Is there an easy way to blur faces in lightroom?

[stefanm25580085]

Currently I use the gauss tools from Photoshop to blur faces. Is there something within Lightroom I can use for this? There is this new feature for getting parts of the image out of focus but I could not find a quick way to use it for my task.

Thanks!

[dj_paige]

You can use the new lens blur tool, and brush just the person's face after selecting the Blur tool. See item 5 here: https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/lens-blur.html

You may need to also click on Focus and brush the rest of the photo.

[C.Cella]

As of now you can do: Masking > People > "All People" or "Person n° " > Facial Skin > Create Mask > use Sharpness or Texture -100

Here attached two presets for you to use straight away.

Use "Preset Amount" or "Correction Amount" to reduce the effect.

Please Bear in mind that they will work only on "All People".

LrC/Camera Raw has never been able to apply presets or sync masks created for "Person N° " correctly as the instruction is literally missing.

P.S.

Do not "Import Preset", drag and drop them to the folder where you store your Develop presets and then open LrC.

They will be in you "User Presets" Group

[stefanm25580085]

Cool. But the -100% is too weak. I tried with masks and duplicated them and trippled and so on. But there was to much still visible.

[richardplondon]

Two options: blank out completely with local adjustment e.g. using Curve 

or I suppose you can use the new tool and then blur the entire subject zone within the (guessed) picture depth space. In effect that means clicking the "most in focus" point on the background. Doesn't really meet the brief IMO!

 

Seems there isn't really an easier way at present, to redact by blurring. Normal local adjustment would need multiple overlaid, duplicated masks to really operate strongly..

[stefanm25580085]

Thanks a lot! I used the mask and darken method for lcience plates. just put the blacks and normal tones down. But this gives you black. Thanks for the hint with the curve! This gives me something that is closer to skin tone.

I guess the focussing tool is what I ultimately want, so that some stuff of the person is still there. But I currently find it to difficult to handle. Just masking with a brush would be cool.

[stefanm25580085]

Next level.

I have done this with curves. Is there an easy way to get the face to the tone of the hands? So it would be the skin tone of the policeman for the whole head. No eyes, no mouth ... But it would not disrupt the image as such.

[C.Cella]

@stefanm25580085 

I mistook your request.

I thought you needed to blur the face of your subject not and not "censor" them.

You can apply any color you wan to a Mask.

Use this trick:

Open Color in Masking

Click the "Color Well"

Now "Click and Hold" inside the color well BUT then move the cursor on the image itself.

When you stop clicking and holding you will be able to sample the color in the image (e.g color fo the Hand) and apply it to the Mask.

.

[JohanElzenga · Accepted solution]

I think the idea of using the new Lens Blur is excellent. What you need to do is this. Click apply and let Lightroom create the mask. Now select the 'Focus' brush, set it to a very big size and to Amount 100 and Flow 100 and brush in the entire photo. Then select the 'Blur' brush, make it as small as the face and click on each face. This will only blur the face while the rest of the photo remains in focus. You can now use the Blur Amount slider to blur just enough to make the person not recognizeable, but not completely wiped out like the other suggestions.

[stefanm25580085]

Thank you!

[JohanElzenga]

Small addition: You can also use the Amount of the Blur slider to fine tune it even more.

[richardplondon]

That's an excellent result, but not (yet?) the most elegant method or the swiftest to achieve IMO. 

There's no benefit in this usage, from LrC having generated a depth map at all. Not if 'Refine depth map' is then necessary to obliterate this mask - by painting to define unblurred areas and also painting to define blurred areas.

So perhaps as this feature develops further (and we know it is an initial release for now), we will be able to jump straight into a manual painting of blur? And then adjust the parameters after as needed. As how with local adjustment masks we can press K then start painting on a newly made brush mask immediately - we don't need to first enter mask mode and then make a new mask choosing brush and then start painting. Though we can do it that way too.

[stefanm25580085]

Eaxctly. And since we have perfect mask creation support now, we could use the person selection tool to get the masks and then apply the defocussing on these masks.

[JohanElzenga]

Yes. There is an existing feature request to make lens blur a part of masking, not the separate global panel that it is now. It would mean that masking gets a new AI Depth mask, and blur options. That would offer several new options, and this is one of them.

[P.LAM Photography]

Honestly, I tried some method in here, and have a conclusion, I much prefer PS gaussian blur.

Reason

1. Lens Blur is new feature, when using it, it will also affect my photo's orginal broken, which I don't want LR behave like that. In addition, it made my computer become lag when using this function (my old computer)

2. Other method, like make a new "person mask", the -100 texture effect is too weak for me and also it take so long time for my computer to process

3. I found, in LR and using "Edit photo in PS", and deal with the Photo with gaussian blur with lasso selection tool is quite direct and the effect is great for me, my old computer also have a quick response time

[lauriv51558777]

In LIghtroom:

• Select the face with brush
• Brush settings: Sharpnes -100; Texture -100; Amount: -100.
• Make the preset with these settings and start blurring quickly. 
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_g6qLaKeEk 

[lauriv51558777]

And if the sharpness is not strong enough, apply second or third brush to the same face 😉