Lens Blur with Bokeh Highlights
Not a flat Gaussian blur: highlights bloom and glow like out-of-focus lights through a real lens.
More image effects
All effects
Lens Blur (Bokeh) — how it works
Dreamy lens blur where bright spots bloom into bokeh.
What makes it a lens blur
A real lens doesn’t just smear the image: out-of-focus highlights spread into bright discs (bokeh) while darker areas simply soften. The effect separates the brightest parts of the photo, blurs them with extra intensity and adds them back over the blurred image, so light sources glow instead of turning grey.
Tuning
Blur sets how out of focus the photo is; it scales with image size. Highlights controls how strongly bright spots bloom, threshold which brightness counts as a highlight — lower it to make more of the image glow.
Blur only the background
This page blurs the whole frame. For a sharp subject with a blurred background, use Portrait Blur in Image Flow’s AI tools — it estimates depth and blurs by distance.
Frequently Asked Questions
No — a Gaussian blur averages everything evenly. Lens blur keeps highlights bright and glowing. For a plain blur use Blur Image.
No, everything runs locally.
Night scenes, string lights, sun through leaves, water reflections — anything with small bright points.