Changing or blurring your background is a visual effect that is applied to a users video feed during a virtual meeting. The feature either changes the background completely or softens the background whilst keeping the user sharp and in focus. The technique is similar to the shallow depth of field that portrait photographers often use to ensure that the subject of the photo is visually more important than the background.
There are a number of reasons why you might want to have the ability to change and / or blur your background image. For example, you may wish to add more privacy to your online meetings when in Home Office or remotely. Other reasons might include adding an element of professionalism to your meetings. But privacy benefits are not the only reason why changing your backdrop in your video meetings can be a good thing. There are also a number of highly advantageous reasons which add to the effectiveness of your online virtual meetings.
Benefits of Virtual Video Meeting Backgrounds
1. Enhanced Focus on the Speaker
In photography and videography, one of the main benefits of subtle background images and blurring is that the subject becomes the focus of the image instead of the background. During your virtual meetings, this is important as it ensures that everyone who is using a different background or employing the blurring will become the centre of attention. This is especially important for whoever is speaking or presenting, as it means that participants will be able to focus soley on the message without any visual distractions in the background.
Moreover, it is common knowledge that communication is mostly (55%) visual in terms of body language and facial expressions. With this in mind, separating the background imagery and placing greater focus on the speaker, helps ensure that participants can focus more attentively on the speakers words, their body language, gestures, and facial expressions. In turn, this can result in clearer, more effective communication.
2. Reduce Distractions, Increase Meeting Efficiency
One of the main challenges of any meeting is to keep everyone focused on the content of the meeting. This is especially true for virtual meetings where remote nature and the increased potential for distractions can seriously hamper effective communication and therefore reduce meeting productivity.
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4. Maintain Privacy
Blurring your background or using a pre-designed image as your backdrop is an excellent way of maintaining your privacy when working from home or in other workspaces where you do not want to reveal private/personal details that could be visible within your workspace. Furthermore, if you work in a shared working environment or are connecting remotely to a video call, managing your video feed background can also protect the privacy of others within the environment where you are currently working.
Privacy Tips
If you are working in co-working or public location, you should take every pre-caution to protect the privacy of the people around you as well as to protect the data you are working with. So consider using a VPN when connecting via public networks and always use a headset and talk with discretion to ensure your conversations remain private.
5. Increased User Comfort
Another benefit that many people often overlook is that by altering a video feed’s background image, it is possible to help meeting participants feel more comfortable and relaxed during the video meeting. Most of us are a bit self-conscious and may feel that other video meeting participants may being judge us based on our surroundings. This can lead to elevated stress and anxiety when entering a video call. Simply by changing the background, this issue is almost eliminated and people can be more relaxed during the meeting.
6. Increased Professionalism
Changing or blurring your background during a virtual meeting can create more professional impression. When most people think of professionalism, they think of clear, clean and tidy spaces and decluttering your background portray a sense of organisation and preparation, not only for you but also the company that you present.
In terms of business meetings, decluttering your background image promotes both your personal and business brand as it shows that you are prepared and ready for a professional business meeting. This is essential for those business meetings where making a professional impression is essential, for example with customers, partners or other invested parties.