Are you familiar with the rushing flow of waterfalls or the trails of moving lights in a cityscape? Do you notice the streaking effect of the water and light in these two scenarios?
Usually, our eyes experience motion blur when we look at moving objects or lights. This happens when our brain integrates the visual information over a short period while tracking the moving object, creating a blurred effect that helps us perceive speed and direction.
This occurrence can be applied in photography and videography and gives a motion face blur effect when applied to the human face. The motion blur face effect combines facial obscurity with motion blur. Unlike the regular face blur where the face is simply pixelated or blurred out, the motion blur effect adds a creative layer by giving the illusion of rapid movement. This results in a streaky or smeared look that blends privacy with motion, often adding an energetic or mysterious feel to the image or video.
This effect provides an artistic way of concealing identities, adds a cinematic feel to videos and films, and emphasizes movement and speed in photographs and edited videos.
This article will focus on different ways of achieving the face motion blur effect, and how to create this face effect even without professional editing skills or photography experience.
In this article
Part 1: Two Ways of Achieving Motion Blur Face Effect
You can achieve motion blur on face during photography by setting your camera up adequately, or during post-production editing using video editing tools. Whether you’re a photographer looking to take beautiful face blur shots or a video editor aiming for a realistic motion face blureffect, both methods can help you achieve this look effectively.
During Photography
Capturing a motion blur face requires the classic photography technique where a scene is captured over a long period—long exposure photography technique. This photography technique causes movements in the scene to be recorded as a blur.
With the right camera settings, you can create this natural motion blur effect in-camera, without the need for post-capture editing.
- Use a Slower Shutter Speed
Your shutter speed is how fast your camera shutter opens and closes to capture a scene. Set your camera to a slower shutter—ideally 1/60 of a second. The right shutter speed for the perfect blur depends on how much blur you want, how fast your subject is, and how much available light there is. The slower the shutter speed, the more pronounced the blur effect will be.
- Select the Right Aperture
A smaller aperture (higher f-stop number like f/8 or f/11) allows less light in, balancing the exposure with the slower shutter speed. However, depending on your lighting conditions, you might need to adjust this; a larger aperture works better for low lighting.
- Decrease your ISO
Your ISO is your camera’s light sensitivity. A lower ISO means less light and a photo that is not too grainy. However, do not hesitate to increase your ISO if you’re working in the dark and could use more light.
Digital Single-Lens Reflex Cameras (DSLRs) and mirrorless cameras with manual settings are ideal for capturing face motion blurs because of their ability to control shutter speed and aperture. Popular DSLRs include Canon EOS R6, Sony Alpha a7 III, and Nikon D850. These cameras offer excellent low-light performance, crucial for long-exposure photography.
During Editing
Even if you've already taken photos or videos, you can still achieve the motion blur face effect easily during post-production editing. Many video and image editing tools offer features that allow you to add motion blur to faces after filming or photographing.
One example is Wondershare Filmora, a user-friendly video editing software perfect for beginners and experienced editors. Filmora provides a range of motion blur effects and tools, allowing you to apply and customize motion blurs to your liking. With Filmora, you can create realistic face motion blur effectswithout extensive technical or photography knowledge.
- Blur faces in videos with extensive tools and dynamic interface.
- Vast video/audio effects and creative assets.
- Powerful AI for effortless content creation.
- Intuitive, professional yet beginner-friendly.
- Works on Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android.
Part 2: How to do Motion Blur Face Edit in Photos and Videos Using Filmora
To create the motion blur face edit on Filmora, you can use the Drawing Blur or Horizontal Blur effects. Using either of the two effects requires the same steps and produces similar results depending on your preferred face motion blur aesthetic.
Below is an example of the horizontal blur effect:
While below is an illustration of how the drawing blur effect looks like:
Steps to Achieving Motion Face Blur in Filmora Using Drawing Blur or Horizontal Blur Effect
Step 1: Import your video to Filmora. Drag and drop the video on the timeline.
Step 2: Go to the Effects tab and search Drawing blur or Horizontal blur. Drag the selected blur effect to the timeline and place it just above the video clip. Adjust it to match the duration of your video.
If you do not want to add a motion blur effect to the face throughout the video, place the blur clip directly above the part of your video clip you want to add the effect.
Step 3: Move the playhead to where you want your motion face blur to begin. Then select the blur clip on the timeline to open the blur editor panel. Click the Add Effect Mask icon on the editor panel and choose a mask shape. Usually, Circle fits the human face.
A mask shape will appear on the preview screen.
Step 4: Map out the face you want to blur with the blur mask. Using the anchor points, adjust the mask shape to fit the face you want to edit.
Step 5: Add keyframes to a well-placed blur mask on the face to give you more precise control over the motion blur effect.
Move the playhead to the next scene where the face moves, adjust the blur mask to match the new position of the face, and add a keyframe. Repeat the process until you get to the end of the video.
Step 6: Play around with the blur settings to get your preferred motion face blur effect. Adjust Extend to extend the blur effect slightly over the edges of the blur mask. Adjust Opacity to change blur transparency. Adjust Blur strength to increase or decrease blur intensity.
AI Face Mosaic: An Automated Tool for Motion Blur Face Effect
While the Drawing and Horizontal blurs give you the perfect face blur on par with the traditional motion blur effect, you can experiment with several other blur effects despite each effect having its distinct feature and overall aesthetic. However, they all require manual adjustments and tracking using keyframes to maintain a consistent face blurring across the video.
A more automated motion face blur tool is the AI Face Mosaic which uses artificial intelligence to automatically detect faces within your video and apply a mosaic that follows the movement of the face. This tool is beginner-friendly; it allows you to blur selected faces in your videos accurately and effortlessly with just a few clicks.
Here's a step-by-step guide on how to use this feature to blur faces:
Step 1: Open Filmora and click More to access the toolbox.
Step 2: Click on AI Face Mosaic, and import your desired video.
Filmora will analyze the video, and automatically add mosaic to every face in the video.
Step 3: On the editor panel, deselect the faces you don’t want to apply face blur to.
Step 4: Adjust blur Strength, Feather, and Opacity in the Property Panel.
Conclusion
Whether you're aiming to protect privacy, create artistic effects, or highlight movement in your video, the motion blur face technique has become quite useful in many creative projects.
Set up your camera with the settings in this guide to achieve a natural and realistic face motion blur. Or rather, open your Filmora on your computer and experiment with the blur effects or the AI Face Mosaic tool to get your desired visual effect.
