How to Transform Your Youtube Vids: A Guide to Softened Screens

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

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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

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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

Examining Video Sharing Platforms: The Vimeo & YouTube Divide

Vimeo vs YouTube: Which is Better?

Ollie Mattison

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Lots of people nowadays use videos to share with people all around the world. Two of the main platforms are YouTube and Vimeo. This article tells you the difference between both so that you can decide which the best platform is for you. Whether you are a marketer, video producer or gamer you will find the information useful to find your target audience easily.

Also read:

Full Review of Vimeo

Vimeo Basic, Vimeo Plus or Vimeo Pro: Which is Right for You?

Please watch the video below for more information:

Detailed View of YouTube and Vimeo

1 Communities

YouTube: When it comes to users YouTube comes out on top with over a billion views each and every month. You are able to interact with your viewers by using the comments and people are able to follow you so that they are notified of new videos and comments. As there is already a huge following on YouTube it’s easy to get a good following if you have great content. It’s harder to control public content which is a downside to using YouTube and there is very little customer support. With the comments being moderated rarely it can cause a distraction from your video. Businesses tend to internally block YouTube video’s which means you won’t get the viewings from people on their lunch breaks.

Vimeo: With higher quality content and no advertisements video owners can quickly build a valid following and gain comments from people that are contributing high value information. You have more detailed analytics which makes it easier to see where you are going wrong should you not have the following you want and you are able to use your own domain. With Google owning YouTube you are unlikely to get the same exposure you would, however the followers tend to be valid giving you a real idea of where you are going right or wrong. Because of the higher quality followers you are less likely to get negative or abusive comments when you use Vimeo, however it is a paid subscription with each tier giving you more space to upload.

2 Membership

YouTube: YouTube on the other hand is free for all to use because the main focus is getting their equity through advertisements. There is however the option to take out a subscription which is known as YouTube Red. This lets you watch as many video’s as you want without having to view the ads and also gets you the ability to download so you don’t have to go online to view your favourite videos, a music app and original programming facilities.

Vimeo: There are 4 different membership options with Vimeo allowing you to tailor it to your needs; there is the basic, plus, pro and business. The higher the cost, the greater level of support and storage capacity you will get. There is a free membership available but you will only be able to use up to 500MB each week.

3 Advertising

YouTube: What makes YouTube free is the fact they get their money from the advertisements they put not only on their sites but before video’s that people have to watch a set amount of seconds for before they can view their video of choice. This is great news if you are a marketer as it will allow you to reach out to viewers on video’s that are relevant to your brand/product/service, however for those that are viewing the sheer amount of ads can be off-putting.

Vimeo: As a paid subscription service and even the limited free package, you won’t have to view or show viewers ads, which means that your videos are more likely to be seen in their entirety not abandoned due to advertisements.

4 Updating video

YouTube: If you upload videos to YouTube you do not have the same benefits as the only way to amend a video is to take it down, delete it and re-upload a new one. This unfortunately takes with it any statistics such as views that you have gained. If you do choose YouTube for your videos then do make sure you check everything vigorously before you upload it as there’s no way to change it.

Vimeo: Occasionally an uploaded video may need some changes made. This could be due to changes to the offer you have or you have noticed something else that needs amending. With Vimeo if you need to update a video you can do so without losing the statistics it has already gained, which is great news if you notice an error later down the line or need to add or take something away.

Conclusion

When it comes down to making the final decision between using YouTube or Vimeo you will need to look at the type of audience you want to attract. With Vimeo you are more likely to attract creators and film makers, whereas with YouTube you will have a bigger audience to target which gives you a better chance of a higher rank on search engines.

Ollie Mattison

Ollie Mattison is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Ollie Mattison