Blur the background of your LinkedIn photo

A blurred background is one of the simplest ways to make a profile photo look more professional — it draws attention to your face instead of whatever’s behind you (a messy room, a busy street, other people).

Why blur instead of replacing the background

Replacing a background entirely can look obviously edited, especially if the lighting or edges don’t match. Blurring keeps the real photo — same lighting, same edges — and just softens what’s behind you, the same effect a portrait lens produces naturally. It reads as a normal photo, not an edited one.

How to do it

1. Open the background blur tool.
2. Upload your photo — it’s processed on your device, nothing is sent anywhere.
3. Pick a blur style (vertical usually looks most natural for a headshot) and adjust the intensity.
4. Download the result and upload it to LinkedIn as usual.

The whole thing takes under a minute, and you can try a few intensities before settling on one.

A couple of tips

• A plain or slightly blurred background works better than a fully busy one, even after blurring — start with a reasonably tidy spot if you can.
• Keep some blur, but not so much that the edge between you and the background looks artificial. Try the lower intensity settings first.
• Square or near-square crops tend to work best for LinkedIn’s circular profile photo display.