This is something that, for a long time, has not been exclusive to the most expensive cameras on the market, but ratherOur smartphones can imitate the same effect with more or less success, using a set of lenses or software that we can use when shooting with the camera or when editing the photo from the mobile gallery
In the following lines we will explain how to adjust the blur bokeh background before (and after) taking a portrait and enjoy different effects on a given image.
When should you use the bokeh effect?
Background blur is used to make a foreground element stand out from the rest of the scene. That is, when we want to highlight a face, a flower, a detail of a car, or similar. To the apply a bokeh effect On the image, the background of the photograph is completely blurred, leaving only what appears in the foreground of the image in focus.
Therefore, it is a type of photography especially recommended for portraits or subjects that we have really close. Useless blur the background in a photo landscape or a group photo that we take with the wide angle of our smartphone, since almost all the elements will be at the same height and the blur will not be of sufficient quality.
Steps to blur the background of the photos with the mobile
To blur the background with the mobile we can use the manual mode of the phone and open the diaphragm as much as possible to reduce the depth of field, that is, you have to make the f number as small as possible. Another option, more comfortable for those less versed in the field of photography, is use portrait mode that hide our smartphones.
He portrait mode is a terminal camera setting that simulates a shallow depth of field effect. This means that part of your shot (the subject) will be in focus, while the rest of your shot (the background) will be out of focus. This blur effect makes your subject stand out in the eye of the viewer, whether it’s done optically (with a depth sensor) or digitally (using software and scene processing).
As you can imagine, almost every phone that has been released in the last few years has built-in portrait mode, from the cheapest to the most expensive. In any of them you can enable it and use portrait mode to get images with blurred background.
Portrait mode on Samsung phones
The phones of the Korean firm are one of the best when it comes to apply the bokeh effect, as this blurred background is also known, in the photos taken by their phones. Also, it is not necessary to have a telephoto lens or a dedicated depth sensor, since its algorithm achieves great results using the software.
- Launch your phone’s camera app.
- Swipe left until you locate the tab Further
- Then select the option Portrait
Depending on the One UI version that you have on your phone, you may have to swipe to the right or to the left and access to this mode is similar, but different.
Portrait on Xiaomi phones
One of the first manufacturers to add background blur to its camera using the portrait mode is Xiaomi. The Chinese manufacturer, as with the previous firm, also hides its portrait mode among its different shooting options in the MIUI camera app.
- Launch the camera app on your phone
- Tap the Portrait option at the bottom of the screen or just swipe right
iPhone portrait mode
Although iOSthe operating system of Apple phones is radically different from what the previous two layers of customization offer, based on Android, the reality is that access to the portrait mode on iPhone it is practically identical. Also, in this case it can be used in the same way on all phones that have this camera feature.
- Launch the Camera app from the iPhone home screen
- Swipe left or right anywhere on the interface. Portrait mode is located to the right of auto shooting mode
Other Android phones
In general, in other smartphones that work with the Google operating system, whether it is an OPPO, Realme, OnePlus, vivo or similar, the way to enable portrait mode it’s almost the same.
- Launch the camera app on your phone
- Swipe to find the Portrait option
- If you can’t find it, go to the More section or tap any three-dot menu
- Find a mode similar to portrait mode. It may be called Live Focus, Bokeh Mode, Lens Blur, etc.
Blur the background of photos you’ve already taken
If you have forgotten to use this mode, don’t worry, you don’t have to repeat the same composition and repeat the whole process. Xiaomi, Samsung and iPhone are 3 of the brands that make it possible to apply this effect to photos that you have already taken and have stored on your smartphone.
On Samsung mobiles
To be able to blur the background of an image you’ve already taken, you must have shot in mode Dynamic Approach, present in all the phones of the brand since the Samsung Galaxy S9 + saw the light. When doing so and trying to edit the photo, different levels of blur are offered for you to choose the one you want.
- Select a photo from Gallery taken with Live Focus mode
- Click on the Adjust background blur option
- On the screen that opens, choose Effects and choose the one you want.
- Tap Save to store a copy of the original photo in the gallery
With Xiaomi phones
In the case of Xiaomi phones, we can also alter the bokeh effect of all the images that we have previously captured with portrait mode. In this way, all you have to do, if your mobile is compatible, is the following:
- Select a photo from the gallery taken with portrait mode
- Click on the shutter icon that appears above the menu
- On the screen that opens, swipe from left to right to select the blur intensity
- Tap Save to store a copy of the original photo in the gallery
In this case, if we have not taken a photo with portrait mode, we also have the possibility of blurring the background from the MIUI editor.
- Select a photo from the Gallery
- Click on the edit icon
- Swipe from left to right to select the Mosaic setting
- Select the one that best suits the desired result
- Go over the areas you want to blur with your finger
- Set the blur level with the bottom slider
- Tap Save to store a copy of the original photo in the gallery
on an iPhone
In the case of Apple phones, we can also edit blur intensity of a certain image after having taken it through the photo editor that is integrated into iOS by default, without the need to resort to external apps.
- Open the photos app on your iPhone
- Select one of the images stored in the phone roll
- Click on the edit button that you will find at the top right of the photograph
- Now, on the controller that appears at the bottom, swipe left or right to change the opening level of the scene
- You can also change the lighting effects of photos taken with portrait mode