A Filmmaker’s Guide to Mastering Green Screen Technology

The world of video-making owes much of its magic to small leaps of innovation. One of these leaps is the use of the chroma key background, which most people know by the more colloquial term—green screen.

Chroma key, also known as green screen or blue screen, is a cool hack for seamless visual storytelling, allowing content creators to replace backgrounds with any image or video they want. This technique is widely embraced in film, television, and online content, and has opened the door to limitless creative possibilities. Aside from its ability to maximize creativity, it is also cheap to employ and convenient to set up, which has made it a staple for everyone who works with visuals.

In this simple guide, we’ll delve into the fundamentals of the chroma key effect, how it is used for video making, and how to leverage that as you perfect your visual content.

YouTube Video Background Creating realistic video scenes at your will is easy to complete with Filmora green screen removal.

Create Video Backgrounds Create Video Backgrounds Learn Green Screen

How Does Chroma Key Work?

Chroma Keying is done by singling out a specific color (usually green or blue) from the foreground, removing it, and replacing it with a different background (for example, a sunset). This process typically follows a series of steps:

• Background Selection:

A solid, single-color background, often green or blue, that contrasts well with the subject must be used. The color chosen should not be present in the subject or any props in the camera field to avoid unintentional transparency.

• Color Keying:

This requires the use of specialized visual effects software to key out the chosen color. The green or blue background is designated as transparent, making everything of that color see-through. The software distinguishes between the keyed color and the subject, creating a mask for the transparent areas.

• Foreground Filming:

This involves filming the subject against the live chroma key background. During filming, the chosen background color (green or blue) won’t appear in the final result due to its transparency. The subject is captured as if separately from the isolated background.

• Post-Processing:

In post-production processing, the editor takes the keyed-out color and replaces it with the new background of their choice. This step creates the illusion that the subject is in a different setting or environment. The transparent areas become filled with the chosen background which, if done right, results in a cohesive and visually appealing composition.

Why Green?

Theoretically, the chroma key background can be any solid color. However, the most commonly used colors are studio blue and bright green, with the latter far more common.

The choice of background color depends on the specific requirements of the production and the colors present in the scenes being filmed.

Free Download For Win 7 or later(64-bit)

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later

Contrast

The less similar your chosen background color is to natural skin tones, the easier to isolate and replace in your footage. Bright green provides a strong contrast to most human skin tones and is less likely to be present in costumes or natural surroundings, making it easier to isolate subjects during the color separation.

Luminance

The color green emits light with greater intensity than blue, allowing for far more effective isolation by cameras during filming. This also means that blue screens demand increased lighting for proper exposure compared to green. This situation may be less than ideal if you lack powerful lighting or you don’t have the big bucks for them.

Digital Sensors

Many digital cameras and sensors are more sensitive to green wavelengths, resulting in cleaner and more accurate color keying during post-processing. Modern technology has also evolved to optimize for a green background, making it a more practical choice for the chroma key effect.

Wardrobe and Set Design

Bright green occurs less naturally in costumes and set designs than other colors, making green the optimal choice for reducing the likelihood of color spill and keying issues. However, if you know your scene will have lots of green, it is probably best to film with a blue screen, so there’s less risk of color spill and less post-production work.

Setting up Your Own Chroma Key Studio

Setting up your chroma key is convenient and straightforward, but there are some key factors to consider while setting up to ensure maximal performance.

Choosing the Right Background Color

The first step in the chroma key setup is selecting the right background color to be keyed out. This choice determines your effective color separation and ensures a smooth keying process during editing. Choosing a chroma-key background color that contrasts distinctly with the subject’s colors is essential for effective color separation. This prevents unintentional transparency, color spill, and ensures a polished final result.

Lighting Considerations

Lighting is an important part of the chroma-keying process. Bold, uniform, and consistent lighting on both the subject and the background makes it easy to delineate one from the other fully. This minimizes shadows and variations in color, creating a smooth and seamless keying process. Multiple diffuse lights from different angles are often used to illuminate the green screen evenly.

Positioning/Camera

Proper subject and camera placement are necessary to ensure an even color-keying process during post-production. To prevent shadow interference, the green screen should be smooth, tense, and without wrinkles or shadows.

High-quality cameras are essential every time, especially for chroma keying. Images with better definition are easier to key, so camera quality significantly affects the outcome. Even if your camera isn’t the best, merely shooting well can ensure a clean color-keying process during editing, resulting in professional-looking visuals.

Recording Tips for Chroma Key

• Proper Lighting

Maintaining uniform and well-defined lighting during recording is essential for a successful chroma-keying process. This consistency ensures a seamless keying process during post-production.

• Keep Distance from the Green Screen

The optimal distance between the subject and the green screen minimizes color spill and allows for natural movements. Proper distance between subject and background allows for easier isolation of the background and much smoother post-editing. A recommended starting point for the issue is around 6 to 10 feet from the background.

• Subjects and Clothing

As mentioned before, the choice of costume for Selecting appropriate clothing that doesn’t match the chroma key color prevents transparency issues. Subjects also have to be positioned in such a way that there is minimal light interference and reflection. These contribute to a flawless chroma key outcome.

3 Basic Troubleshooting Strategies

• Color Spill

Sometimes, reflected light from your green background can be cast on your subject and may remain so when the background light is keyed out. This phenomenon is known as a color spill. It is usually because of uneven lighting or shooting around reflecting surfaces. Avoiding spill can differentiate between good and lousy chroma key aftereffects.

Human hair is one area where color spill can show up unsuspectingly. Due to the translucency of hair, it is common for some unintended light to seep through. This allows some background visibility, which you do not want with a chroma key. This is especially notable with lighter hair colors like blond hair.

There are ways to account for this. Many video-editing software have features such as spill suppression and screen matte adjustments that can enhance the final footage. Specialized plugins also go a long way in ensuring minimizing spill. Addressing spill correction tackles unwanted green artifacts and ensures a clean keying process.

• Poor Lighting

Suboptimal green screen lighting can lead to inconsistencies in keying and editing, undermining your product. One way to avoid this is to light the screen and subject separately. Another tip, although expensive, is using multiple diffuse light sources and trying to maintain even lighting across every square foot of your scene. Super bright or dark spots can ruin your output, so it’s worth the extra effort if you don’t want to deal with problematic post-production.

• Poorly Refined Edges

Chroma keying should leave your videos with crisp, defined, natural-looking edges. But post-production editing can make all the difference if it doesn’t come out to your taste. Softening and refining edges make a smoother transition between the foreground object and the new background. Light adjustments to edge thickness and screen matte settings can also help enhance overall visual quality and add finesse to your work.

Conclusion

Green screen photography produces excellent results, and its ease of use makes it indispensable for videographers of all levels. In this guide, we’ve discussed chroma key technology, its role in the industry, and how to apply it to your craft to elevate visual content.

Chroma key, also known as green screen or blue screen, is a cool hack for seamless visual storytelling, allowing content creators to replace backgrounds with any image or video they want. This technique is widely embraced in film, television, and online content, and has opened the door to limitless creative possibilities. Aside from its ability to maximize creativity, it is also cheap to employ and convenient to set up, which has made it a staple for everyone who works with visuals.

In this simple guide, we’ll delve into the fundamentals of the chroma key effect, how it is used for video making, and how to leverage that as you perfect your visual content.

YouTube Video Background Creating realistic video scenes at your will is easy to complete with Filmora green screen removal.

Create Video Backgrounds Create Video Backgrounds Learn Green Screen

How Does Chroma Key Work?

Chroma Keying is done by singling out a specific color (usually green or blue) from the foreground, removing it, and replacing it with a different background (for example, a sunset). This process typically follows a series of steps:

• Background Selection:

A solid, single-color background, often green or blue, that contrasts well with the subject must be used. The color chosen should not be present in the subject or any props in the camera field to avoid unintentional transparency.

• Color Keying:

This requires the use of specialized visual effects software to key out the chosen color. The green or blue background is designated as transparent, making everything of that color see-through. The software distinguishes between the keyed color and the subject, creating a mask for the transparent areas.

• Foreground Filming:

This involves filming the subject against the live chroma key background. During filming, the chosen background color (green or blue) won’t appear in the final result due to its transparency. The subject is captured as if separately from the isolated background.

• Post-Processing:

In post-production processing, the editor takes the keyed-out color and replaces it with the new background of their choice. This step creates the illusion that the subject is in a different setting or environment. The transparent areas become filled with the chosen background which, if done right, results in a cohesive and visually appealing composition.

Why Green?

Theoretically, the chroma key background can be any solid color. However, the most commonly used colors are studio blue and bright green, with the latter far more common.

The choice of background color depends on the specific requirements of the production and the colors present in the scenes being filmed.

Free Download For Win 7 or later(64-bit)

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later

Contrast

The less similar your chosen background color is to natural skin tones, the easier to isolate and replace in your footage. Bright green provides a strong contrast to most human skin tones and is less likely to be present in costumes or natural surroundings, making it easier to isolate subjects during the color separation.

Luminance

The color green emits light with greater intensity than blue, allowing for far more effective isolation by cameras during filming. This also means that blue screens demand increased lighting for proper exposure compared to green. This situation may be less than ideal if you lack powerful lighting or you don’t have the big bucks for them.

Digital Sensors

Many digital cameras and sensors are more sensitive to green wavelengths, resulting in cleaner and more accurate color keying during post-processing. Modern technology has also evolved to optimize for a green background, making it a more practical choice for the chroma key effect.

Wardrobe and Set Design

Bright green occurs less naturally in costumes and set designs than other colors, making green the optimal choice for reducing the likelihood of color spill and keying issues. However, if you know your scene will have lots of green, it is probably best to film with a blue screen, so there’s less risk of color spill and less post-production work.

Setting up Your Own Chroma Key Studio

Setting up your chroma key is convenient and straightforward, but there are some key factors to consider while setting up to ensure maximal performance.

Choosing the Right Background Color

The first step in the chroma key setup is selecting the right background color to be keyed out. This choice determines your effective color separation and ensures a smooth keying process during editing. Choosing a chroma-key background color that contrasts distinctly with the subject’s colors is essential for effective color separation. This prevents unintentional transparency, color spill, and ensures a polished final result.

Lighting Considerations

Lighting is an important part of the chroma-keying process. Bold, uniform, and consistent lighting on both the subject and the background makes it easy to delineate one from the other fully. This minimizes shadows and variations in color, creating a smooth and seamless keying process. Multiple diffuse lights from different angles are often used to illuminate the green screen evenly.

Positioning/Camera

Proper subject and camera placement are necessary to ensure an even color-keying process during post-production. To prevent shadow interference, the green screen should be smooth, tense, and without wrinkles or shadows.

High-quality cameras are essential every time, especially for chroma keying. Images with better definition are easier to key, so camera quality significantly affects the outcome. Even if your camera isn’t the best, merely shooting well can ensure a clean color-keying process during editing, resulting in professional-looking visuals.

Recording Tips for Chroma Key

• Proper Lighting

Maintaining uniform and well-defined lighting during recording is essential for a successful chroma-keying process. This consistency ensures a seamless keying process during post-production.

• Keep Distance from the Green Screen

The optimal distance between the subject and the green screen minimizes color spill and allows for natural movements. Proper distance between subject and background allows for easier isolation of the background and much smoother post-editing. A recommended starting point for the issue is around 6 to 10 feet from the background.

• Subjects and Clothing

As mentioned before, the choice of costume for Selecting appropriate clothing that doesn’t match the chroma key color prevents transparency issues. Subjects also have to be positioned in such a way that there is minimal light interference and reflection. These contribute to a flawless chroma key outcome.

Click here

3 Basic Troubleshooting Strategies

• Color Spill

Sometimes, reflected light from your green background can be cast on your subject and may remain so when the background light is keyed out. This phenomenon is known as a color spill. It is usually because of uneven lighting or shooting around reflecting surfaces. Avoiding spill can differentiate between good and lousy chroma key aftereffects.

Human hair is one area where color spill can show up unsuspectingly. Due to the translucency of hair, it is common for some unintended light to seep through. This allows some background visibility, which you do not want with a chroma key. This is especially notable with lighter hair colors like blond hair.

There are ways to account for this. Many video-editing software have features such as spill suppression and screen matte adjustments that can enhance the final footage. Specialized plugins also go a long way in ensuring minimizing spill. Addressing spill correction tackles unwanted green artifacts and ensures a clean keying process.

• Poor Lighting

Suboptimal green screen lighting can lead to inconsistencies in keying and editing, undermining your product. One way to avoid this is to light the screen and subject separately. Another tip, although expensive, is using multiple diffuse light sources and trying to maintain even lighting across every square foot of your scene. Super bright or dark spots can ruin your output, so it’s worth the extra effort if you don’t want to deal with problematic post-production.

• Poorly Refined Edges

Chroma keying should leave your videos with crisp, defined, natural-looking edges. But post-production editing can make all the difference if it doesn’t come out to your taste. Softening and refining edges make a smoother transition between the foreground object and the new background. Light adjustments to edge thickness and screen matte settings can also help enhance overall visual quality and add finesse to your work.

Conclusion

Green screen photography produces excellent results, and its ease of use makes it indispensable for videographers of all levels. In this guide, we’ve discussed chroma key technology, its role in the industry, and how to apply it to your craft to elevate visual content.

Unveiling the Secrets: How to Clear YT Background

How to Blur Background of Your YouTube Video

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

A lot of YouTubers like to vlog in front of blurred backgrounds. Blurring the background of your YouTube video is a fast way to make it look more professional – you stand out when you are entirely in focus, and everything behind you is blurry. Plus, it is an easy way to disguise the room you are vlogging from.

Even if your set is clean, there could be things like books behind you, which will distract viewers; they will be trying to read the spines. Blurring out the background of your shot makes your video look polished and keeps people’s focus entirely on you.

• Part 1: Blur YouTube Video Background in Shooting Videos
• Part 2: Add Tilt-Shift Effects to Video in Editing

---

Part 1: How to Blur Background of Your YouTube Video in Shooting Videos

Blurring your background is also how you create a beautiful bokeh lighting effect. Bokeh is when you blur lights in the background of your shot, creating halo-like circles of light. By attaching a filter with a shape cut out to the camera lens, you can even generate bokeh lights in other shapes, like hearts or stars.

Aperture refers to the hole in your lens which allows light into your camera. A narrow aperture lets in less light, and a wide aperture lets in more. The wider your aperture is, the shallower your depth of field will be. Widening your aperture also helps your camera perform better in low-light situations. Widening your aperture too much under the wrong circumstances can let in too much light and result in your footage being overexposed.

Depth of Field is the area of your image that is in focus. If you have a large depth of field, then objects close to and far away from your camera will all be in focus. Only a select area will be focused and the rest will be blurred if you have a shallow depth of field.

F-Stops are the measurement of an aperture’s width. The higher your f-stop, the narrower your aperture will be. To create a blurred background or a bokeh effect, you need a wide aperture, and thus a small f-stop. F-stops are written like ‘f/1.4’. You need an f-stop of less than f/4 to blur your background, and less than f/2.8 for bokeh.

1. Blurring and Bokeh

Blurred backgrounds and bokeh are very closely related. A bokeh effect is essentially a blurred background that includes lights.
To achieve a blurred background or a bokeh effect, you need to have a shallow depth of field. That means a wide aperture and a low f-stop.

2. How to Blur your Background

Place your subject – in the case of a vlog, your subject is probably yourself – in a shallow depth of field, and they will remain sharply in focus while everything behind them is blurred.

If the subject is yourself, you might need a helper to either operate your camera or stand in for you while you set up your camera. You will need to be able to check that the place you plan to stand or sit is in focus.

To get a shallow depth of field, make sure your aperture is wide. Do this by setting a low f-stop. Ideally, your f-stop will be 2.8 or lower, but if your camera cannot go that low, then f/3 or f/4 can also work.

Creating a bokeh effect is mostly the same, except that it works best when your subject/depth of field is very close to the camera, and you have a light source off in the background. Zoom Lenses do not usually have wide enough apertures to create bokeh backgrounds.

Blur Video Background in Post-Production with Wondershare Filmora Video Editor

If you need to blur the video background after shooting, you can use some video editing software to add the bokeh effect or the tilt-off effect in post-production. Here, I will show you how to do that in Filmora.

Filmora is one of the most widely used video editing software among YouTubers. Its user-friendly interface and tutorial guide enables green-hands to start video editing quickly. Besides, you can find many free filters, effects, and elements pre-programmed, so you can use them directly without looking for presets and templates somewhere else.

1. Add Bokeh Filter to Video in Filmora

There are about 20 bokeh effects available in filters and overlays. You can find them easily by typing bokeh in the search bar in Effects.

Note: you should select Included to see all bokeh effects pre-programmed in Filmora. If you need more visual effects, just go to the Filmstock effects store.

Double click the bokeh effect to preview the result, and if you find the bokeh effect fits the video, just drop it to the track above the video. And the bokeh filter or overlay will be applied to the video automatically.

2. Use Tilt-Shift Circle/Linear Effect to Blur Video Background

Filmora features two tilt effects, tilt-shift circle and tilt-shift linear, which allows you to highlight people in the video, blur, and conceal the video background.

Go to the Effects tab and then switch to the Utility menu under Included category.

Here, I will select the Tilt-Shift Circle effect and drop it to the track above the video. Now, you can adjust the size, position, and intensity of the tilt-shift circle effect

You see, the video background is blurred, and the people are highlighted. Now it’s your turn to download the Filmora video editor and try it yourself.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

A lot of YouTubers like to vlog in front of blurred backgrounds. Blurring the background of your YouTube video is a fast way to make it look more professional – you stand out when you are entirely in focus, and everything behind you is blurry. Plus, it is an easy way to disguise the room you are vlogging from.

Even if your set is clean, there could be things like books behind you, which will distract viewers; they will be trying to read the spines. Blurring out the background of your shot makes your video look polished and keeps people’s focus entirely on you.

• Part 1: Blur YouTube Video Background in Shooting Videos
• Part 2: Add Tilt-Shift Effects to Video in Editing

---

Part 1: How to Blur Background of Your YouTube Video in Shooting Videos

Blurring your background is also how you create a beautiful bokeh lighting effect. Bokeh is when you blur lights in the background of your shot, creating halo-like circles of light. By attaching a filter with a shape cut out to the camera lens, you can even generate bokeh lights in other shapes, like hearts or stars.

Aperture refers to the hole in your lens which allows light into your camera. A narrow aperture lets in less light, and a wide aperture lets in more. The wider your aperture is, the shallower your depth of field will be. Widening your aperture also helps your camera perform better in low-light situations. Widening your aperture too much under the wrong circumstances can let in too much light and result in your footage being overexposed.

Depth of Field is the area of your image that is in focus. If you have a large depth of field, then objects close to and far away from your camera will all be in focus. Only a select area will be focused and the rest will be blurred if you have a shallow depth of field.

F-Stops are the measurement of an aperture’s width. The higher your f-stop, the narrower your aperture will be. To create a blurred background or a bokeh effect, you need a wide aperture, and thus a small f-stop. F-stops are written like ‘f/1.4’. You need an f-stop of less than f/4 to blur your background, and less than f/2.8 for bokeh.

1. Blurring and Bokeh

Blurred backgrounds and bokeh are very closely related. A bokeh effect is essentially a blurred background that includes lights.
To achieve a blurred background or a bokeh effect, you need to have a shallow depth of field. That means a wide aperture and a low f-stop.

2. How to Blur your Background

Place your subject – in the case of a vlog, your subject is probably yourself – in a shallow depth of field, and they will remain sharply in focus while everything behind them is blurred.

If the subject is yourself, you might need a helper to either operate your camera or stand in for you while you set up your camera. You will need to be able to check that the place you plan to stand or sit is in focus.

To get a shallow depth of field, make sure your aperture is wide. Do this by setting a low f-stop. Ideally, your f-stop will be 2.8 or lower, but if your camera cannot go that low, then f/3 or f/4 can also work.

Creating a bokeh effect is mostly the same, except that it works best when your subject/depth of field is very close to the camera, and you have a light source off in the background. Zoom Lenses do not usually have wide enough apertures to create bokeh backgrounds.

Blur Video Background in Post-Production with Wondershare Filmora Video Editor

If you need to blur the video background after shooting, you can use some video editing software to add the bokeh effect or the tilt-off effect in post-production. Here, I will show you how to do that in Filmora.

Filmora is one of the most widely used video editing software among YouTubers. Its user-friendly interface and tutorial guide enables green-hands to start video editing quickly. Besides, you can find many free filters, effects, and elements pre-programmed, so you can use them directly without looking for presets and templates somewhere else.

1. Add Bokeh Filter to Video in Filmora

There are about 20 bokeh effects available in filters and overlays. You can find them easily by typing bokeh in the search bar in Effects.

Note: you should select Included to see all bokeh effects pre-programmed in Filmora. If you need more visual effects, just go to the Filmstock effects store.

Double click the bokeh effect to preview the result, and if you find the bokeh effect fits the video, just drop it to the track above the video. And the bokeh filter or overlay will be applied to the video automatically.

2. Use Tilt-Shift Circle/Linear Effect to Blur Video Background

Filmora features two tilt effects, tilt-shift circle and tilt-shift linear, which allows you to highlight people in the video, blur, and conceal the video background.

Go to the Effects tab and then switch to the Utility menu under Included category.

Here, I will select the Tilt-Shift Circle effect and drop it to the track above the video. Now, you can adjust the size, position, and intensity of the tilt-shift circle effect

You see, the video background is blurred, and the people are highlighted. Now it’s your turn to download the Filmora video editor and try it yourself.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

A lot of YouTubers like to vlog in front of blurred backgrounds. Blurring the background of your YouTube video is a fast way to make it look more professional – you stand out when you are entirely in focus, and everything behind you is blurry. Plus, it is an easy way to disguise the room you are vlogging from.

Even if your set is clean, there could be things like books behind you, which will distract viewers; they will be trying to read the spines. Blurring out the background of your shot makes your video look polished and keeps people’s focus entirely on you.

• Part 1: Blur YouTube Video Background in Shooting Videos
• Part 2: Add Tilt-Shift Effects to Video in Editing

---

Part 1: How to Blur Background of Your YouTube Video in Shooting Videos

Blurring your background is also how you create a beautiful bokeh lighting effect. Bokeh is when you blur lights in the background of your shot, creating halo-like circles of light. By attaching a filter with a shape cut out to the camera lens, you can even generate bokeh lights in other shapes, like hearts or stars.

Aperture refers to the hole in your lens which allows light into your camera. A narrow aperture lets in less light, and a wide aperture lets in more. The wider your aperture is, the shallower your depth of field will be. Widening your aperture also helps your camera perform better in low-light situations. Widening your aperture too much under the wrong circumstances can let in too much light and result in your footage being overexposed.

Depth of Field is the area of your image that is in focus. If you have a large depth of field, then objects close to and far away from your camera will all be in focus. Only a select area will be focused and the rest will be blurred if you have a shallow depth of field.

F-Stops are the measurement of an aperture’s width. The higher your f-stop, the narrower your aperture will be. To create a blurred background or a bokeh effect, you need a wide aperture, and thus a small f-stop. F-stops are written like ‘f/1.4’. You need an f-stop of less than f/4 to blur your background, and less than f/2.8 for bokeh.

1. Blurring and Bokeh

Blurred backgrounds and bokeh are very closely related. A bokeh effect is essentially a blurred background that includes lights.
To achieve a blurred background or a bokeh effect, you need to have a shallow depth of field. That means a wide aperture and a low f-stop.

2. How to Blur your Background

Place your subject – in the case of a vlog, your subject is probably yourself – in a shallow depth of field, and they will remain sharply in focus while everything behind them is blurred.

If the subject is yourself, you might need a helper to either operate your camera or stand in for you while you set up your camera. You will need to be able to check that the place you plan to stand or sit is in focus.

To get a shallow depth of field, make sure your aperture is wide. Do this by setting a low f-stop. Ideally, your f-stop will be 2.8 or lower, but if your camera cannot go that low, then f/3 or f/4 can also work.

Creating a bokeh effect is mostly the same, except that it works best when your subject/depth of field is very close to the camera, and you have a light source off in the background. Zoom Lenses do not usually have wide enough apertures to create bokeh backgrounds.

Blur Video Background in Post-Production with Wondershare Filmora Video Editor

If you need to blur the video background after shooting, you can use some video editing software to add the bokeh effect or the tilt-off effect in post-production. Here, I will show you how to do that in Filmora.

Filmora is one of the most widely used video editing software among YouTubers. Its user-friendly interface and tutorial guide enables green-hands to start video editing quickly. Besides, you can find many free filters, effects, and elements pre-programmed, so you can use them directly without looking for presets and templates somewhere else.

1. Add Bokeh Filter to Video in Filmora

There are about 20 bokeh effects available in filters and overlays. You can find them easily by typing bokeh in the search bar in Effects.

Note: you should select Included to see all bokeh effects pre-programmed in Filmora. If you need more visual effects, just go to the Filmstock effects store.

Double click the bokeh effect to preview the result, and if you find the bokeh effect fits the video, just drop it to the track above the video. And the bokeh filter or overlay will be applied to the video automatically.

2. Use Tilt-Shift Circle/Linear Effect to Blur Video Background

Filmora features two tilt effects, tilt-shift circle and tilt-shift linear, which allows you to highlight people in the video, blur, and conceal the video background.

Go to the Effects tab and then switch to the Utility menu under Included category.

Here, I will select the Tilt-Shift Circle effect and drop it to the track above the video. Now, you can adjust the size, position, and intensity of the tilt-shift circle effect

You see, the video background is blurred, and the people are highlighted. Now it’s your turn to download the Filmora video editor and try it yourself.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

A lot of YouTubers like to vlog in front of blurred backgrounds. Blurring the background of your YouTube video is a fast way to make it look more professional – you stand out when you are entirely in focus, and everything behind you is blurry. Plus, it is an easy way to disguise the room you are vlogging from.

Even if your set is clean, there could be things like books behind you, which will distract viewers; they will be trying to read the spines. Blurring out the background of your shot makes your video look polished and keeps people’s focus entirely on you.

• Part 1: Blur YouTube Video Background in Shooting Videos
• Part 2: Add Tilt-Shift Effects to Video in Editing

---

Part 1: How to Blur Background of Your YouTube Video in Shooting Videos

Blurring your background is also how you create a beautiful bokeh lighting effect. Bokeh is when you blur lights in the background of your shot, creating halo-like circles of light. By attaching a filter with a shape cut out to the camera lens, you can even generate bokeh lights in other shapes, like hearts or stars.

Aperture refers to the hole in your lens which allows light into your camera. A narrow aperture lets in less light, and a wide aperture lets in more. The wider your aperture is, the shallower your depth of field will be. Widening your aperture also helps your camera perform better in low-light situations. Widening your aperture too much under the wrong circumstances can let in too much light and result in your footage being overexposed.

Depth of Field is the area of your image that is in focus. If you have a large depth of field, then objects close to and far away from your camera will all be in focus. Only a select area will be focused and the rest will be blurred if you have a shallow depth of field.

F-Stops are the measurement of an aperture’s width. The higher your f-stop, the narrower your aperture will be. To create a blurred background or a bokeh effect, you need a wide aperture, and thus a small f-stop. F-stops are written like ‘f/1.4’. You need an f-stop of less than f/4 to blur your background, and less than f/2.8 for bokeh.

1. Blurring and Bokeh

Blurred backgrounds and bokeh are very closely related. A bokeh effect is essentially a blurred background that includes lights.
To achieve a blurred background or a bokeh effect, you need to have a shallow depth of field. That means a wide aperture and a low f-stop.

2. How to Blur your Background

Place your subject – in the case of a vlog, your subject is probably yourself – in a shallow depth of field, and they will remain sharply in focus while everything behind them is blurred.

If the subject is yourself, you might need a helper to either operate your camera or stand in for you while you set up your camera. You will need to be able to check that the place you plan to stand or sit is in focus.

To get a shallow depth of field, make sure your aperture is wide. Do this by setting a low f-stop. Ideally, your f-stop will be 2.8 or lower, but if your camera cannot go that low, then f/3 or f/4 can also work.

Creating a bokeh effect is mostly the same, except that it works best when your subject/depth of field is very close to the camera, and you have a light source off in the background. Zoom Lenses do not usually have wide enough apertures to create bokeh backgrounds.

Blur Video Background in Post-Production with Wondershare Filmora Video Editor

If you need to blur the video background after shooting, you can use some video editing software to add the bokeh effect or the tilt-off effect in post-production. Here, I will show you how to do that in Filmora.

Filmora is one of the most widely used video editing software among YouTubers. Its user-friendly interface and tutorial guide enables green-hands to start video editing quickly. Besides, you can find many free filters, effects, and elements pre-programmed, so you can use them directly without looking for presets and templates somewhere else.

1. Add Bokeh Filter to Video in Filmora

There are about 20 bokeh effects available in filters and overlays. You can find them easily by typing bokeh in the search bar in Effects.

Note: you should select Included to see all bokeh effects pre-programmed in Filmora. If you need more visual effects, just go to the Filmstock effects store.

Double click the bokeh effect to preview the result, and if you find the bokeh effect fits the video, just drop it to the track above the video. And the bokeh filter or overlay will be applied to the video automatically.

2. Use Tilt-Shift Circle/Linear Effect to Blur Video Background

Filmora features two tilt effects, tilt-shift circle and tilt-shift linear, which allows you to highlight people in the video, blur, and conceal the video background.

Go to the Effects tab and then switch to the Utility menu under Included category.

Here, I will select the Tilt-Shift Circle effect and drop it to the track above the video. Now, you can adjust the size, position, and intensity of the tilt-shift circle effect

You see, the video background is blurred, and the people are highlighted. Now it’s your turn to download the Filmora video editor and try it yourself.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

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