Background removal in video recording is a powerful tool that can enhance the quality, creativity, and accessibility of your video content. Whether you're a professional video producer or a casual content creator, it's worth exploring the possibilities of background removal in your video recordings.

Here’s just a few reasons why you might want to replace the background in your video:

1. Create more professional-looking videos: Background removal can make even low-budget videos look a little more pro by removing distracting or cluttered backgrounds. This allows viewers to focus on the subject of the video, you!
   
   
   

2. Consistent branding in all your content: By using a consistent background in all videos, brands can create a cohesive look and feel across their content. This can help increase brand recognition and strengthen brand identity. Plus it’s super helpful if multiple team members are creating marketing materials or social content in different places like home offices and the company HQ. 
   
   
   

3. Get more creative with your videos: Background removal opens up a whole world of creative possibilities, especially if your studio or office space is a little dull. With the ability to replace the background with any image you can create virtual sets, interactive presentations or just drop yourself into exotic locations. With AI tools like MidJourney and Stable Diffusion you can instantly generate all kinds of amazing backgrounds or virtual spaces and really make your video content engaging. 
   
   
   

4. Make your content more accessible: Background removal can make videos more accessible for viewers with visual impairments. By removing distracting backgrounds, viewers with low vision or color blindness can focus more easily on the subject of the video.
   
   
   

5. Increase video engagement: Background removal can make videos more engaging by adding a visual element that captures the viewer's attention. This can help increase views, likes, and shares on social media platforms. It’s also great if you want to add slides or images behind you that you’re talking about in the video.

   
   

Up until recently, background removal for video content required a green screen, some technical know-how, and expensive editing software but these days it’s becoming more and more accessible. 

You’ve probably used background removal features in apps like Google Meet and Zoom and even social platforms like TikTok but what if you want to remove the background from your video content on Youtube, LinkedIn or elsewhere? Read on for a quick and easy solution.

Replacing your video background in Detail

Detail Studio is a Mac app that makes it super easy to record and edit high-quality video on your Mac. Whether it’s shooting a video podcast with your iPhone or creating an online course, Detail Studio has all the tools you need to record your video content.

With Detail Studio you can automatically remove the background from (almost) any video — no cropping, keying or masking required. 

It’s worth noting, before we start, that background removal in Detail Studio uses face/person detection so it only works with human subjects. It works best with talking head style videos like interviews, podcasts, video tutorials and vlogs.

Add a virtual background before you record

If you want to try out some virtual backgrounds, adjust your lighting to match or just get set up for a recording session, you can remove your video background before you start: 

1. Open Detail Studio and make sure the right camera is selected. 

2. Click on the “Image” icon at the bottom of the video preview.

3. Select the image you want to use as a background. 

4. Scale the image until it fills the screen. 

5. Then click on the “Position” toggle on the left side of the screen, select “Background” and hit “Done”. 

Removing the background from an existing video

Background removal in Detail Studio also works with existing videos. So you can remove the background from a video you’ve just recorded or import any video and replace the background with an image. 

To record a video, make sure your cameras and screens are set up and then just hit record. To use an existing video you can either right-click on any video file in the Finder and select “Open with Detail” or create a new Detail project and click on “Timeline > Import Video…” in the Menu Bar.

Then, once you have your video in Detail Studio, just follow steps 2-5 above. You’ll see that any people in the video appear in front of the new background image while it replaces the original background in the video. 

Looking for more tips to help you make great videos more easily? Check out this post on automatic video transcriptions or this one about shooting horizontal and vertical video at the same time.

Download Detail Studio to get started, check out the Detail Youtube channel for more tips and tricks or join our Discord community to get inspired.