I am not a good photographer. In fact, I know nothing about photography. The blurry background of a photograph always amazes me. I know how to do that using the iPhone’s macro thingy. 🙂 Of course, DSLR camera could give me such natural romantic-blurry-dreamy pictures but I am not into DSLR yet. No way I am going to spend that much money without knowing anything about photography. For now, I would let the knights hold the sword. I will stay with my pen, figuratively speaking of course. In reality, it should be “I will stay with my keyboard”. 🙂 Is there any photo editor that can do the blur background trick?

Anyway, like millions of people, I believe that whenever there is a will there is a set of internet-search results that will show me the way. In fact, there are ample photo editor software products that will allow you to change the regular background of a photo to a blurry background.

The problem with most of those software products is that …… actually the problem is not with the software products. The problem is with me. I do not like to spend too much money on software, especially in this era of yearly subscription/license.

Many times, the subscription is over before I get a chance to extensively use the software. Therefore, I am always in the hunt for free software tools and open-source packages.

I checked a few trial photo editors that have the capability of blurring backgrounds. Among all the ones I tried, none but PhotoScape X allows to blur backgrounds flexibly and save the updated image using the trial version.

That means I can blur backgrounds of as many images as I want using the free version of PhotoScape X. The free version of this software contains a significant number of features that are usually NOT freely available in many other photo editing packages.

In addition, the free version of PhotoScape X is a *time-unlimited* free trial.

Before and after: The stroller is clear in the photo at left.
Notice that the stroller is blurry in the photo at right.

Before and after: The leaves are blurry in the photo at right.

Before and after: I wanted to draw attention away from the green-house fans and ceiling. The figure at the right side blurs away the ceiling and the fans.

Before and after: The cutie pie is the center of attention in the image at the right. Everything else is blurry.

Of course, the first step is to visit PhotoScape X and download the software.

The installation is as easy as it can be. Both Mac and Windows versions are available.

I used the Mac version for the samples of this post. How to blur the background of a photo using PhotoScape X is outlined below.

1. The graphical interface has several task-groups like — Viewer, Editor, Batch, Collage, Combine, Create GIF. Make sure that the Editor tab is selected at the top row of the graphical interface.
2. Drag and drop the photo you want to edit from hard drive to Photoscape X editor.
3. The pane at the right side contains a menu called Adjustments. There is a plus (+) symbol to the left of it. Click on the plus symbol. This will open a list of operations. One operation is Blur (there is a water-droplet icon that appears with the label Blur). Click on the icon for Blur. Now, you have the panel you can use to blur parts of your image.
4. You will find a Mask option. There is a plus symbol near the label Mask. Please click on that plus symbol. Masking tools are visible now. I like the right-most one, which is a paintbrush. Select the paintbrush.
5. Once the brush is selected, you can mask anything in the image. The masked parts can then be blurred. I generally mask the part I do not want to blur. Then I check Invert Mask to invert the selections.
6. After you have masked the parts that you would like to blur, you can change the Blur radius using a scroll bar. This allows the user to control how blurry the masked areas should be.
7. You can press the Compare button to compare the modified photo with the original one. There is also an unmasking paintbrush to fix over-masked areas.
8. Press the Apply button when you are satisfied with the changes.
9. The Save As button will show up at the bottom of the interface after you press the Apply button.
10. Save the new photo as a different file.

I made a video of how I changed the regular background of a photo to a blurry background using Photoscape X. The video is provided below. It does not contain any sound (therefore, it is safe to play even when the kid is sleeping). Enjoy.

Please let me know if you know of any other freely available (time-unlimited trial) software to blur the background of photographs.

A Family Blog: Settle in El Paso