How do I blur my background?

- Sometimes as you work with photos,…they'll be things that are distracting.…Whether it's an unwanted object,…or an area that needs to be blurred or sharpened.…Let's start by blurring a background.…In the library, feel free to navigate to folder number five.…And let's work with these images.…I'll start with a portrait example.…What I'd like to do here, is blur the background a bit.…From the Develop module, I'll choose my adjustment brush,…and I'll bring up the overlay.…

Now using green isn't going to work very well.…So I'm going to switch to black,…and start to paint.…Initially, I'll turn off the Auto Mask.…This way I can rough things in pretty quickly,…going around my subject.…But as I get closer to the subject,…I'll turn Auto Mask back on,…so it starts to recognize the edges of her body…and the hair.…

Remember, pressing Shift + O will let you cycle…through the colors,…and this might help you detect areas…that you've missed unintentionally.…There we go.…Now that I've gotten it, let's adjust things a bit.…I'll pull down the Clarity, and instead deal with Sharpness.…