How to Blur a Picture in PowerPoint

Blurring images in PowerPoint can help draw attention to certain parts of your presentation. It’s a great design technique to make part of an image less distracting or hide sensitive information.

In this beginner’s guide, you’ll learn how to blur images in PowerPoint in just a few easy steps.

Why Blur Images in PowerPoint Presentations?

Here are some of the most common reasons for blurring images in PowerPoint:

• Hide sensitive or confidential data – Blurring allows you to obscure sensitive information like faces, ID numbers, account details etc. This is useful when sharing presentations publicly.
• Draw attention to particular areas – Blurring parts of an image can help highlight the areas you want to focus on. The blurred sections will fade into the background.
• Aesthetic effects – A soft blur effect can make images blend nicely into slide backgrounds, creating an artistic look.
• Reduce distractions – Blurring busy or complex images subtly simplifies them so they don’t compete for attention.

Step 1 – Insert an Image

First, open the PowerPoint presentation and insert the picture you want to blur.

To do this:

1. Go to the Insert tab
2. Click on Pictures
3. Select the image from your computer or an online source
4. The picture will now be inserted into your slide

Insert Picture in PowerPoint

Step 2 – Select the Picture

Now select the inserted picture so you can apply effects to it.

To select:

1. Click on the image to highlight it with a border
2. The Picture Format tab will appear at the top

Step 3 – Open Artistic Effects

In the Picture Format tab:

1. Go to Adjust group
2. Click on Artistic Effects
3. A drop-down menu will open with different effects

Artistic Effects in PowerPoint

Step 4 – Apply Blur Effect

From the artistic effects menu:

1. Choose the Blur option
2. This will apply a standard blur to the entire image

You can also try the other blur-like effects such as Glow Edges, Soft Edges etc.

Step 5 – Adjust Blur Intensity

To control the intensity of the blur effect:

1. Open Artistic Effects menu again
2. Select Artistic Effect Options at the bottom
3. In the sidebar that opens go to Artistic Effects > Radius
4. Drag the slider right to increase blur intensity

Adjust Blur intensity

The higher the radius value, the more blurred the picture will appear.

And that’s it! By following these simple steps you can easily apply standard blur effects to images in PowerPoint.

Blur Only Parts of a Picture

The above method blurs the entire image. But what if you only want to blur specific regions of a photo?

There is a workaround to achieve this in PowerPoint:

1. Insert the picture
2. Add a shape (rectangle, ellipse etc) on the area you want to blur
3. Reduce transparency of the shape to partially hide the underlying section
4. Group the picture and shape together

This gives the appearance of selective blurring on pictures in PowerPoint.

Blur parts of picture

• The shape covers the area you want to blur
• Reduced transparency of the shape creates a blur-like effect
• Grouping ensures the shape and image move together

So that’s how you can blur parts of a picture in PowerPoint slides!

More Picture Editing Tips

Here are some additional tips for editing images in your PowerPoint presentations:

• Crop pictures to custom shapes
• Compress images to reduce file size
• Remove photo backgrounds
• Apply artistic color filters
• Add borders and outlines
• Make pictures transparent

With PowerPoint’s formatting options you can instantly transform dull images into visually appealing graphics.

Blurring is one of the most popular effects to make pictures blend seamlessly into professional presentations.

Now you know how to do it too!