Can I blur a photo edges directly in FCPX?

The answer is almost certainly yes - though whether or not this is preferable to doing it in Photoshop depends a lot on your workflow.

You probably are going to need to use two instances of the photo, one on top of the other:

You may, for example, apply Gaussian blur to the bottom photo, and the apply a shape or draw mask to the top one, and control the feathering

of the mask to get a nice smooth transition from the focused center to the blurred edges:

What version are you using? You don't need two layers for this anymore unless I'm misunderstanding, which may well be the case.

So you want to blur the edge of the back background, which is the underlying layer. You have to combine the two into a compound clip and apply the gaussian effect to the compound.

Tom Wolsky wrote:

What version are you using? You don't need two layers for this anymore unless I'm misunderstanding, which may well be the case.

Tom

You are right, of course. I was looking for the option to invert the mask, but I had missed it. No need to do two copies.

mnstudio wrote:

I'm using 10.2.2.

Gaussian on bottom photo affects only the image and not the dark background. And it's the same for the mask on the top clip

You may get the black border to blur by manipulating the feathering of the mask, but I have to wonder: do you really need that black border?

If I understand correctly, you are putting a 4:3 still image in a 16:9 timeline. If you chose to use "Fill" under "Spatial Conform" you will get rid of the black bars altoghether - you may just need to adjust the position of the image a little bit after you do that.

Do you want something like this?

Select the image in the timeline and open the Inspector (command-4, or press the button in the toolbar at the top right of the timeline)

In the Inspector, under Video, scroll down until you see "Spatial Conform":

Spatial conform set to fill and a draw mask on the image