Tutorial: Adding Bokeh w/ Photoshop 2022-2023

Posted on by jrwilkinson

I love bokeh and when shooting with my micro 4/3 Olympus or Panasonic camera, bokeh isn’t as good. Adobe Photoshop 2023 (& 2022) have include ‘neural filters’ – artificial intelligence filters – that can recognize and auto-select (auto-mask) the main subject. The amount of blur is a slider that can really add a nice bokeh effect to soften a background. The latest version is excellent at simulating depth-of-field – making the plane of the subject sharp. This works with any photo you can import & edit in Photoshop so any camera format – micro 4/3, APS-C, Full-Frame, iPhone.

After loading your photo, select Neural Filters under the Filter menu
Select Depth Blur from the list – if this is your first use, it will need to download the filter. Once downloaded, activate it using the toggle
There are sliders to adjust the effect, play around with these to see their effect
I typically use only the Blur Strength, setting it to 100. If acceptable, select OK
Continue your general Photoshop editing.

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