How to blur part of a picture with PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint is a great tool to create presentations for both professional and personal purposes. It comes with a lot of features like built-in templates, slideshows, animations, and more. Also, we can insert images, shapes, smart art, etc., into our presentation slides. Sometimes, we need to hide a part of an image before inserting it into a PowerPoint slide. In such a case, we can blur that particular part of the picture with PowerPoint.

PowerPoint comes with a feature that lets users blur the selected part of an image. Those who do not know this feature, use either Microsoft Paint or any other third-party software to blur a specific part of an image. In this article, we will show you to blur a part of a picture with PowerPoint so that you can save your time in image editing on another software.

How to blur part of a picture with PowerPoint

Though PowerPoint does not have any blur command, you can use different shapes to blur a particular part or area of an image. The steps for the same are listed below:

Launch Microsoft PowerPoint.
Insert an image in a slide.
Select a shape and put it on the part that you want to blur.
Select the eyedropper tool and pick a color.
Select shape effects to blur the selected part of the image.
Group the entire image and save it on your computer.

Now, let’s have a detailed look at these steps.

1] Launch Microsoft PowerPoint.

2] Now, go to “Insert > Pictures” and select the image that you want to insert into a slide.

3] To blur a particular part of an image, you have to cover it with a shape. To select a shape, click on the Insert tab and then click Shapes. You can select a shape of your choice from the list displayed.

4] After selecting a shape, draw it on the part of the image that you want to blur. For this, put your mouse on one side of the image, press and hold its left-click and drag it to the other side.

5] The drawn shape will be of blue color by default. Hence, the blurred shape will also be of the same color. But if you want, you can change the color of the shape by using the Eyedropper tool. For this, select the shape and then go to “Format > Shape Fill” and select the Eyedropper tool.

6] After selecting the Eyedropper tool, pick a color by clicking anywhere on the slide.

7] Now, under the Format tab, click on the Shape Effects and then select Soft Edges. After that, place your mouse cursor to any one of the options displayed in the Soft Edges. When you place your cursor, PowerPoint will show the preview of the blurred shape.

Tip: You can align all the content in your PowerPoint slide by using the Auto Fix feature.

8] Now, press and hold the Ctrl button on your keyboard and select both the blurred shape and the image. When you are done, go to “Format > Group” and click on the Group option.

9] Right-click on the image and click on the Save as Picture option. Name the image and save it on your computer.

The selected part of the image has been blurred. Now, you can insert this image into any slide of your PowerPoint presentation.

If you skip step 8 above, the image will be saved as an original image, i.e., the save image will not contain any blurred part.

Read: How to search for Online Templates and Themes in PowerPoint.

How do you remove a part from a picture using PowerPoint?

You can easily remove any part from a picture in PowerPoint using the shapes tool. We have listed below the steps for the same.

Let’s have a look:

Launch Microsoft PowerPoint and insert an image into a slide.
Go to “Insert > Shapes” and select a shape. Now, place it on the part of the image that you want to remove.
Now, click in the empty space to deselect the shape that you have inserted into the slide.
Press and hold the Shift key on your keyboard and first, click on the image and then click on the shape. This will select both of them.
Click Format in the Drawing Tools section and go to “Merge Shapes > Subtract.” This will erase the selected part of the image.

If you do not select the image and the shape in the correct order as explained in step 4 above, you will not get the desired results.

By following the above steps, you can delete any part from an image in PowerPoint. If your image contains an irregular shape that you want to delete, you have to select the Freeform tool from the Shapes section. After that, use this tool to draw an outline of the irregular shape and follow all the steps above to delete a particular part of an image.

Read: How to create a Mind Map in Microsoft PowerPoint.

How do you emphasize part of a picture in PowerPoint?

You can also emphasize part of a picture in PowerPoint. By using this feature, you can draw the attention of your viewers to a particular part of a picture. The steps to do this are listed below.

To make it more clear for you, we have taken an image of camouflage in which an owl is trying to hide itself.

Launch Microsoft PowerPoint.
Insert an image into it.
Insert a shape over the part of the image that you want to emphasize.
Merge the shapes.
Insert another shape into the slide and change its color and transparency accordingly.
Arrange all the layers until you get the desired results.
Group all the layers.
Save the image on your system.

Let’s have a detailed look at these steps:

1] Launch Microsoft PowerPoint and insert an image into it.

2] Now, you have to place a shape on the part of the image that you want to emphasize. For this, go to “Insert > Shapes” and select the shape of your choice.

3] The next step is to merge the shape and the image. For this, first, deselect the shape by clicking in the empty space. After that, press and hold the Shift key and first, click on the image and then click on the shape. Now, click Format under the Drawing Tools and go to “Merge > Fragment.”

Do note that you will not get the desired results until you select the image and the shape in the correct order.

4] Make the rest of the image blur. For this, select the image that you have not fragmented and go to “Format > Artistic Effects” in the Picture Tools section. Select Blur from the list of options. If you do not want to make the rest of the image blur, you can skip this step.

5] Now, you have to make the entire image dull except the part that you want to emphasize. For this, select a rectangular shape and place it on the entire image. After that, change the color of the chape to black and increase its transparency according to your need. To change the color and transparency, right-click on the rectangular shape and select Format Shape. After that, expand the Fill section and select Solid fill. Now, click Fill color and select the black color. Move the slider to adjust the transparency of the image accordingly.

6] Adjust all the layers to give an emphasize effect to the image. For this, click on your image and go to “Format > Selection Pane.” Now, change the orders of the layers by dragging them up and down until you get the desired results.

7] Press and hold the Ctrl button on your keyboard and select all the layers of your image in the Selection pane. After that, go to “Format > Group” and click on the Group option. To save the image on your computer, right-click on it and select Save as picture.