The three images represent how to do selective blurring. The top image shows only the background layer (the blur layer is turned off, I forgot to make screen shots as I was going along) with everything relatively sharp. That is waht I started with. I then duplicated the background layer and applied gaussian blur with an amount of 20. That is what is showing in the middle image (I have the mask turned off). I then added a maske to this layer. I left the mask as white, so the white outer portion allows all of the blurred layer and none of the sharp layer to show. I then made an oval and painted 25% gray for the outer gray oval. This masks out effective allows 75% of the blurred layer to show and 25% of the sharp layer to show. The next oval is 50% gray which allows a 50/50 mix of the two layers. The center oval is 75% gray shich means only 25% of the blurred layer will show and 75% of the sharp layer will show.. The rectangle down the middle is 100% black. This will mask out all of the blurred layer and allow all of the sharp layer to appear.

This is how you can selectively blur your background. If anyone has questions, feel free to ask.

Jim M