Blur faces and number plates in a panorama
Blur a face or a number plate in a panorama, from the editor, your media library or a Panoramr's page, everywhere it is shown, and take it away later.
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On this page
Blur hides a face or a number plate in a panorama for good. The blur is made into the panorama's own pictures, so everyone who opens a tour or a Panoramr that shows it sees it blurred. This page describes the window and its buttons.
Opening the window
Blur faces or plates
The button that opens the blur window.
Where: The Panoramas tab: pick the panorama, then the button is under Replace Original File. Basic and Advanced view. The same button, with the same window, is on the panorama's page in your library (open Asset library, whose page is titled Media library, and click the panorama: the button is under its preview) and on a Panoramr's page (open Panoramrs, whose page is titled My Panoramrs, and click a Panoramr's picture or title: the button is under its picture; on a Panoramr of several photos it blurs the photo shown, so move to the next one with the arrows first). Default: Always there for a panorama you may change. On the library's page and a Panoramr's page only the owner sees it. What it does: Opens a window that shows the panorama large. Wherever you blur, it is the same panorama: the blur is in every tour that shows it and every Panoramr it is posted in, on the feed and on its public page. What visitors see: The panorama with the areas blurred, once the blur is made (a minute or so). Needs: A panorama that is yours to change; a collaborator can blur, not take a blur away. Related: Replace or swap a panorama.
Choosing the areas
Draw an area
Mark what to hide with a box.
Where: The blur window. Look around turns the view; Draw an area makes a drag draw a box instead.
Default: Look around is on when the window opens.
What it does: Each box is listed under To blur with not blurred yet, and Remove takes it off the list before anything is blurred. You can draw as many as 50 areas at once.
What visitors see: Nothing yet: the boxes are blurred only when you confirm.
Related: Blur areas.
Find faces
Look for faces for you.
Where: The blur window. Shown only when our team has the uploader's face blur switched on.
Default: Off (the team's switch).
What it does: Looks for faces in your browser and adds the faces it finds to the list; you can remove any it got wrong. It does not look for number plates: draw those yourself. If it finds none, the window says No faces were found.
What visitors see: Nothing yet.
Related: Draw an area.
Making the blur
Blur areas
Blur the listed areas for good.
Where: The blur window, under the list. A box says which tours show the panorama, and whether it is posted as a Panoramr.
Default: Waits for you to confirm.
What it does: The blur is made where the pictures are kept, and the card under the button says Blurring 2 areas… until it is done, then how many areas are blurred. A tour that publishes drafts gets the blurred pictures too, at once, and its held-back edits stay held back. The first time a picture is blurred, an unblurred copy of it is kept beside it, private: it is how an area can be taken away. It is removed when the last area of that picture is taken away, and it goes with the picture when you replace the photo. What Panoramr keeps about your photos lists it.
What visitors see: Blurred areas in every tour and Panoramr that shows the panorama. A blur cannot reach a copy somebody downloaded before, a page somebody still has open, or a copy already sent to Google Street View. A thumbnail you chose yourself is not changed: the card says so, and you replace it with Custom Thumbnail.
Related: Publish to Google Street View.
Take away
Put a blurred area back to how the photo was.
Where: The blur window, next to an area listed under Blurred.
Default: Asks first: Take this area away?
What it does: Everything the area covered goes back to how the photo was, and the other areas stay blurred. Only the owner of the panorama can do it. Two kinds of blur stay: the areas blurred when the photo was uploaded (replace the photo to change those), and a panorama blurred before the list of areas was kept, which says Those blurs stay.
What visitors see: The area unblurred in every tour that shows the panorama.
Needs: The owner of the panorama.
Related: Draft workflows.
Troubleshooting
| You see | What it means and what to do |
|---|---|
A blur is still being made for this panorama. |
Wait until the card no longer says Blurring…, then blur the next areas |
The blur could not be finished. Try again in a few minutes. |
The areas are kept: open the window and click Blur areas again with new ones, or write to us if it happens twice |
No faces were found. |
Draw the areas yourself: a face that is small, turned away or in shadow may not be found |
| The tour or the Panoramr still shows a face after the blur | Wait until the line under the button says how many areas are blurred, then reload the page: a page opened before the blur keeps the pictures it had |
Next steps
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