Why do we fill black in this area? Because we want to make its depth map. We need to tell Photoshop that depth is from this point to this point. It means that everything that is black will not be blurred.

Step 4: Create a new layer with a gradient

Take a new layer beneath the above one and fill it with a black-and-white gradient. Press shift+click and drag your mouse after selecting the gradient tool.

After applying the above two steps, the layer panel will now look like this.

How to fill color in a layer

Step 5: take the layer with a gradient and place it on a channel

Click on the layer you just filled with a gradient, and then click on channels. Select any channel (Red, Green, or Blue) and make its copy. You can give any name to this channel. I named it “depth map”.

Making alpha channel

Just go back to RGB by selecting its name and then clicking on layers.

Step 6: Group all layers created so far

Select all layers by pressing the Ctrl button and clicking on each layer. Press Ctrl+G to group all the selected layers. Hide the group because we will not interact with any of the layers after this step.

How to group layers in Photoshop

Step 7: Make a copy of the background layer

You can make a copy of the layer by selecting it and then pressing Ctrl+J.

Step 8: Apply Filter

Go to the Filter menu and select Blur>Lens Blur. Once you are in the blur panel, select your source. Click on the drop-down menu and select your source. I had named it “Depth Map.”. Slide the radius slider to adjust the amount of blur you want. Check the preview tab to view the blur induced.

Blur the background in Photoshop

Conclusion

We’ve covered every step of blurring the backdrop in Photoshop in this extensive guide to make sure you have all the resources and know-how necessary to create this effect. You can more easily visualize the procedure since we’ve deliberately provided screenshots for each stage for your convenience and to improve clarity.

We think you now have a thorough knowledge of this subject, and we hope our lesson was useful. However, if you run into any problems or have any inquiries, don’t hesitate to contact us by giving your feedback in the appropriate section below. We are available to help you further and to answer any questions you may have. Our first priority is seeing that you successfully learn this method!

Have a look at the final result now.

bluring the background in photoshop

Staff at Putanyquestion
Staff at Putanyquestion
Articles: 39
Share This