Portrait mode, for any photo you've already taken
Phone portrait modes are wonderful — when you remember to enable them before the moment passes. The birthday candle shot, the street-style photo a friend took of you, the product photo from last year: all stuck with busy, distracting backgrounds. Re-shooting isn't an option, and paying for a hosted "AI portrait" service means uploading photos you'd rather keep private.
This tool adds the portrait-mode effect after the fact, and it does it on your device. An AI segmentation model finds your subject — you, your product, your pet — and the background melts into blur while the subject stays tack sharp. The first visit downloads the AI model once (~40MB, cached after); from then on it's upload → a few seconds → done. Your photo never leaves your browser tab.
The detail that sells the effect is the edge. A crude blur just smears a hard rectangle around the subject; this tool composites the AI's soft alpha mask over the blurred background, so hair, fur, and fabric edges fall off naturally — the way real lens blur behaves. And a live slider takes the blur from a gentle softening to a full creamy wash, updating the preview instantly with no AI re-run.
How it works
- Choose a photo. Tap the big button or drop an image in. JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC (iPhone), AVIF, BMP, GIF, SVG and TIFF all work — read locally, never uploaded.
- The AI finds your subject. First visit downloads the ~40MB model (cached after); segmentation takes a few seconds on-device.
- Dial in the blur. Drag the strength slider and watch the preview update live. Subtle or dramatic — your call.
- Download PNG or JPG. Full resolution, no watermark, ready for socials, listings, or print.
Where a blurred background earns its keep
Social and dating profiles. A clean, blurred backdrop makes you the entire story of the photo. It hides the messy bedroom, the crowded café, the stranger mid-bite behind you — without the uncanny look of a fully replaced background.
Product and food shots. Sellers know this trick well: blur the kitchen clutter behind the handmade soap, soften the market stall behind the jewelry. The product pops, the context stays human. It's the cheapest "studio look" there is.
Pet portraits. Dogs never sit still for portrait mode, but the AI doesn't care about timing. Run any sharp action shot through this tool and the park dissolves into a soft wash behind them.
Headshots from ordinary photos. Need a LinkedIn photo but only have a wedding picture? Crop to the shoulders, blur the reception hall into oblivion, and you have a headshot that looks deliberately taken.
Getting the best edge
- Contrast is king. The AI draws the subject edge from contrast — a dark jacket against a light wall segments far cleaner than a grey shirt against a grey sofa.
- One clear subject wins. Portraits, single products, one pet. Busy group shots with overlapping people are the hardest case; the AI keeps all prominent foreground subjects sharp and blurs behind them.
- Shoot at full resolution. More edge pixels mean a smoother, more natural falloff — especially around hair.
- Check hair at 100%. Flyaway hair against a bright background is the classic stress test. If the edge looks off, a lower blur strength hides imperfections better than a higher one.
- Less is often more. A 12–18px blur reads as expensive lens bokeh; maxing the slider reads as an effect. Match the strength to the photo's mood.
Honest limits
Automatic segmentation is genuinely hard, and this tool is honest about it. Translucent objects (glasses, veils), wispy backlit hair, and subjects that blend into the background in both color and brightness will show edge imperfections — inspect before you publish. Photos larger than about 12 megapixels are resized down to 12MP first so the AI doesn't run out of memory; the tool says so when it happens.
And a note on expectations: this is a blur effect, not a light-field camera. It can't invent the layered, depth-accurate bokeh of a real f/1.4 lens — background highlights won't turn into perfect circles. What it does, reliably, is the thing you actually wanted: subject sharp, background gone quiet. Pick a photo, slide the blur, download. That's the whole workflow.