Methods and apparatus for controlling bleeding at the edges of a blur region or selection. A technique for aesthetically controlling the bleeding of blur introduced by blurring selections, referred to herein as a selection bleed technique, may enable continuous adjustment of the amount of bleeding of image blurs between a selected image region and its complement (the unselected region, e.g. the background). The selection bleed technique may allow selections to go from no-bleed to full-bleed and in between via a percentage indicated by one or more user interface elements, for example a slider.