Choose people with face references
At a glance
Standard supports individual face choices in one photo. Pro adds identity matching for photos, videos, batches, and live sources. Matching is a suggestion to review, not proof of identity.
Step by step
- 01
Enable Selective Blur before processing. For reference matching, choose a gallery folder with clear photos of the people you intend to match.
- 02
Process the media and open People & rules. Review the detected people and the proposed matches before deciding who remains visible.
- 03
Apply the intended blur or keep-visible rules. Recheck uncertain matches and people without a reference. Plates do not use keep-visible identity rules.
- 04
Export the updated copy and review it throughout. During a live session, keep watching the output as lighting, angles, and the people in view change.
Before you share
A false keep-visible match can expose the wrong person. Do not rely on a name or thumbnail alone; inspect the actual output and protect your local reference gallery.
Full desktop guide (English)
Selective Blur
Selective Blur has two plan-specific workflows. Standard lets you decide whether each detected face in one image should stay visible or be blurred. Pro adds identity matching across images, videos, batches, and live camera sources.
Identity matching and automatic detection are probabilistic. Review every result before publishing or sharing it, especially in privacy-sensitive workflows.
Plan behavior
| Plan | Selective behavior |
|---|---|
| Free | No selective face decisions |
| Standard | Manual keep-visible or blur decisions for detected faces in one image at a time; no identity embeddings |
| Pro | Standard behavior plus identity matching across image, video, batch, and live workflows |
License plates remain blurred by default and cannot receive a keep-visible identity rule.
Standard: choose faces in one image
- Open one image and let SmartBlur produce the processed preview.
- Open Selective Blur and review the detected faces.
- Choose which detected faces stay visible and which remain blurred.
- Inspect the complete image for missed or incorrect detections.
- Export a new copy.
These decisions apply only to the current image. Standard does not create identity profiles or carry a person rule into another file.
Pro: identity rules for files and batches
Pro can compare detected people with identity rules and a selected staff-gallery folder.
- Enable Selective Blur before processing when you want identity analysis.
- For a staff gallery, choose a folder containing clear reference images for the people you intend to match.
- Process the image, video, or batch.
- Review the people and proposed matches in People & rules.
- Set the intended keep-visible or blur rule for each reviewed person.
- Export the updated result and inspect it end to end.
For video, SmartBlur performs identity analysis during Blur & save. Review people after processing, apply the rules, and then export the updated video. Identity analysis adds processing cost.
Pro: live sources
Start a Pro webcam or RTSP session, then use People in camera to review detected people and apply identity rules. Standard supports local webcam processing but does not include Pro identity matching. Keep watching the processed preview: lighting, angle, occlusion, motion, and image quality can change a match during a live session.
Pro identity matching can run on webcam and RTSP sources. RTSP and processed live recording also require Pro. SmartBlur Camera output is available on Standard and Pro with a supported Windows or macOS build downloaded from the SmartBlur website; the Microsoft Store package does not include it.
Manual regions are separate
Manual regions are fixed rectangle or ellipse areas. On video, they stay at fixed normalized clip coordinates and do not automatically follow a moving person or object. See Manual Blur Regions.
Review checklist
- Check for missed and false detections throughout the complete output.
- Confirm that each keep-visible identity rule belongs to the intended person.
- Treat low-quality, partially hidden, or side-view faces as higher risk.
- Keep plates blurred unless you have separately reviewed the privacy requirement.
- Do not treat Selective Blur as a guarantee of legal compliance.