Photoshop Elements 2024 | Lens Blur isn't working

[Gabor_Toth]

I try to use the Filters / Blur / Lens Blur option in Photoshop Elements 2024 but it doesn't actually do anything. I tried it with regular JPG images, layers, etc. In my previous PE version it works as intended. When I adjust any slider, the progress bar at the left bottom corner appears and the app seemingly does the calculations but the image preview doesn't change, nor does the image itself if I OK the process. You can see on the attached image how there is no blur applied at all even though the radius is set to 44, but setting any other slider to any value doesn't do anything either.

I also tried both the "faster" and "more accurate" methods, all sliders, different iris shapes, to no avail.

Is this a possible bug or does PE 2024 need something else for this feature to work?

[Greg_S.]

I'm not sure if this will help, but try going to Edit>Preferences>Performance and change the Use Graphics Processor settting:

[Gabor_Toth]

Thank you for the tip, however I have already had this set, it doesn't actually seem to make a difference in this case.

[Glenn 8675309]

[Jeff Arola]

To use the Blur Focal Distance, one needs to set the Depth Map Source to something other than None.

[Gabor_Toth]

I'd like to blur the whole image. I can't set the Depth Map Source to anything because both "transparency" and "layer mark" is greyed out. I don't know what they refer to. In my previous PE version (15) it just works on the whole image.

[Gabor_Toth]

This is how it looks in Photoshop Elements 15. It doesn't require any depth map source and I never set blur focal distance. It simply blurs the image, whereas PE 2024 doesn't.

[Greg_S. · Accepted solution]

If the Use Graphics Processor box is checked, UNcheck it.  The feature should work the same as Elements 15.  It does on mine.  And in your case, there is no need to use the depth map source.  The radius slider should blur the whole image if no selections have been made.  (But there are other tools that will do the same thing.  Why do you need this particular filter.)

[Gabor_Toth]

Thank you, for some reason this turned out to be the solution. If I uncheck the "Use graphics processor" option, Lens Blur works as intended. If I check it again, it doesn't work. I don't know why, PE 15 does not have this problem. I even tried setting the Nvidia control panel to automatically use either the IGPU or the discrete GPU with PE 2024, but none of the options helped. So I have to disable this feature completely in order to use Lens Blur. Not a big deal as I don't think it made the app any faster during regular use, I just don't understand why it's like this. In any case, thank you for the tip! 👍

[Greg_S.]

. . .  You might also try resetting the preferences file. Go to Edit>Preferences>General tab and click the Reset Preferences on next launch button.