How to Blur Faces in Photos

Oftentimes when you've taken a snap while winding up the mountains in a train, you find that you have pictures that are blurred, probably because of shake or vibration, but did you know that blurring is sometimes intentional?

The effect of blurring induces a state of dreaminess into a picture and also removes a busy background or some distractions that tend to thrust itself in focus. Some users have even been known to rub Vaseline on a camera lens to blur the subject's face for the sake of anonymity or to make a static image more dynamic. Whatever the reason, today creating a blur is as easy as clicking your fingers. There are oodles of software out there to do the job for you.

• Part1: Face blurring tools based on desktop
• Part2: Android/iOS Apps to use to blur faces in Photos

Part1: Face blurring tools based on desktop

PicMonkey

PicMonkey is a free, user-friendly, Web-based photo editing application that doesn't require you to register, download or install anything. If you want to post an image online and blur out your face or your friend's, you just need to go the website, upload those photos and straightaway start doing just that.

LunaPic

LunaPic is another free online photo editor that blurs face once you upload a photo. The editor apparently automatically blurs an image on upload. PhotoHide does an equally good job. All you have to do after uploading the photo is to draw a box over the face you want blurred and then click on the hide button. The face is instantly blotted out; you can download this on to your computer. This also is a free service and the site does mention that after editing, the images are automatically deleted.

Facepixelizer

Facepixelizer is a specialized image editor that pixellates faces that you want to blur. It's said to be pretty safe and your images are all secure, even though it’s browser-based. This is because the images are apparently never sent over the network and any processing that happens, takes place within your browser. This editor just requires a single click to work and it's different from many others that ask you to select the area that you want blurred. Its in-built face detection works amazingly to blur faces—sometimes it doesn't quite catch faces that tilted or looking to the side-- but using the Anonymization Tool, this can be set right.

Pixlr Express

Pixlr Express is a great tool to blur faces; all you need to do is to select the photo that you want to blur, click adjustment and then select the blur amount by adjusting the slider—once that's done, just press the Apply button and you're done.

Part2: Android/iOS Apps to use to blur faces in Photos

ObscuraCam

There are several android apps that help blur faces but ObscuraCam appears to be highly rated. Not only does it blur faces but almost removes them from the image. You can even ask it to blur photos that are on your tablet or phone. The software handles both regular pixel-based blurring and several "fun" filters also.

Android Hide Face

The Android Hide Face blur tool can be used to blur faces from candid photos with just a single tap. Once you've selected a picture from either your camera or gallery, just tap the photo you want to be blurred and share them with whomever you want.

TouchBlur (iOS)

TouchBlur (iOS) is another free app but it's for iPhone users. As with the android app, you just need to touch the photo that you want to blur and the face disappears.

You need to select the tool box first and select the image to be blurred using either the rectangular, ellipse or free select tool. Choose filters from the menu bar, go to Blur and select what type of blur you want. Adjust the settings till you are satisfied and then click Apply—and you're done. Continue to do this to all images that you want blurred.