iMovie doesn’t have a built-in blur tool but I’ll share a unique way to help you blur a face in your video. With the help of the Picture in Picture tool, you can overlay a blurred image over your video clip to hide any sensitive content you wish to keep hidden from viewers.
Hi! I’m Nancy and I know the ins and outs of how to use all of the tools in iMovie. I came to discover that there’s no built-in feature to blur faces or objects. This gave me an idea to explore methods to produce a blurring effect.
In this article, I’ll guide you through a step-by-step process of how to blur a face using iMovie on a Mac.
Contents
What is the Purpose of Blurring in Videos?
The blurring effect in videos can serve multiple purposes. However, the two most significant reasons are to protect the privacy of specific individuals appearing in the video and to hide sensitive information.
It is a good rule of thumb to blur sensitive information like license plates, credit card numbers, or classified documents as a standard practice. Another prime example why you may see a person’s face blurred out is when a parent wants to shield their child’s identity.
By taking this small editing step in your video, you can protect minors and yourself from potential harm, especially if your video is shared on social platforms where your personal information may be accessed by a large number of people.
How to Blur Faces in a Video in iMovie
Although iMovie does not include a blur tool, you can still achieve a similar effect by utilizing the Picture in Picture overlay tool. Follow the steps below to learn how to blur a face in iMovie.
Step 1: To blur a person’s face in a video clip, first you will need to capture a screenshot of their head in the viewer. Next, open the image using the Preview app on your Mac. Select the Adjust Color option and move the Sharpness slider all the way to the left.
Repeat this process until the desired level of blurriness is achieved. Once you are satisfied with the result, import the blurred image into iMovie.
Step 2: Drag the still image and place it on top of the video clip. Then, navigate to the editor toolbar and click on the Video Overlay Settings tool. Choose the Picture and Picture option and resize and position the image to cover the person’s head in the video.
Step 3: Next, apply keyframes to the overlay image by selecting the Add Keyframe button in the viewer. As the primary video plays, adjust the position of the overlay image to match the movements of the person’s head to maintain the blurring effect.
Once you are done adding keyframes, click the Apply button and preview the clip from the beginning to see if you need to make any changes.
Final Thoughts
There you have it! I hope the step-by-step guide was straightforward for you to follow when trying to blur out a face in your video. Even though iMovie doesn’t have a blur tool, that shouldn’t discourage you from using this technique to blur out parts of your video that you want to keep hidden.
In fact, you can get creative and use emojis and shapes as overlay effects to conceal sensitive information and add a touch of humor to your videos. Remember, it’s always better to be safe than sorry when it comes to sharing any video that contains potentially compromising content.
Please feel free to leave a comment in the section below if you have any further questions on how to use the overlay effects in iMovie.
