Having a blurred background video look or ‘Bokeh effect’ as it’s known, is a really popular look in videos right now and in this video and blog below, I’m going to show you the easiest way to achieve a blurred background video, with an app on your iphone.

Here you can see how the blurred background looks, with myself in focus and my office behind me having the blurred effect.

Previously this type of background hasn’t been so easy to create, unless you are up to speed with the settings on your DSLR or by using a work around, with an app that will make the photos that you take, have a blurred background and then recording your iPhone screen with your screen recorder in that app.

But that’s a faff and no need for that because now there is an app to do this all for you and I’m going to show you how easy it is to use.

How do I get the Blur Video Background Online?

Watch the video below and I tell you what to use and how to do it …

So I use the Focos Live app to create this blurred background effect in my videos.

Now, I record the video through the phone camera itself as normal and then the app converts the video after you import it. This means that whilst you’re recording your video, you won’t see a blurred background on the screen in front of you, it’s the app does the editing work for you after. However, you can record your video direct in the app too.

For 10 more tips to filming video like a pro with your smartphone, grab my FREE download HERE to help you get started. This will get you going with smartphone video with helpful advice and if you’re not using video to promote your business, right now is the time to get started.

So lets have a look at how to get the blurred background effect on our iPhone video with this app …

We have to download the Focos Live app and then open the app on our iPhone. You then see a screen where you can import a video from your camera roll or you can tap the screen and start to video yourself, through the app.

Get yourself ready ready to record. You can change the camera from front to back depending which way you want to film, so turn it back round if you’re filming yourself.

How to Blur background in video editing

Within the video you’ve got all sorts of controls whilst you are filming. You can click to bring up different filters, alter the brightness etc. You can also choose the aspect ratio, depending where you’re recording for, and it shows you on the bottom of the screen, all of the different sized formats.

Then you can also change the frames per second rate, and then you’ve got your settings button at the top, for some general settings. Now you’re ready to record hit that record button and again press it when you want to stop filming. When you’ve pressed the stop button, it brings up your recording. Click on one whichever one you want to import into your timeline and now it’s ready to add the blur background effect.

So as I said, I didn’t record the video in the Focos Live app itself, I did it on my iPhone camera. Now i’m going to do the same procedure, by tapping on ‘open project’ and then the ‘new’ button to bring in my video from my camera roll into the timeline to edit.

Again, there’s quite a lot you can do to edit, within this app when you’ve imported your video

For instance, you can add emojis if you want to or maybe add text.  I quite like that mosaic effect that pixelates a part of the video. I actually i think that could be useful for some projects. You can add filter colors, you can alter the speed, you can reverse and freeze but obviously we’re interested in the blurred background. We click on  ‘blur’ and now at this point it will tell you that the bokeh effect is to be paid for.

How much does this app cost?

The cost of this is £1.99 for a month, £8.99 for a year and £14.99 for a one-time purchase, which  is what I opted for, and those prices are in GB pounds. So now we’ve got the Bokeh effect on our video and we should next move the red circle to cover whatever we want to be in focus, i.e yourself.  We can then slide the slider bar to get whichever effect we want.  At 20 on the scale, it’s back to normal vision, in focus, so play around here with the slide, as to where you want it to be. For me, I I like it round and about  the 12 mark I think, but you have a play around to see what you like, see what works for you.  Just move it up and down, have it where you want and you’re good to go.

Next thing to do if you’re happy with how your video looks, tap the ‘export’ arrow in the top right hand corner. You then get the option at the bottom of the screen for what resolution you want to export it at. I Use 1080p (High definition). I would also choose 60 frames per second in case I want to slow anything down in the video, on my desktop edit program. I don’t want to in this particular video but you never know, if it’s  if there’s some kind of action that you want to do a little bit slow motion with. Then click ‘export video’ and away it goes. Done! you have your blurred background video effect.

If you think that this will be helpful to you, please let me know.

It can add a really nice, professional touch to your videos, depending on your niche, and certainly get you noticed on your social media platforms.

How to make the Background blurry with video cameras

It’s possible to use a video camera to get your blurred background effect by understanding the settings to use on your DSLR. This is known as having a shallow depth of field and here’s a quick background. You want to alter your camera aperture to the lowest number possible, depending on the camera you’re using. Then adjust your shutter speed to 50 or 100 (UK and AUS) and  60 or 120 (USA) and your ISO to as high as you need to (800 -1600), without it being grainy.

You want as shorter distance between your camera and the subject as possible, with the background behind as further away as possible. This is what gives the shallow depth of field to give that blurry background effect and your subject in focus. Play around with distances from the camera and the zoom, it all depends on your camera, lenses etc.

The light sensors in your smartphone are small which is why the smartphone on its own without the help of the app, struggles to get the bokeh effect. Again, you can achieve a little by using the rear sense and having a large distance between yourself and the background and you being near to the smartphone. It will allow the phone to set the focus point on you but can sometimes make the framing of the shot wrong. At the moment, this app is a great option.

How to blur the Video Background in iMovie?

What you can do is put a blur layer onto your video to make the whole video blurred, by adding the Pull Focus Title as a layer to your video clip in the timeline. You can’t have the subject in focus and the background blurred effect though, it’s all blurred. I’m not sure if you can do this in other software such as Premier Pro or not. This app on your iPhone is the easiest way I have found.

This just shows how easy it is to get amazing results with your phone when you create videos for your business.  Don’t forget to download my FREE ’10 tips to filming video like a pro with your smartphone’ HERE for more tips to getting you started with smartphone video for your business.

I’d love to see what you create with this blurred background effect in your videos so please tag me on Instagram @goforitgirlentrepreneur and I will share on my stories.

Check out more of my blogs next on how I got a crazy number of views on my Pinterest pins with this easy hack AND my social media engagement ideas to stand out and stop the scroll.