To blur the background on the photo many users turn to online services or to photoshop. You need to spend time on this and have some image processing skills. It's worth the effort - blurry edges with high sharpness on the subject look very beautiful. And the Bokeh effect, when the background turns into fabulous special effects, is completely discouraging.

That's just a blurry background can be made easier and faster on Android devices!

How to make a blurry background in a photo in principle?

On the reflex camera very easy to get good blur background effect. This requires sufficient lighting, fully open aperture and enlarged focal length.

Developers have learned to model bokeh effect, previously available exclusively to SLR cameras. The most important thing is to decide on the focus point. You have to understand what in the frame will get high sharpness and clarity, and what will blur and become the background.

Today we will analyze the simplest method for creating a photo with blurred background on Android devices.

The effect is amazing. But the software method may not always work. For example, there are problems with mirror surfaces (sometimes they do not blur). Difficult to capture and fast moving targets.

What you need to blur a photo:

Smartphone with a good camera;

Pre-installed version of Android 4.4 KitKat and above;

Sufficient performance for image processing (otherwise the process will be very long);

One of the applications shown below as an example.

How to blur the background of a photo in Android using Google Camera?

Official app cameras from google very cool. And recently it has become available not only on Nexus- and Pixel-devices. To you would need Little practices, but the result will definitely please everyone!

1. Download the app for free Google Camera and install it: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.Android.GoogleCamera

2. After starting, you can refuse or agree with geo-referenced (uses battery power).

3. Drag the menu on the left side of the screen with a swipe to the right and select Blur.

4. Now you will be shown instructions on how to use the background blur mode on the photo.

5. After activating the camera, focus on the subject, press the shutter button and slowly move the smartphone upwards, keeping the subject in the center.

6. After you've taken your shot, edit the result by blurring the background more or shifting the center of focus.

Realistic blurring of the background on an existing photo or when shooting on Android

Achieve a realistic bokeh effect, like wide open reflex camera, you can also use the application after focus for Android devices. Edit existing photos or take a new photo as described for Google Cameras.

1. Download the free app after focus: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.motionone.afterfocus

2. After opening it, you will see in the interface " smart focus ”, in which you need to click on the button with the person icon in focus and outline the area where blur is not required.

3. Now select the area of ​​soft focus by clicking on the icon with the crown in focus and marking the places for soft blur.

4. The nature icon in focus is responsible for the hard background blur mode - you need to paint the background area for maximum blur.

More photo blur apps for Android:

ASUS PixelMaster Camera.

"Focus Effect" by Dumpling Sandwich.

PicsArt Photo Studio & Collage by PicsArt.

"Photo Editor" by Aviary.

My friends call me a camera snob because I prefer DSLRs and tend to turn my nose up at phone cameras. But, in Lately I fell in love with my iPhone camera and more and more often I take pictures with my phone. One obvious advantage that smartphones like the iPhone have is their portability over traditional cameras. I always have my iPhone in my pocket, while my Nikon often gathers dust at home.

But an even bigger advantage is the apps: it's very easy to add new features and functionality to the iPhone by installing free or low-cost programs. To do the same with conventional camera, you will need at least a degree in electrical engineering. Last year, I wrote about five reasons why photographers should love the iPhone. The apps I mentioned are still great, but this week I want to review five more for the iOS platform that I highly recommend.

afterfocus
MotionOne.co.Ltd

One of the reasons I usually prefer DSLRs over phone cameras is the control over shutter speed and aperture. By choosing certain aperture settings, I can create a sharp hyperfocal photo or vice versa - an image in which the subject is sharp and the background is blurry and out of focus.

Afterfocus lets you control the depth of field in iPhone photos. Actually, it doesn't let you change the depth of field while shooting, but the app simulates the depth of field by blurring the background when the shot is already taken. It's fun and easy to use: just open the photo in Afterfocus and select the part of the image that needs to be sharp. Then repeat the process with the background and Afterfocus makes a version of the photo that looks like it was taken with a very shallow depth of field. What's more, you can also apply some additional effects, such as a color mask that turns the background black and white while leaving the object in color. Those 99 cents per app will be well spent.

Bump
Bump Technologies Inc.

Bump is not a photo app, it's a sharing tool with your contacts that you can use with other smartphone owners. The app uses the phone's accelerometer and distance information to simulate a little magic. Press two phones together and the selected information will be automatically sent from one smartphone to another. It's cool, but it could be even cooler - you can use Bump to send photos to your work computer.

To do this, open the Bump page in a browser, and then launch Bump on your iPhone. Select one or more photos, and - at this point the most interesting - press the space bar on the keyboard with your phone. You will immediately be able to transfer photos to your computer. I have found that this works best with Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari and Google Chrome. And it doesn't seem to work at all with Microsoft Internet Explorer 9. This application is free.

iStopMotion for iPad
Boinx Software

iStopMotion for iPad is an interesting way to create stop-motion videos, which I have already talked about before. True, last time it was about creating such videos using a DSLR. iStopMotion allows you to take a series of photos using the front or rear camera iPad, and the overlay of the previous frame helps define the line of the next. This is a great time saver, especially if you're trying to capture a sequence of small movements, such as a Claymation animation, for example. If you have both an iPhone and an iPad, install the free iStopMotion Remote Camera on your iPhone. This app allows you to use iStopMotion for iPad to remotely control your iPhone's camera to shoot stop-motion videos. This whole feast of life costs $10.

Pano
Debacle Software

Do you like taking panoramas? Of course, you can always take a series of shots to glue them together when you get home and can use a program like Windows. Live Photo gallery. But why not let your iPhone take a panorama right after you take your shots? Pano is a great little gluer that guides you through the process of creating a panorama. It displays an overlay of the previous photo so that it is clear how to place the next photo in the series. When you have adjusted all the photos to a panorama (up to 16 images), the iPhone generates a complete view and saves it to your photos folder. Pano can even create full 360-degree 360 ​​degree panoramas. The app costs $1.99.

top camera
Lucky Clan

I saved the best for last. Top Camera is the Maserati of the iPhone photo app world. It has such a long list of features that it costs several times the $2.99 ​​that adds up to its price tag. In addition, there is a free version with a lower resolution that you can try out to test the functionality of this application.

You'll immediately appreciate the on-screen level, which helps prevent blurred-horizon photography. You can also turn on Digital Stabilizer to reduce camera shake and take clearer pictures. In HDR High Dynamic Range mode, you can take photos by capturing a series of three images. And this application does it much better than using the native HDR mode built into the iPhone. True, it is necessary to keep the phone as still as possible while taking a series of photos. The app also features a "slow shutter" feature that allows you to take long exposure shots, such as trails of light at night.

However, my favorite feature in Top Camera is the ability to zoom in and out using the slider on the side of the screen.

Believe it or not, this is just a small part of what this app can do. Top Camera also allows you to use sound commands to activate the shutter and of course, timer shooting. You can adjust exposure settings such as contrast, saturation, and color balance. In addition, the application has an amazingly powerful built-in photo editor that can crop, change exposure, apply various effects and much more.

The reason for the appearance of this article was a comment that was left in directly during photography. The conclusion of that article was the idea that, unfortunately, not every camera can do such a trick. You need a camera with manual settings. In a comment, a question was asked about how to blur the background of a photo when shooting with an iPhone.

That is, there is a need for skill blur the background on already existing photo . In this article, I will try to show you how this can be done using the Adobe Photoshop graphics editor.

In general, people prefer to have the computer do everything for them and some wonderful background blur software. It would be great, for example, to upload your photo from the program (and always free), press the "blur background" button and in a couple of seconds download a perfectly executed artistic photo to your computer.

V real life everything is different. There are no such programs - full automata. If only because no program can yet look into your head and understand what YOU consider the background in the photo and what should be left unblurred, so even if such a program for blurring the background in the photo exists, it will have to it takes a long time to "explain" what should be blurred in the photo, and what should be left untouched.

Try, for example, entrusting the following process to the machine:

In this scenario, blurring the background in Adobe Photoshop does not seem so evil. After all, in fact, in any case, we just need to “show” the main object to the program, and everything else can be blurred, so why is Photoshop worse than other simple programs that seem simple only at first glance?

Before we proceed directly to the blur, it is worth making one more important remark. It is worth blurring the background only in those photographs where the background and foreground are separated by a sufficiently large distance. That is, if a person, for example, is photographed against the background of a carpet and he stood close with his back to this carpet, then blurring the background will be clearly inappropriate.

On the other hand, if you photograph, for example, a couple of newlyweds dancing in a hall, then it is quite possible to achieve a realistic effect, unless the floor, the connecting link of the foreground and background, is included in the frame. If this happens, we will have to work a little more, but in this case, we will most likely achieve results.

It's easier to show it in pictures:

In this photo, however, the background is already slightly blurred when shooting, but you can multiply this effect many times by focusing on more important objects in the foreground.

In this photo, you can also blur the background, but this will require quite painstaking work, and the result in some particularly difficult cases may still look unnatural.

First, let's analyze the first option, as the simpler one.

All you need is Adobe Photoshop, a similar photo (look for it in your photo album) and a little patience.

Video tutorial: how to blur the background on the finished photo (simple version)

There was nothing particularly difficult about this option. I just had to select the people in the photo and copy them to a new layer. With the background layer, you can then do whatever you want, including applying the Gaussian Blur filter to it.

By the way, there is another option - copy to a new layer not the foreground, but the background with the foreground cut out, and then apply a blur to it. The only thing is, you have to remember to move its layer so that it stands "behind" the people, otherwise... think for yourself what will happen.

This looks normal only when we have a clear separation of plans - front and rear. If there are any intermediate plans, or the object, God forbid, stands on the surface of the earth, floor, etc., then the action given in the first video lesson will no longer give us an acceptable option. We'll need a "plan B".

Video tutorial:
Blurring the background of the photo. Simulating shooting with a shallow depth of field

As you can see, this algorithm contains more steps. A normal result may not work right away (you saw - I got it only on the second attempt). This is a huge field for experimentation. But, if you master this procedure, you will kill two birds with one stone:

• learn how to simulate shooting with a blurry background in photoshop,
• get additional practice in working with masks and channels.

So, now we know that even if you shot with a digital soap box on full automatic, or even used an iPhone to shoot, then we still have a chance to create a highly artistic image with an expressive foreground and a blurry background.

It remains only to practice so that everything works out as it should and the first time. Good luck!

Portrait mode on the iPhone - learning how to shoot correctly.

Portrait mode on iPhone lets you take stunning photos with bokeh (depth of field). Shoot in portrait mode extremely simple, however, to achieve a truly high-quality result, you need to know some "chips". In this article, we talked about how to properly shoot in Portrait mode on iPhone, and also collected valuable tips from professional photographers.

Portrait mode on iPhone - what is it, what devices does it support?

Portrait mode lets you take photos with bokeh (depth of field) effect. This effect brings the subject into sharp focus while blurring the background beautifully. The mode allows you to shoot photos with simulated studio lighting in almost any conditions.

Portrait mode is only supported by dual camera iPhones. On the this moment Portrait mode can be used by owners of the following models:

• iPhone 7 Plus
• iPhone 8 Plus
• iPhone X

On a single-camera iPhone, shooting with a depth-of-field effect is also possible, but only using third-party apps from the App Store, such as portraitcam , after focus or Fore Photo. Their main disadvantage is that the bokeh effect in them is implemented in software. Because of this, it is not as "live" and deep as the hardware effect created by the iPhone's dual cameras.

How to Shoot in Portrait Mode on iPhone

Step 1. Run the application " Camera» from the iPhone home screen or by swiping left on the lock screen.

Step 2: The Camera app has various shooting modes that can be accessed by swiping left or right anywhere on the interface. Select the mode " Portrait”, it is located to the right of the standard shooting mode.

Step 3. To take a good portrait shot, you need to position the camera up to 2.5 meters away from the subject. At the same time, bringing the iPhone too close to the object is also impossible. Looking ahead to the tips, it's best to shoot your subject as close as possible. Why is explained below.

The Camera app itself will help determine the optimal distance. If the subject is far from the camera, then a warning will appear at the top of the application "The distance from the subject should not exceed 2.5 meters."

If you brought the camera very close, then the notification "Move further" will appear.

It is important to note that the "Camera" allows you to shoot in portrait mode even if you are not at the optimal distance from the subject. In other words, you can ignore pop-up warnings. For example, in cases where it is not possible to step back or go forward to the object. Apple says that if you ignore the optimal distance, portrait mode shots can get bad. However, our experiments show that you can take a decent photo without strictly following the instructions of the Camera application.

Step 4 Make sure there is enough light. If the conditions are bad, then the "Camera" will notify about this with the message "Too dark". Finding another brighter location to shoot or turning on the flash will help solve this problem (we prefer and recommend natural lighting).

Step 5 When all the preparations are done, you can shoot in portrait mode. By default, the mode is set to normal natural light, but you can shoot with studio, contour, stage, or stage (mono) light if desired. Read more about the effects and their differences below.

Portrait mode on the iPhone, like any other, supports a variety of preset filters. To select them, you need to click on the icon with three overlapping circles in the upper right corner of the interface. It is important to clarify that when you select a filter, you will only be able to shoot in portrait mode using natural light (selected by default).

What is the difference between the effects in Portrait mode?

There are five effects available in Portrait mode on iPhone, allowing you to shoot with different types of light. The difference between the effects is significant, each of them is best suited for specific shooting scenarios.

• Natural light - focus on the face of the subject, blurred background. Allows you to create the highest quality close-ups of a person's face with bokeh effect.

• Contour light - semitones with dark and light areas. It is used to emphasize the face in conditions of insufficient or artificial lighting.

• Studio light - the face of the subject is brightly lit, the image is as clear as possible. When shooting with such light, it is recommended to lower the exposure so as not to overexpose the frame.

• Stage light - the face of the object is as if illuminated by a spotlight, a rich black background.

• Stage light-mono - similar to the previous effect, but in black and white.

Portrait mode shots on iPhone are created with special artistic effects that you can and even need to experiment with. However, there are still some rules for taking high-quality photos in portrait mode.

In order to achieve the most High Quality you need to be close enough to the subject - up to 2.5 meters. The background behind the object, on the contrary, should be as far away as possible.

The greater the distance between the subject and the background, the stronger the depth effect will be.

If your subject is standing against a wall, then there will be practically no noticeable effect (stage and stage (mono) light effects are an exception).

Lighting is also important. In artificial lighting conditions, Portrait mode is far from ideal. In natural light, the mode is fully revealed, allowing you to create gorgeous shots, so it is recommended to “catch” a good light.

If you want to capture as many good shots with the effect of depth of field as possible, then be sure to use manual focus. To do this, you just need to touch the subject when shooting. The camera will immediately focus on it.

When shooting in Portrait mode on the iPhone (as with any other camera, by the way), you should try to avoid small objects in the frame that are on the same level as the subject. Such objects can break the effect of depth and completely spoil the photo. Moreover, this is what happens most of the time.

The best depth shots are simple. Look for simple compositions that let the effect really shine.

Note: what kind of professionals are we talking about? When Apple first developed the Portrait mode, it offered it to professional photographers (Jeremy Cowart, Pei Ketron, Benj Heisch, and others) to try it out. The photographers appreciated Apple's design and gave valuable tips on how to create high-quality bokeh shots on iPhone.

1. Place the object with its “back” to the sun. Sunlight will be an excellent "backlight", and with it the background. The main thing is that the background and the object in this case will be clearly defined for the iPhone camera and it will not be difficult for her to separate them by applying the bokeh effect.

2. Bring the camera as close to the subject as possible. Portrait mode lets you shoot with depth-of-field effects up to 2.5 meters away, but it's best to get as close to the subject as possible to bring out the details. Note that in all of Apple's promo portrait mode photos, the subjects (most often people or animals) are directly in front of the camera. Apple photographers do it for a reason. They know that in this case the frames are amazing.

3. Reduce exposure to make the image more cinematic. Reduce the exposure should be very slightly lowering the slider just a couple of millimeters. In order to change the exposure, you need to press on the display in the Camera application, and after focusing, touch the display and slide your finger up (increase) or down (decrease).

4. The subject must not move. For perfect shooting results, make sure that the subject does not move. In the case of photographing people, it is very simple, you just need to ask them, but when shooting animals, you will have to be patient.

5. Ideal light for portrait mode - soft and diffused. Soft diffused light does not produce harsh deep shadows, which will improve the portrait and, again, help the camera more accurately determine the subject.

You have helpful tips on shooting in portrait mode on iPhone? Share them in the comments!

Surely many of you are more attracted to the iPhone 7 Plus than the iPhone 7, and rather not because of the screen size, but because of the capabilities of the camera, which also allows you to shoot. Alas, the software effect will not be available to owners of any iPhone other than the iPhone 7 Plus. However, you can still take pictures with the effect of depth, even if you have an iPhone 6s, iPhone 5s or even an Android smartphone.

Portrait mode allows owners to artificially blur the background in portrait photos. The result is a picture that looks like a photo with reflex camera with a portrait lens. Why does Apple require software processing for this? The problem is the aperture and sensor size of the iPhone camera. They will never be the same as in a DSLR camera.

The wider the aperture, the more the background will be blurred in the pictures. On DSLR cameras, you can adjust this setting, but not on a smartphone. The iPhone 7's camera aperture is f/1.8, which is very good, but still not enough. A camera with such an aperture could blur the background much more.

The problem lies in the fact that the iPhone camera keeps everything in focus. The reason is the size of the sensor. The larger the sensor, the stronger the sense of depth. Compact cameras smartphones in this parameter can not compete with professional cameras. That is why Apple has to apply artificial background blur.

But you can still take a natural depth photo even if you don't have the newest iPhone. To do this, you just need to focus the camera on an object that will be very close. In this case, all objects that should be on background, should be far enough away. Thus, you will not be able to shoot portraits, but you have every chance to make a good shot.

Based on 9to5Mac