The Art of Discretion: Blurring Faces in Video Editing

Best Video Editing Software to Blur Faces in Video

Ollie Mattison

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

One of the most commonly sought bits of video-editing knowledge is the ability to blur the face in videos, whether for privacy reasons, artistic effect, or whatever sort of thing you’re going for. You can go wild once you learn how to blur certain parts of a video, and this is something that, in our opinion, every aspiring video editor should learn how to do.

Now there are hundreds of video editing software, and every video editor has his own personal choice when it comes to choosing the right tool for the job. Our list focuses on what are, in our opinion, the most accessible and efficient NLE’s on the market.

1. Blur Face with Filmora Video Editor [with Faceoff / Mosaic]

Filmora is a favorite among many amateur video editors because the free version is robust by itself and features most of what one would need when not dealing with professional projects. It is available for both macOS and Windows.

How to Blur the Faces in Filmora:

• Select the clip that needs to apply blur face in the timeline, and then go to the Effects tab and select Utility.

• If the image is still, then you can click Mosaic option and drag it in the video clip in the timeline.

• Double click the video clip applied Mosaic effect in the timeline to enter the video effects tab, in where you can dictate the size of the area, the mosaic types, and also adjust the opacity.
• If the image is in motion and you’d like the blurred area to be mobile as well, drag the Face Off from the Effects tab to the timeline and adjust it in the Video Effects tab as well. You can pick the face-off pattern under Video Effects and the Face-off feature will tracks the face that appears on the screen and applies a blur to it.

• When you’re done, click OK to save the changes and then click Export and pick your desired video format.

Learn more detail about Adding Blur effects to Videos in Filmora .

2. Using YouTube Video Enhancements to Blur Faces

Those interested in learning how to blur faces in videos in order to apply the trick to their You Tube videos will find the fact that you can do this through the Video Enhancements section of your Creator Studios dashboard quite convenient. This addition is something that has been introduced in 2006 and has been well received by the community.

How to Blur the Faces with YouTube Enhancement tool:

• Sign in your YouTube account and select the Creator Studio option after clicking the avatar. Locate the video that you want to edit and access video Enhancements.
• You will see two blurring options in the Enhancement window: Blur faces and Custom blurring. To blur all faces appear in the video, go to Blur faces and click Edit

• YouTube will use the face detection tool to analyze all faces in the video and displays the faces in the left side. You can click the face image to blur a specific face throughout the video.

• Preview the blurring effects and if everything goes OK, click Save to save the face blurring effect to video. After you’re finished the editing, click Save to save the edits in-place, or Save as New Video, which creates a new video (this would mean, however, that you would lose any views you previously had).

In the Enhancement window, you can also blur a specific area of the video with the custom blurring option. Want to edit YouTube videos with more features, check our picks of thebest video editing software for YouTubers in 2018.

3. Blur Face with Movavi video editor

Movavi is a popular choice for when it comes to free video editing softwares. It is available for both Windows and MacOS and is a breeze to work in - the perfect software to learn how to blur the faces in videos in.

How to Blur the Faces with Movavi video editor:

• Open Movavi and locate the Filters
• Click Blur.

• Once the filter gallery opens, drag your desired filter over the clip or image.
• You can apply either the Blur Intense or the Blur Mild effects if you would like to determine their strength.
• In order to blur a specific part of the video, select the clip and locate the More
• Click Highlight and Conceal, and then click Conceal.
• Position the orange box over the area that you want to be affected.
• You can adjust the Opacity slider to determne the strength of the effect.
• Click on Pixels if you want the blur preset to be pixellated.
• You can also click on Add Mask if you would like to apply a mask to certain areas of the clip.

4. Blur face with Adobe Premiere Pro CC professional video editor

Premiere Pro CC is Adobe’s dedicated video editing software. There are many video editors out there that have some experience in Photoshop as well, and since there’s a chance they work in Premiere Pro CC due to how similar the UI of both of these products is, we’ve decided to give this NLE some attention as well. Available for both MacOS and Windows.

How to Blur the Faces in Premiere Pro?

1. Select the video clip in the timeline.
2. Access the Effects tab, and then click Video Effects, and then Stylize.
3. Click Mosaic.
4. Go to the Effects Control tab, and pick the shape of blurred area. The elliptical and 4-point polygon mask options are what most people use when blurring faces in particular.
5. Drag the Mask over the intended area
6. Adjust Positioning, Scale, and/or Rotation to your liking.
7. You can fine-tune the effect further by adjusting the Mask Expansion, the Horizontal and Vertical blocks the mosaic effect is composed of, and the Feather

What sort of video editing software you go for when you want to edit the face in videos is ultimately up to you - we’ve only expressed our personal preferences in the hopes that it might help some of the people that are interested in the subject. Most of the steps present in this list are similar to each other and you will find that once you learn how to do this trick, you will become far more familiarized with all the various effects available to you.

Ollie Mattison

Ollie Mattison is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Ollie Mattison

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