blur background without overlap between subject and background

Question

I am blurring the backgrounds of a number of portraits. I am aware of common ways to blur background by masking out the subject and blurring the background in the layer below. This is the method I generally use and seems to be the method used within the Elements lens blur and quick actions.

The problem is that the blur of the subject overlaps and fades into the background creating a fringe around the subject. This can only be remedied by cloning the background back over the overlap fringe in the blur layer. That's a lot of work. Is there a more simple way to do this?

thanks / Kozmo

Glenn 8675309 · Answer

I'm lazy, so I tend to do things as simple as possible for me. This is the way I do it if the subject has nice, well dened edges.
Things like frilly / curly hair require some work but can be done with creating a layer ask to select all the hair.

Select subject.
Copy it.
Inverse your selection.

Add gaussian blur.

If needed: paste the subject right back, with out moving anything.

This is a screenshot from pse 2020 because that's what I have open right now.

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