Systems and methods for optimizing bilateral filtering operation, by segmenting an image based on predetermined ranges of colors, and reiteratively blurring the image based on each color. In one aspect, colors associated with pixels that are located in such compartment are substantially similar. A blurring procedure(s) can subsequently be applied to each compartment, wherein pixels on the image that have more color similarity to a color of the compartment are weighted more, as compared to pixels that have less color similarity to the color of such compartment.