New depths

James Paterson helps you understand the new Depth Blur filter in Photoshop and how to automatically blur out a distracting backdrop

- James Paterson

THE MISSION

Use the Depth Blur neural filter in Photoshop to blur a background

Time needed 20 minutes

Skill level Beginner

Kit needed Photoshop CC

Photoshop offers a box of tricks for all sorts of effects. There are those that can transform your image into something completely unreal. Then there are those that let you make more realistic changes. The Depth Blur filter falls into the latter category. As the name suggests, it lets you mimic the effects of in-camera blur by throwing a background out-of-focus. If your image has a foreground in front of your subject, this is blurred too. The result is realistic fall-off either side of your point of focus.

Of course, we’ve been able to simulate depth-of-field effects in Photoshop for a long time by using filters like Lens Blur. But Depth Blur is one of the new range of Neural Filters, which means it works by employing machine learning to analyse the content of your photo. It automatically recognizes your subject and adds the blur to the areas in front of or behind them without any effort on your part. Not only does it blur the foreground and background, it also creates transitional blur, so the further away a point is from your subject, the more blurred it becomes.