Have you always wanted to know how to blur in photoshop but you haven't got down to work until you needed it? Although you may think that it is easy, the truth is that you have to take into account several aspects to give it a professional finish. And, above all, to be able to blend it with the background, between images, or make the image look a little more transparent.
But how to do it? Here we help you understand how to blur an image and do it with various techniques in Photoshop. Do not miss it!
Wait, what is smudging?
Before giving you the steps to blur in Photoshop it is important that you understand what we are referring to by blurring.
This word refers to removing some of the clarity in the photograph, not exactly light, but an object, a landscape, a figure or a part of the photo is seen as blurry.
Why would we like to use it? Well, because this creates the sensation of movement, making the part that we want to be the center of the photo look more realistic.
To achieve this, the blurring tools are used, but you should know that there are several tools of this type in Photoshop.
Un A clear example of what blurring would be is when we take a moving photograph. As you will see, the photo comes out as moving, and it is that it captures the movement, which is why the blurred character will appear. But what if we want the background to blur and keep the central figure fixed? That is what you can achieve with the image editing program.
Blur with Photoshop
Once you have clear the terminology, it is time to start working. But you should know that Photoshop doesn't just have a smudging tool. Actually there are several that you should know since, depending on the blurring work you have to do, one or the other will be better. We talk about all of them.
Smudge with the blur tool
One of the first tools of the program is the blur. Not only does this act on the image, it can improve focus while adding some flair.
This tool is in the left tool panel and it will allow you to create a blurred background, shallow blur, etc.
As we say, it is more superficial than with other tools, but very effective when you want something smooth to highlight the movement in a fixed object.
Blur with a brush
Another of the tools to blur is, without a doubt, the use of the brush. With it, you will be able to smooth different areas and, with the help of the blur tool, and a certain thickness of the brush, you will be able to "paint" in those areas that you want to look like there is movement.
The advantage of this tool is that, if you do not like how it looks, you can go back to start again even if you don't have to start from scratch, because it will erase according to what you have been doing.
Gaussian blur filter
This is perhaps one of the most popular blurring tools in Photoshop, but in reality, and as you have seen, it is not the only one that it has. In this case, Gaussian blur allows you to adjust the blur type making it go away with a hazy effect.
To do this, you have to go to the section on filters, blur and Gaussian blur.
Then a screen will appear in which a part of the image appears. You have to set a point that becomes center and, with the bottom panel, determine to what degree you want the blur.
Radial blur
Another option to blur is the radial blur, the aim of which is to make you believe that there is a rotation of the camera. That is, when taking the photo the camera has rotated creating a soft blur.
In these cases it works much better when there is a central point since what you do is "move" the background of the image. But if what you want is a blur of a specific area, the result may not look good.
Motion blur
Imagine that you are in a car at a very high speed. The normal thing is that you cannot distinguish certain elements that you see, but you know that they are there. If you took a photo, everything would be blurred. As well, with this filter the same effect is achieved.
It is about giving movement to the image by playing with the blur angle and distance.
Lens blur
Another filter that Photoshop has is lens blur. Your goal is give more depth to the image, but it does so by making the rest of the landscape, background or elements that surround that central point look more blurred.
The good thing is that the program allows you to edit on the one hand the central image and, on the other, the environment itself.
Surface blur
As we told you at the beginning, learning to blur in Photoshop can be done with the goal of mixing two or more images and that they look like the same, but without having to alter the edges themselves, right?
Well, to do so, you can use this tool, which allows you to eliminate what prevents the two images from merging.
Steps to blur in Photoshop
Since we want you to know how to blur in Photoshop, here are the steps of two different tools:
Blur with Gaussian blur
- Start by opening the program and the image you want to blur. Next, go to Filters / Blur / Gaussian Blur.
- In the window that appears you will have a radius that you can determine and also a magnifying glass with the 'minus' sign and another with the 'plus' sign. Between the two you have a figure in a percentage.
- This will allow you to increase or decrease the radius as well as the intensity when blurring.
- When you are satisfied with the blur, click Ok and it will automatically do it on your image.
- In this case you can also blur only part of the image if you use the selection tool first.
Smudge with brush
If what you want is to make a very soft blur and only in a part of the image, it is best to use the blur brush. To do this, open the image in Photoshop and, among the tools that you have on the left, you will see that there is a blur that will look like a finger or brush. You just have to select it, determine the size and intensity, and click with it on the image where you want it to be more blurred.
Do you see how easy and varied you can blur with Photoshop?