Let’s be honest, iPhones have the best camera and picture editing features, not to mention their blurred background feature. But many amateur users (like we were before) find it hard to get blurry background features. So how to blur an image on an iPhone?
The answer is simple: capture with portrait mode or use the blur depth feature in editing mode.
We know that this one-line answer is not enough, so it’s time to dive into more detail.
Table of Contents
How Does the Blur Feature In the iPhone Work?
People enjoy using the iPhone due to its supreme camera quality. One of its interesting features is its blur background effect. It blurs all the space behind it and focuses on the main object, giving you a high-quality DSLR effect.
This blur background feature is available in iPhone 7, phone X, iPhone X Max, iPhone 8, iPad,iPhone 11, and iPhone 12 and 13.
Different Ways to Blur Images on iPhone
There are several ways to blur background images on an iPhone. Some of these features are described below.
How to Blur an Image on iPhone Through Portrait Mode?
Portrait mode allows you to take high-quality images from the rear camera. The portrait imaging feature captures solo and dreamy images through depth control and sensor. There are two ways to use blurred bokeh background:
Live Capture
To capture live on-scene images through the portrait mode, follow these steps:
- Firstly, open up the rear camera
- Select the “portrait” mode
- Adjust your object between two to eight feet, better if it is in the center
- In portrait mode, alter the lighting settings through portrait lighting
- After adjusting the stage lighting, you’ll see the f-button in the upper right corner, the depth control slider
- Move this depth slider back and forth to adjust the background blur
- Once you adjust the depth slider, press the shutter button to take the picture
- Now you have a great portrait mode image with a beautifully blurred background
Image Blur
To edit a photo that is already saved without a shallow background, here’s how to do that:
- Open your gallery and select the picture you like
- Below that, select the “edit” icon
- In editing, select the doc with the f-stop button in the upper left corner
- Now it’s time to alter the depth control slider and adjust the blue intensity
- After choosing your desired depth control, save the image in the bottom right corner
- Now you have a picture with an incredible background blur
These are the two ways to edit your age through portrait mode. The depth control specifically focuses on your subject and gives it an extremely fine yet detailed image with an HD background.
Blur Image Without Portrait Background
The iPhone has a natural depth control sensor with or without portrait modes, but it requires a special technique known as the close capture method:
- Open your back camera
- Take your camera closer to go the subject
- The space between them should be less than or equal to two feet
- Tap the age to focus on it, after which the camera will autofocus
- After getting your desired precision, click on the shutter button and capture your photo
This is a great way to capture objects, though we still prefer the portrait feature. One of the reasons is smart switching, meaning that you can turn the background bokeh effect on and off in pictures whenever you want.
Blur Image in Older iPhones
If you have older iPhones that don’t have a bokeh effect, several options give you the same results as the original. We are mentioning the best blur photo editor below.
Snapseed
It is an actual photo editing software with blur options and contains blur intensity editing programs. Download “snapseed” and get started with the following steps:
- Select an image to upload
- Open the editing options
- You’ll see a background blur option. Click on it
- Change the dimension and blur shape either into radial blur or horizontal
- For fine detailing, increase or decrease the blur size according to your liking
- Place that shape on the place where you don’t want an unclear background, and the rest will get blurred
- Click on the amplify icon to adjust blur density or apply the vignette
- Click on the tick button and save the file
Snapseed, although not like actual iPhone blur, gives more than satisfactory results and brings a new definition to your image.
Unblur
Unblur is an iOS and android editing program to edit and finish your photos. Thankfully, this application has a background blurring feature present in it. This is how to use it:
- Firstly, download the app from the Apple store
- Open the photo you want to edit
- After opening the photo, you’ll see many editing options, click on the blur effect one
- With this brush blur, color the zones where you want the cloudy background
- Increase and decrease the blur intensity and size; you can also change the blur pattern
- Once done, click on finish and save the picture
FabFocus application
FabFocus is more like the original iPhone portrait mode than other editing applications. This is the reason why people prefer it over many apps.
This application works on facial recognition and gives you the ideal focus depth and bokeh field in the background, creating a look-alike iPhone portrait image. It also captures live photos through AI mode, recognizing the main object and blurring the rest of the background.
Final Words
In today’s guide, we gave you a detailed description of how to blur an image on an iPhone, allowing you to easily use the iPhone bokeh effect through several methods.
If you have an older phone, you can use all the applications mentioned above to get the desired background. Stay tuned for our next exciting informational paper.
If you want to learn more, read How to Brighten Eyes in Lightroom.
