Blur the background of a photo

What the blur actually does

The editor cuts the subject out first, then lays it, still sharp, over a blurred copy of the original scene. The whole background gets the same amount of blur. It is not a depth estimate, so a wall a meter away and hills far behind soften by the same amount. For most portraits and product shots that reads naturally, because the eye mostly cares that the subject is clear and the clutter is not.

Choosing a blur strength

Blur strength runs from 2 to 60 px. Low values keep the scene recognizable: you can still tell it is an office or a park, just less distracting. Around the middle of the range, shapes dissolve into color and light. At the top, the background turns into a smooth wash.

Pick by purpose. For a profile photo, a medium blur keeps a sense of place without competing with the face. For a product on a busy kitchen counter, push it higher so labels and objects behind stop pulling the eye. On a phone screen the blur looks weaker than on a monitor, so check the result at the size people will see it.

The optional dim darkens the blurred background a little. It helps when the scene is brighter than the subject, such as a person against a sunny window.

Getting a clean subject edge

A sharp subject over a blurred scene shows every flaw in the outline, so give the edge a quick check. Edge softness, from 0 to 10 px, blends the border into the blur; 1 to 3 px usually looks right. Shrink/grow edge moves the border by up to 6 px if a strip of the original background is still attached. The Erase and Restore brushes fix individual spots, and Mask view shows the kept area in red.

People work best with Person, the default. For a cat, a bottle or a bike, switch to Any subject. If you have already made a cutout in another background tool for this version, it is reused here with no second run.

Saving and comparing

Each applied blur becomes a version. Hold to compare shows the step before; the slider lets you sweep between them. Try two strengths and keep the one you prefer. Since the background stays opaque, JPEG is a sensible export, and the quality slider lets you balance size against detail.

If the subject looks pasted on rather than in focus, lower the blur a little or add a touch of Edge softness.

What it will not do

• The blur is uniform. It does not estimate depth, so near and far parts of the scene soften equally.
• Fine hair, glass, smoke and semi-transparent objects can come out imperfect at the edge; the brushes are there for that.
• The mask is computed on a copy of at most 4096 px on the long side and scaled up to the full photo.
• It cannot sharpen a subject that was out of focus in the original photo.

Devices and downloads

The first cutout needs the Person model, a 25.9 MB download, or Any subject at 88.1 MB if you choose it. Both are Apache-2.0 licensed and stay cached in your browser. The model runs in a background worker, on WebGPU when available and on WebAssembly otherwise; Any subject takes around 17 seconds per photo on WebAssembly and a second or two with WebGPU. The blur itself is ordinary image arithmetic.

On-device AI: A small neural network that runs on this device after a one-time download. See what is stored on this device.

Step by step

1. Open the photo. Drop, paste or choose the image you want to blur behind.
2. Make the cutout. Use Person for people or Any subject for objects and animals.
3. Set the blur. Move Blur strength between 2 and 60 px and turn on the dim if the scene is too bright.
4. Check and save. Look at the edge, compare with the previous version, then export.

Questions about background blur