How to blur in Premiere Pro

Learning how to blur is an essential aspect of a video editor. There are many reasons to use the blur, from adding mystery to allowing people to stay anonymous. Either way knowing how to blur in Premiere Pro is essential. 

In today’s article, we look at how to blur in Premiere Pro and how to blur faces in Premiere Pro. We also delve a little into the reasons why you would use blur. 

Let’s jump straight into it.

Why would you need to use blur in Premiere Pro?

There are many reasons for using blur in Premiere Pro; whether it’s to protect someone’s identity or to simply create mystery around a person – there’s always a reason. You may also want to blur out sponsored items depending on the show you’re working on.  

Here are a few more reasons why you’d want to use blur in Premiere Pro: 

• Keeping a person anonymous. 
• Blurring out a brand. 
• Creating mystery.
• Obscuring personal information.

How to blur in Premiere Pro

Here’s how to blur in Premiere Pro. We’ve split this into two parts; one is that of a “Full page blur” and the other is an “item blur”. 

Item blur

An item blur is used to blur out a specific “item” within the shot, this could be a logo on a product, personal information, or a face to keep them anonymous. 

To create a blur in Premiere Pro simply: 

Open up your video and import it into Premiere Pro you wish to edit and drag onto your timeline.

1. Next go to Effects > Video Effects > Blur & Sharpen. 
2. Now, choose “Gaussian Blur”.
3. Next, drag the blur onto your footage in the Timeline.
4. Now, click on “Effect Controls” and click on the Mask Tool.
5. You can now create a mask around the aspect you wish to blur. 
6. Now the mask is created you can use the mask to animate the mask forward and ensure it is kept anonymous throughout.

Full page blur

The full-page blur in Premiere Pro will blur the full screen. This is perfect for creating some cool effects within your video project. To create the full page blur, simply:

1. Open up your video and import into Premiere Pro you wish to edit and drag onto your timeline.
2. Hit, Effects > Video Effects > Blur & Sharpen. Now choose one of the blurs in the Effects Panel. 
3. Drag the blur effect from the Effects Panel onto your footage in your Timeline.
4. Finally go to the Effects Controls and choose the “amount” of blur you want. 
5. That’s it, you’ve added blur in Premiere Pro to your footage. 

NOTE: You can animate the blur effect by going to the stopwatch, clicking it, and adjusting the values over time you wish to have it animated. 

You may also be interested in learning more about: the best export settings in Premiere Pro

How to blur faces in Premiere Pro

Our specialist video editor Philip will guide you through the step by step process of blurring someones face in Premiere Pro. 

Here’s a quick overview of the video tutorial on how to blur faces in Premiere Pro, simply:

1. Open up your video and import into Premiere Pro you wish to edit and drag onto your timeline.
2. Next go to Effects > Video Effects > Blur & Sharpen. 
3. Now, choose “Gaussian Blur”.
4. Next, drag the blur onto your footage in the Timeline.
5. Now, click on “Effect Controls” and click on the Mask Tool.
6. You can now create a mask around the aspect you wish to blur. 
7. Now the mask is created you can use the mask to animate the mask forward and ensure it is kept anonymous throughout.

And that’s how to blur a face in Premiere Pro.

Additional Premiere Pro tutorials:

Here are a couple of useful Premiere Pro tutorials that we think will help you become a better video editor. Check these out below:

• How to preview full screen in Premiere Pro.
• Remove audio in Premiere Pro.
• How to export in Premiere Pro.

We hope this article on “how to blur in Premiere Pro” was useful to you. Let us know your thoughts down below in the comments. 

Happy video editing!