Depth of field is a great way to focus the audience’s attention. A human eye tends to go towards the most in focus thing on the screen. This is because we as humans can’t un-focus our eyes like a camera can. So when we see a recording, whatever is in focus, our brain thinks we should be looking at. The best way to do this is in the camera as you are filming. However, sometimes that doesn’t work out, and you will need to use something like Premiere Pro to fix it. Today I am going to show you how to add depth of field in Premiere Pro.
Creating Depth of Field in Premiere Pro
- Create a new sequence and import the footage you are using. I grabbed some off of Envato Elements, a great subscription based service with a near unlimited amount of stock footage.
- Go to Effects and look for Camera Blur.
- Go up to Effect Controls and go down to the Camera Blur and bring Percent Blur up to around 25.
- Under the effect name, click on the small box icon, this will create a mask.
- Zoom out your sequence to 10% viewing.
- Click the shift key, and click no the corners of the box, dragging them out to the corners of the screen, with the bottom cutting through the piece of footage.
- Now go to the Mask Feather and use that to create a gradient of blur.
- You can now move the mask layer up and down to move the gradient blur!
That is how you can create a gradient blur really quickly in Premiere Pro. A tip while you are moving things around, use the shift key to make sure it all moves in straight lines!
If you have any questions, leave them on the video or in the comments below!
