A new method is presented to prevent distortion around human faces for seam carving based image retargeting. For the pictures with many faces, a seam is preferable to go while avoiding faces, however the interspaces between faces are sometimes narrow. To solve the problem, a flexible seam which is not 8-connected but loosely connected is introduced. Since the flexible seam can bend acute angles, they pass through complicated interspaces. A combination method of seam carving and face detection is also presented. Face regions are detected before seam carving, and given larger energy to be guarded.