Master the Depth Blur Filter

James Paterson helps you blur out backdrops with one of Photoshop’s best new Neural Filters

- James Paterson

Neural Filters are part of a new wave of image-editing tools that make use of machine learning and artificial intelligence. These tools analyse the content of the image and are able to recognize people, animals and other objects. Such tools now allow for automated processes that we could only dream of a few years back.

For photographers, one of the most interesting Neural Filters is Depth Blur. It enables you to alter the depth of field in your photos and create both background and foreground blur, with realistic fall-off in between. Previously, this could only be done by carefully isolating the subject, then applying blur manually to the background.

Depth Blur does away with all that pesky masking work. Instead, it’s able to recognize and isolate the subject for you, then soften the areas furthest from it. The filter achieves this by translating your 2D image into a 3D depth map, so all you have to do is choose the sharpest point and set the strength of the blur.