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Common fix · Photos

Blur a face in a photo

By Updated How we write these

2 min read

What you’ll end up with

A copy of the photo with each face you choose blurred for good, and its hidden location removed.

Blurring faces is basic courtesy for photos with strangers or other people’s children in them, and often a requirement for schools, workplaces and marketplaces. Phone editors can crop and draw, but most can’t blur a chosen area — which is why people end up installing an app for a thirty-second job.

It can be done in the browser instead: mark each face, choose how to hide it, and save. The photo is changed on your device, so the unblurred original never goes to someone else’s server first.

What to do

  1. Mark each face

    Drop the photo in and drag from one corner of a face to the opposite one. Choose Oval (for faces) so the blur follows the shape of a head. Add as many areas as you need; drag one to move it, or its corner to resize it.

    Open Blur an Image

  2. Choose how strongly to hide them

    Blur looks the most natural; raise the strength for a large or very sharp face. Pixelate makes it obvious something was hidden on purpose. For a name badge, a number plate or anything with text on it, Black out is the safe choice.

  3. Save, and check what else the photo carries

    Saving removes the photo’s hidden metadata too, so the blurred copy doesn’t carry the GPS position of where it was taken. To see what another photo carries before you share it, use the metadata viewer.

    Check a photo’s metadata

Settings that work

Recommended settings
Shape Oval for faces, Box for text and plates
Hide it with Blur for faces; Black out for anything that must not be read
Strength 50% for most photos; higher for close-ups

Worth knowing

  • Blur changes the saved copy, not the original on your device. Keep or delete the original as you prefer — and remember any copies you already sent.

Questions

How do I blur a face on an iPhone without an app?

Open this page in Safari, choose the photo from your library, drag over the face and save. The blurred copy goes back to Photos or Files. Nothing is installed and nothing is uploaded.

Can a blurred face be unblurred?

Not from a proper blur: the detail is gone from the saved file. A very light blur on a large face can still be recognizable, so raise the strength until you couldn’t recognize the person yourself.

Can I blur a face in a video?

Not here yet: this works on photos and screenshots. For a video, blurring needs to follow the face frame by frame, which is a job for a video editor.

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