Blur the background of a photo
Keep the subject sharp and soften everything behind it, the way a portrait lens does.
- Private by defaultDeleted within an hour
- Super FastProcess in seconds
- No Sign-upStart instantly
How it works
Add your images
Drag and drop, paste, or pick files. They upload over an encrypted connection.
Pick a quality or a target size
Use the quality slider, or tell it exactly how many KB or MB you need.
Download
Save each file, or grab them all at once as a ZIP.
A blurred background draws the eye to the subject and hides a distracting room, street or desk. Cameras do it with a wide lens opening; this tool does it afterwards. It finds the subject, keeps it exactly as it is, and blurs the rest of the same photo, so the colours and the light of the scene stay and only the detail goes.
This page opens the editor with the blur option selected. The strength slider runs from a light softening, enough to calm a busy scene, to a heavy blur where the background becomes patches of colour. Drag the divider across the picture to compare with the original. Because nothing is transparent in the result, you can download it as a JPG, which keeps the file small.
The effect is only as good as the outline of the subject. Around clear shapes it looks natural. Around loose hair, or where the subject and the background are close in colour, a little of the sharp background can stay attached to the subject, or the edge can look slightly cut out; a pixel of feather usually helps. A real lens also blurs more with distance, while this blur is even across the whole background. Photos are uploaded over an encrypted connection, processed on our own servers, and deleted within one hour.
How much blur looks real
The strength runs from 1 to 100 and starts at 40. It is measured against the size of the picture, so the same number gives the same look on a small photo and a large one. Low values resemble the portrait mode of a phone: shapes in the background stay recognisable and merely lose their edges. The middle of the scale is closer to a fast portrait lens, where a bookshelf turns into bands of colour. Near the top the scene dissolves into an abstract wash, useful when the background should not be identifiable at all.
A sensible rule is to match the blur to the framing. A tight head-and-shoulders shot carries a strong blur. A full-length figure with heavily blurred surroundings starts to look like a cardboard cut-out.
Why blur is the most forgiving background
Of all the options in the editor, this one hides a rough edge best. The new background is the old one, so its colours and its light already agree with the subject. There is no spill of the wrong colour along the hair and no mismatch in brightness to give the edit away. Where the mask misses by a pixel or two, a slightly sharper sliver of the original scene remains beside the subject, and against the same scene blurred it rarely catches the eye.
Blurring for privacy: use enough of it
People often blur a background to hide something in it: papers on a desk, a screen, a street name, other people. A light blur is the wrong tool for that. Large text and faces can stay legible, or recognisable, at low strengths. If the purpose is concealment, go to the top of the scale and then look at the result at full size. If it truly must not be seen, replace the background with a solid colour, which removes the information entirely.
Frequently asked questions
Does the subject stay sharp?
Yes. Only the area found to be background is blurred; the subject is left as it is.
Can I control how strong the blur is?
Yes, with the strength slider, from a light softening to a heavy blur.
Is this the same as a camera's portrait mode?
It is similar, but the blur is even everywhere, where a lens blurs distant things more.
Is blurring free?
Yes. The blurred background is part of the free tool, with no watermark.
Does the blurred photo keep its original size?
Yes, the same width and height. The file is often smaller than the original, because a blurred area holds little detail and compresses well.
Can I blur the background of a group photo?
Yes, as long as the people stand together as one group. Someone standing well apart from the group may be treated as background and blurred with it.
Related tools
- Replace the background of a photoTake the subject out of one scene and put a colour, a gradient or another picture behind it.
- Change the background colour of a photoSwap the background for any colour you choose, or for a soft gradient.
- Remove the background from an imageCut out the subject and drop in a transparent, white, black, or custom-coloured background, free and with no sign-up.