# Background Blur

## Overview

The Image Editing API allows you to easily blur the background of any image.

To blur the background of an image, set the argument `background.blur.mode` to either the value: 

* `bokeh`  A **bokeh blur** simulates the out-of-focus effect of a camera lens. Highlights and bright areas form soft, circular shapes, creating a natural depth-of-field look with smooth, cinematic background blur.
* `gaussian`  A **gaussian blur** applies a soft, even blur by averaging each pixel with its neighbors using a bell-curve weighting. This creates a smooth, natural blur that reduces fine detail and noise

|                                  |                                                                                                     |                                                                                                     |
| :------------------------------: | :-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------: | :-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------: |
|        *(original image)*        |                                     `background.blur.mode=bokeh`                                    |                                   `background.blur.mode=gaussian`                                   |
| ![](/files/GmHA6SAcV9OnsrLgVfRK) | <div><figure><img src="/files/JawZcqBJzdvruAnIQaMH" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div> | <div><figure><img src="/files/oY8egKMwi8eT9YuYbYDu" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div> |

{% hint style="warning" %}
In order to blur the background, you need to also set  `removeBackground` to `false`
{% endhint %}

If you want to give it a try, here's the code to reproduce the example above:

<pre class="language-bash"><code class="lang-bash"><strong>curl --request POST \
</strong>  --url https://image-api.photoroom.com/v2/edit \
  --header 'x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY_HERE' \
  --form imageFile=@/path/to/image.png \
  --form background.blur.mode=bokeh \
  --form removeBackground=false \
  --output result.png
</code></pre>

<a href="https://try-api.photoroom.com/?background.blur.mode=bokeh&#x26;removeBackground=false" class="button primary">Try it now!</a>

## Additional parameters

### `background.blur.radius`

To the control the strength of the blur, set the argument `background.blur.radius`  to a value strictly greater than `0` and lower than or equal to `0.05`.

Higher values mean the result will be blurrier.

This argument is optional and has a default value of `0.01`.&#x20;


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