P:(Masking) Add a Depth of Field blur slider

[Matthileo]

Now that lightroom has masking advanced enough to take advantage of it, it would be nice if we could get a simple slider or set of sliders to add blur that looks like authentic defocus blur added directly to lightroom. 

[blaze503]

Love lightroom and all it can do, one thing is missing. Please add background blur! That's the only thing missing. I import my pix, adjust tone and presence, crop, would love to add background blur there in the radial or graduated filter.

Thanks!

Ed

[dj_paige]

We're not Adobe here in this forum, we are just other Lightroom users who can't add features to the software. Please go to the forum designated for product feedback https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/categories/photoshop_family_photoshop_lightroom and make your request there.

[Jao vdL]

You can do this already (albeit with no real control over the blur radius) by using negative sharpness in the local adjustment dialog. This does a Gaussian blur on your images. You can make the effect stronger by using negative texture and/or negative Clarity at the same time. You can easily make good tilt-shift fakes this way, or, if you have a depth map in your image (e.g. an image you shot with an iPhone with the depth map enabled) you can fake bokeh this way which works surprisingly well. Not as versaitile as doing it in Photoshop but will work in a pinch. 

[Aagedal]

I work as a photojournalist and often do quick photo edits (exposure, saturation, cropping) on my phone for breaking news, but sometimes there is certain details that I would like to blur out so that sensitive/private information doesn't get public. For example a face, a street sign or a license plate.

I know you can use negative Sharpen, Texture and Clarity to blur a bit, these are not enough for what I need, and sending the image over to another app isn't efficient and takes time I often don't have. This means I'll end up using a different image than I otherwise would have, or crop more than I would like to.

It isn't just for anonymity though, I often like to use a slight blur in combination or instead of with vignettes to focus attention even more, but I think the negative sharpness simply looks bad, and I would like a different kind of blur.

[default0yvg5x0z90xa]

Hi i agree.

A Real Blur tool would really be a usefull enhancement. As it is today , i is a major lack.

Thank you

[eye=art]

Yes!!!! I've been looking for that for a long time! That would be an awesome feature.

[johnrellis]

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A direct blur slider would be good.

But I think you can get a pretty good bokeh effect using Sharpness = -100, Texture = -100. The effect with a single mask isn't that strong, but you can quickly increase the effect by duplicating the mask as many times as you want.  The results look comparable to Gaussian Blur in Photoshop:

Base photo:

Inverted Subject Mask x 2, Sharpness = -100, Texture = -100:

Inverted Subject Mask x 4, Sharpness = -100, Texture = -100:

Photoshop inverted Subject, Gaussian Blur = 12:

[Matthileo]

Yeah I'm aware of that approach, but it doesn't look nearly as good as the kind of blur specifically meant to emulate lens blur, like you get in Photoshop or Luminar. 

[johnrellis]

Photoshop has lots of blur effects -- I showed a Gaussian blur above. Which one would you prefer most in a LR slider?

[dbk1234]

The new automated subject selection feature is really great!  Now that subject detection can be more readily performed, it would be fantastic if it was possible to blur the background more aggressively than the current tools allow - something like the Depth Blur neural filter in Photoshop!

Thanks!

[johnrellis]

@dbk1234wrote, "if it was possible to blur the background more aggressively than the current tools allow"

I agree that having a better blur effect in LR would be great. But in case you didn't know, you can get quite a bit of blur by duplicating the mask as many times as needed:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-ideas/p-masking-add-a-depth-of-field-blur-slider/id...

[Frogman38]

With Darkroom I can access Depth Map in iPhone portrait images and change DOF in image. Would be a great add to Lightroom. 

[johnrellis]

[This post contains formatting and embedded images that don't appear in email. View the post in your Web browser.]

"With Darkroom I can access Depth Map in iPhone portrait images and change DOF in image. Would be a great add to Lightroom."

LR does provide access to the depth map via the Masking tool:

You can add bokeh blurring to the mask by setting Sharpness = -100, Texture = -100 and duplicating the mask as many times as desired to strengthen the effect. In a previous post, I showed an example where the result was indistinguishable from using Photoshop's Gaussian blur:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-ideas/p-masking-add-a-depth-of-field-blur-slider/id...

[Lynn22387782opub]

Agreed. I'm not a professional photographer. I run a nonprofit that involves kids. I need to be able to blur faces for privacy. It's the whole reason I downloaded the LR app! And apparently it doesn't have this feature. Is there a different app that really works for this?

[Rob_Cullen]

Because Lightroom does not work with pixels of an image (it is a 'Parametric' editor) it has difficulty achieving "Blur" effects.

One alternative is to use [Healing Brush] tool in 'Clone' mode, select a plain area for the 'source', adjust [Opacity] as desired, and faces can be 'removed'.

[assumedalias]

Photoshop has made such crazy things possible it's strange that Lightroom can't have blur. Bothers me so much. I remember Snapseed or something had radial/gradient blur so it's got to be possible although it would be nice to have more control than radial/gradient too. 

[rsvienna]

Specially professional photographers have the problem with "faces" and even "car-number-plates". Before publishing photos with such details we are forced by law to blur these goodies. Right now it is only possible to send the photo from the iPad/iPhone to a Mac (or any other computer) and do the job there.

Technical explanations why Adobe is not able to create such a feature are "nice to read" but do NOT help us photographers! We have to blur or pay (the fine).

We are all paying lots of money for the subscription therefore it is of outmost importance that our supplier - Adobe - creates a "working helping tool" and not just ignore our problem.

Let's hope someone takes the needs of the clients serious AND does something (not talking - coding please)

[rsvienna]

The way you described with negative sharpness and negative texture has absolutely NO effect and the face still smiles at the viewer. According to law we have to blur the face in such a way that you can not recognize the person. (However I would hate to "kill" my photo by just filling the face with a solid colour)

[johnrellis]

"negative sharpness and negative texture has absolutely NO effect and the face still smiles at the viewer."

That suggestion was for adding a bokeh effect (blurred depth-of-field), not for blurring faces.  Since this feature request is about adding a depth-of-field blur slider, I suggest you post a separate Idea for being able to blur faces and license plates.

[Lowkeydandy]

It would be fantastic if Lightroom could add a blurring tool. I'm currently using Photoroom to blur my images, which works well except for the fact that the quality suffers. It would be preferable if I could complete all of my tasks using Lightroom mobile.

[JoshHunt57]

I'd like to see the ability to add blur--similar to gausian blur in PS

[Achu310188376g1g]

Could you please bring this one feature that will help photographers the most which is the lens blur effect that helps the editors to create the output photos completely through one app. Now, as an editor , i have to color grade my photos from lightroom mobile and jumb to another app for adding blur effect to ny photos. No matter if its a premium feature but still please add this one feature too.

[Plz add seleet subject]

Love lightroom and all it can do, one thing is missing. Please add background blur and Select subject o rselcet sky add plz! That's the only thing missing. I import my pix, adjust tone and presence, crop, would love to add background blur there in the radial or graduated filter.

Thanks!

Ed

[Keith Reeder]

"We are all paying lots of money for the subscription therefore it is of outmost importance that our supplier - Adobe - creates a "working helping tool" and not just ignore our problem."

Adobe has done just that. PhotoShop. And in essence you get it for free, if you consider LightRoom to be the main reason for subscribing.

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

While not a masking feature, Lens Blur (Early Access) was added to the Photography Products today: 
https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/p-new-ai-powered-lens-blur-early-access...