How to Blur the Background of a Photo on iPhone

How to take a photo with a blurred background

1. Open Camera and switch to Portrait

Swipe left in the Camera app until Portrait is selected. Apple lists two shortcuts: tap the Depth button when a face is in the frame, on supported models, or use the Camera Control on iPhone 16 and later models that have one.

2. Frame the subject and wait for yellow

Point at a person, pet or object. The Camera app tells you if you are too close, too far away or the scene is too dark. When the effect is ready, the name of the lighting effect, such as Natural Light, turns yellow. Natural Light is the plain option: sharp focus with a blurred background.

3. Set the blur strength, then shoot

On iOS 27, tap the Camera Controls button or swipe up from Portrait at the bottom of the screen, tap Depth and drag the slider under the frame. On iOS 26 the same control is labelled Aperture. On iOS 17 and 18 it is the Depth Adjustment button at the top right. Then tap the shutter or click the Camera Control.

Change the blur after you take the picture

A Portrait photo keeps its depth information, so the blur is never locked in.

1. Open the photo in Photos and tap Edit.
2. Drag the Depth Control slider at the bottom of the screen to increase or reduce the background blur. A dot marks where the photo started.
3. Tap Done.

On iPhone 13 and later you can also move the focus to a different subject in the same edit screen, as long as the new subject is not blurred itself or too far away. To go back to a normal photo, tap Portrait at the top left and choose Portrait Off; the depth data stays, so you can turn it back on later.

Add blur to photos taken in Photo mode

On recent models you do not have to remember to switch to Portrait at all. When the Depth button appears while you shoot in normal Photo mode, the iPhone saves depth information with the picture. Apple says this works when the frame contains a person, dog or cat, and older guides add that tapping a subject to focus on it can make the button appear.

To turn one of those shots into a portrait later, open it, tap Edit, select Portrait at the bottom if it is offered, tap Portrait at the top, adjust the blur with the Depth button and tap Done. A Live Photo loses its Live effects once the portrait effect is on.

Apple's current list of models for this is:

When the blur does not work

Most failures come from the rules Apple publishes for the camera:

• No face, no portrait on some models. On iPhone XR, iPhone SE (2nd generation and later) and iPhone 16e, the rear camera has to detect a person's face before it takes a Portrait photo. Pets and objects will not trigger it on those phones.
• Distance and light. The on-screen warnings are the guide. Apple gives no distance in feet or metres, only "too close" and "too far away".
• Low light. Pro models from iPhone 12 Pro to 16 Pro can take Night mode portraits with the 1x lens.
• Older phones. Portrait mode itself goes back to iPhone 7 Plus, 8 Plus, iPhone X and SE (2nd generation), but the Depth Control slider needs an iPhone XS, XR or later.

A picture taken in Photo mode on an older phone, a screenshot, or an image saved from the web carries no depth information. Photos cannot add portrait blur to it, because there is nothing to tell the subject from the background.

Blur a photo on iPhone that has no depth data

For those pictures, the separation has to be worked out from the image instead. CutoutBG AI does that in Safari: upload the photo, switch the background option to Blur and set the strength from 1 to 100. The subject is cut out first and everything behind it is softened evenly, so it looks like a shallow-focus shot rather than a real lens blur that grows with distance.

The result downloads at full size with no watermark. It takes three photos a day without an account, or ten once you sign in.

blur the background of a photo online→

If you would rather drop the background completely, the Photos app can lift the subject out instead.

lift a subject out of a photo on iPhone→