Shotcut tutorial · companion page
Put a second copy of the clip on a track above the original, then stack four filters on the copy: Mask: Simple Shape opened out to the whole frame, Color Grading with the highlights pushed to 85.6 %, Blur: Gaussian at 13.8 %, and Opacity pulled down to 36 % so the sharp original shows through underneath. No keyframes, nothing imported, nothing exported.
Reading in another language? Use the translate picker in the header, or your browser’s own translate command — the Shotcut filter, control and value names are marked to stay in English so they still match what is on your screen.
Bloom is the soft halo that spills out of bright areas on film. Shotcut has no bloom filter, so the effect is assembled: take the picture, crush its highlights up until they are blown, blur the whole thing heavily, then fade that ruined version back over the untouched original until only the glow survives.
Every filter goes on the V2 copy. V1 keeps the original, sharp and ungraded, lined up frame for frame underneath. Nothing is imported and no overlay file is downloaded — the second layer is a copy of the footage you already have.
Mask: Simple Shape, then Color Grading, then Blur: Gaussian, then Opacity. Ben adds all four up front, unchecks three of them, and sets each one in isolation before moving on — which is also the easiest way to see what each is contributing.
Only Highlights (Gain) is touched, and it goes to 85.6 % on R, G and B together. On its own that looks wrong — Ben calls it “really blown” — and it is meant to. That blown layer is raw material for the glow, not a look in itself.
At 100 % you are looking at the blurred mess. Pull Level down to 36 % and the sharp original reads through from the track below, leaving only the halo. This one number is the whole strength control — there is nothing else to tune.
[ in order to execute this particular technique we’re going to need four different filters ]
Ben Espanto · 3:24
YouTube’s chapter list for this video has five entries and stops at 7:09, leaving the last four minutes and forty-seven seconds untagged. Ben’s own Intro chapter also runs for four and a half minutes and contains three separate operations. Every card below that is not one of Ben’s five is marked DERIVED — those boundaries and titles are ours, read off the frames. Click any screencap or timestamp to play that moment right here in the card.
“Have you ever noticed that old videos in movie shot on film have this glowy foggy look to it? That effect is called bloom.”
0:08 · the opening b-roll is the finished effect, played before any editing starts: hands in front of a bright window, the light bleeding softly out of the blinds. At 0:57 Ben names the build — 24.10.29. He says it aloud and the About Shotcut dialog is never opened, so that spoken number is the only version evidence on the page.
“I’m going to drag the two videos on my timeline … and then I’m just going to remove the gap between them.”
1:58 · the Playlist holds 3630193-hd_1920_1080_24fps.mp4 (00:00:37:21) and 12391432_3840_2160_24fps.mp4 (00:00:13:21). Both go on V1, the first one trimmed down, the gap closed. Finished timeline length is 00:00:28:00. The first clip is indoors — hands at a window — and the second is outdoors with the sun behind a tree, chosen because both have hard, bright highlights for the glow to grow out of.
“I’m going to right click that same track, I’m going to go to track operations and I’m going to add another video track on top of this.”
2:56 · right-click the timeline, Track Operations → Add Video Track (Ctrl+I). Each clip is copied with Ctrl+C, V2 is selected, and it is pasted directly above its twin. Ben says it plainly: at this point nothing looks different, because the two tracks are identical.
“I’m going to turn off the other three filters so that we can isolate each and every filter and then set the settings for that before I move on to the next one.”
4:10 · the stack on the V2 copy of the indoor clip, in the order Shotcut lists it: Mask: Simple Shape, Color Grading, Blur: Gaussian, Opacity. Only the first is ticked. Each is found by typing into the filter chooser’s search box — blur then Gaussian for the third one.
“There is a very small rectangle and that basically indicates which part of this video has the mask simple shape applied to it, but I actually want the entire video to have that mask.”
5:12 · Mask: Simple Shape opens with Operation Overwrite, Shape Rectangle, Position 768, 432, Size 384 x 216 — a small box in the middle of the picture. Ben types the project’s own resolution into Size, 1,920 x 1,080, and zeroes Position to 0, 0 so the rectangle reaches every edge.
“The only aspect of color grading that applies to us would be the highlights … all I did is I dragged the highlights all the way up to eighty five point six across in all colors.”
6:18 · Highlights (Gain) reads R 85.6 %, G 85.6 %, B 85.6 %. Shadows (Lift) and Midtones (Gamma) stay at 0.0 % on every channel and are never touched. The panel has to be scrolled sideways to reach the third wheel — the horizontal scrollbar under the wheels is the only way to it at this panel width.
“Gaussian blur usually defaults to four percent and I’m actually going to bump that up to about thirteen point eight percent.”
7:08 · the filter is called Blur: Gaussian in the stack and has exactly two controls besides Preset: Amount, which starts at 4.0 % and is typed up to 13.8 %, and a Blur alpha checkbox, which is ticked by default and is left alone.
“Opacity is set to one hundred percent so that means it’s one hundred percent opaque … I’m going to make it a little bit more transparent so that the video underneath can show a little bit.”
7:45 · Opacity has one control, Level, starting at 100 %. Ben drags it down, overshoots, and settles on 36 %. This is the moment the three filters above it stop being damage and become bloom.
“I’m going to toggle the top track on and off so that you can see the difference of what the bloom effect added.”
8:14 · the eye icon on the V2 track head is the before-and-after switch. Because every filter lives on V2, hiding that one track removes the entire effect and leaves the untouched original playing. This is the only comparison tool the build needs.
“Maybe it’s a bit more impactful on an outdoor video, especially something like this one … I’m just going to go a little bit faster.”
8:46 · searching mask in the filter chooser on 24.10.29 returns six entries: 360: Equirectangular Mask, Mask: Apply, Mask: Chroma Key, Mask: Draw (Glaxnimate), Mask: From File and Mask: Simple Shape. Mask: Apply is visible on screen and is passed over — this technique never uses it. The four filters go on the outdoor clip in the same order, with the same values.
“It’s a little stuttery because I’m not using proxy … there’s a little bit of a mystical angelic look to it.”
10:34 · the outdoor shot with the stack live. The sun behind the tree spreads into a soft flare and the whole frame lifts. Ben names the playback stutter and its cause in the same breath — the second clip is a 3840 x 2160 source in a 1920 x 1080 project with four filters on it, and no proxy is enabled.
“This is actually a really quick technique but it goes a long way, and it definitely does add kind of that old-school film look to any of your videos.”
11:08 · the finished outdoor shot again, full screen. Nothing is exported and the project is never saved on camera — the titlebar still reads Bloom Test.mlt* with the asterisk at the final Shotcut frame. The rest of the runtime is the channel outro.
Every number below was read off the frames of the video, not off the audio. Where something was never shown, this page says so rather than filling the gap.
Bloom grows out of bright areas, so a flat, evenly lit shot gives it nothing to work with. Both clips in the build are chosen for their light: an indoor shot with hands in front of sunlit blinds, and an outdoor shot with the sun low behind a tree.
The project is called Bloom Test.mlt and the timeline runs 00:00:28:00 once both clips are trimmed and butted together. The Video Mode dialog is never opened, but the mask is typed as 1,920 x 1,080 and Ben says the timeline is 1920 by 1080, so that is the project resolution. Both filenames end in 24fps.
Right-click in the timeline and choose Track Operations → Add Video Track, or press Ctrl+I. Select the clip on V1, copy it with Ctrl+C, click the V2 track head so it becomes the current track, and paste. Then nudge it until it sits exactly over its twin.
Nothing visibly changes when you do this. Two identical clips stacked with no filters look exactly like one clip, which is why the effect does not appear until the very last of the four filters is set.
With the top copy selected, open Filters and add, in this order: Mask: Simple Shape, Color Grading, Blur: Gaussian (search blur, then pick the Gaussian one) and Opacity. Then untick the last three, leaving only the mask live.
The order in the list is the order they are applied. It is also, unusually, the same order as the video’s own chapter titles — so on this build the chapter names do describe the stack from top to bottom. Working through them one at a time, with the rest switched off, is Ben’s own method and it makes each filter’s contribution obvious.
Mask: Simple Shape arrives as a small centred box — Position 768, 432 and Size 384 x 216, which is a fifth of the frame each way. You can drag the handles out, but typing is exact: put your project resolution into Size and zero both Position boxes. Then take Softness from its default 20.00 % down to 0.00 %, so the mask has no feathered edge to bleed in from the borders.
On the second clip Ben drags the handles instead of typing and lands on Position -69, -43 with Size 2,037 x 1,151 — slightly past the edge of the frame on every side. He calls it “fine”, and it is: overshooting a full-frame mask changes nothing, whereas falling short would leave an unfiltered border. If you are dragging rather than typing, err large.
Tick Color Grading. It gives you three wheels — Shadows (Lift), Midtones (Gamma) and Highlights (Gain) — each with R, G and B boxes underneath. Only the third wheel is used. Drag the horizontal scrollbar under the wheels until Highlights (Gain) and its three number boxes are in view, then set all three to the same value.
Equal values on all three channels keep the lift neutral — the picture gets brighter, not warmer or cooler. On the second clip Ben types 85.6 into each box directly rather than dragging, which is faster and lands on exactly the same place. The result on its own is not meant to look good: “this one is really blown, as you can tell the highlights are really blown, but again this is not the final result.”
Tick Blur: Gaussian and raise Amount from its default 4.0 % to 13.8 %. That is a heavy blur — at this setting the preview is unrecognisable, which is correct. The blur is what turns the blown highlights from hard white shapes into a spreading glow.
The amount is taste, not law. More blur gives a softer, foggier halo that reaches further; less keeps the glow tight around the light source. 13.8 % is what Ben settles on for both clips.
Tick Opacity. Its single control, Level, starts at 100 %, which is why nothing has looked right until now. Pull it down to 36 % and the sharp, ungraded copy on V1 reads back through, leaving only the halo from the layer above.
To judge it, hide the whole V2 track with the eye on its track head rather than unticking filters one at a time. Every filter lives on that track, so one click is a clean before-and-after. Repeat steps 3 to 7 on each further clip you want the look on — the settings are identical, and on the second clip Ben rebuilds the stack from scratch rather than copying the filters across.
Read directly off the frames of the video. Where the video says one thing and the interface shows another, the interface wins and the disagreement is noted.
| Setting | Value | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| Shotcut version | 24.10.29 | Spoken at 0:57. The About Shotcut dialog is never opened and the titlebar carries no version |
| Project file | Bloom Test.mlt* | Titlebar — the asterisk never clears, so it is never saved on camera |
| Source clip 1 | 3630193-hd_1920_1080_24fps.mp4 · 00:00:37:21 | Playlist entry #1, dated 2020-01-26 04:38:54 |
| Source clip 2 | 12391432_3840_2160_24fps.mp4 · 00:00:13:21 | Playlist entry #2, dated 2024-10-04 16:53:12 |
| Track layout | V2 over V1 | Identical copies of both clips on each track |
| Where the filters go | The V2 copy only | V1 stays untouched |
| Timeline length | 00:00:28:00 | Player duration field |
| Timebase | 24 fps | Both source filenames end in 24fps. The Video Mode dialog is never opened |
| Second video track added by | Track Operations → Add Video Track (Ctrl+I) | Right-click menu on the timeline |
| Before-and-after check | The eye on the V2 track head | Timeline track head |
| Keyframes | None, on any filter | No stopwatch is pressed at any point |
| Filter sets / presets | Never used | Every Preset box stays empty and no set is saved or recalled |
| Export | Never opened | The build ends at playback |
| # | Filter | Control | Default | Set to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mask: Simple Shape | Operation | Overwrite | Overwrite |
| 1 | Mask: Simple Shape | Shape | Rectangle | Rectangle |
| 1 | Mask: Simple Shape | Position | 768, 432 | 0, 0 |
| 1 | Mask: Simple Shape | Size | 384 x 216 | 1,920 x 1,080 |
| 1 | Mask: Simple Shape | Rotation | 0.0 deg | 0.0 deg |
| 1 | Mask: Simple Shape | Softness | 20.00 % | 0.00 % |
| 2 | Color Grading | Shadows (Lift) | R 0.0 / G 0.0 / B 0.0 % | unchanged |
| 2 | Color Grading | Midtones (Gamma) | R 0.0 / G 0.0 / B 0.0 % | unchanged |
| 2 | Color Grading | Highlights (Gain) | R 0.0 / G 0.0 / B 0.0 % | R 85.6 / G 85.6 / B 85.6 % |
| 3 | Blur: Gaussian | Amount | 4.0 % | 13.8 % |
| 3 | Blur: Gaussian | Blur alpha | Checked | Checked |
| 4 | Opacity | Level | 100 % | 36 % |
The two clips get the same numbers by different routes. On the indoor clip Ben types the mask geometry and drags the grade; on the outdoor clip he drags the mask and types the grade. The typed mask lands on Position 0, 0 / Size 1,920 x 1,080; the dragged one lands on Position -69, -43 / Size 2,037 x 1,151. Both give a mask that covers the entire frame, and Softness ends at 0.00 % on both. Every other value — 85.6 %, 13.8 %, 36 % — is identical on both clips.
| Point | Bloom · Nov 2024 · 24.10.29 | LUT intensity · Mar 2021 · 21.03.21 |
|---|---|---|
| Filter order | Mask: Simple Shape → Color Grading → Blur: Gaussian → Opacity | Mask: Simple Shape → Opacity → LUT (3D) → Mask: Apply |
| Mask: Apply | Never added. It is right there in the chooser when Ben searches mask, and he scrolls past it | Closes the sandwich. Without it the technique does not work at all |
| Where Opacity sits | Last, at the bottom of the stack | Second, above the effect it is dialling |
| What Opacity blends against | A second copy of the clip on the track below | The same clip’s own ungraded original, inside one filter stack |
| Video tracks | 2 | 1 |
| Mask geometry | Position 0, 0 · Size 1,920 x 1,080 (pixels) | Width and Height both 100.00 % (percent) |
| What the mask is for | Nothing is excluded — the rectangle covers the whole frame | Nothing is excluded — the rectangle covers the whole frame |
| Intensity dial | Opacity Level 36 % | Opacity Level — 49 % in that page’s worked example |
| Keyframes | 0 | 0 |
Why the sandwich is missing, and why the effect still works. The LUT-intensity tutorial builds a four-filter sandwich in which Mask: Simple Shape and Mask: Apply bracket everything between them and hand the bracketed result to Opacity, so a single clip can be blended against its own unprocessed self. There the order is the technique. This build has four filters and a mask at the top of the stack, and it is tempting to read it as the same pattern — it is not. There is no Mask: Apply, Opacity is at the bottom rather than the top, and the thing the glow is blended against is not an internal copy but a real second clip on V2’s neighbour track. Swap the two approaches and neither survives: put Mask: Apply on the end of this stack and there is nothing for it to composite against; take the second video track away and Opacity fades the layer toward black instead of toward the original.
What the mask is actually doing here. Honestly: not much that can be proven from these pixels. Its rectangle is opened to the full frame with Softness at zero, so it excludes nothing, and the video never plays back the stack with the mask unticked and the other three on — so the page cannot show you what changes without it. What the panel does say for itself is the hint printed under its controls: Tip: Mask other video filters by adding filters after this. On that reading it is scoping the grade and the blur below it to the region it defines, and the region it defines is everything. Ben adds it first, every time, on both clips.
Chapter titles, and where they drift. The video’s five chapter titles name the four filters in stack order, which is rare and useful — but they are not the filter names. Shotcut calls them Mask: Simple Shape, Color Grading, Blur: Gaussian and Opacity; the chapters read Mask Simple, Color Grading, Blur Gaussian and Opacity. Search the chooser for the full names. The timings drift a little too: the Color Grading chapter is marked at 5:19, but Ben is still dropping the mask’s Softness to zero until about 5:36 and does not select Color Grading until 5:42.
Interface notes for this build. On 24.10.29 the filter chooser has a search box and five tabs: Favorite, Video, Audio, Time and Sets — the fifth is clipped to Se… at this panel width, but it carries the same stacked-discs icon as the Save a filter set button on the Filters toolbar. That toolbar has eight buttons here: add, remove, copy, paste, save a filter set, move up, move down, close. The project-wide filter target at the top of the timeline reads Output. The main toolbar carries the layout switcher — Logging, Editing, FX, Color, Audio, Player — and a Subtitles button. None of the filter-set machinery is used in this tutorial; it is simply present.
About the version. 24.10.29 is spoken aloud at 0:57 and nowhere confirmed on screen — no About Shotcut dialog is opened and the titlebar shows only Bloom Test.mlt* - Shotcut. It is consistent with the 1 November 2024 upload date and with everything visible in the interface, and this page reports it as spoken rather than as verified.
Machine transcribed from the video audio. Spoken phrasing is left as-is; only the filter names the transcriber mangled have been corrected. Every timestamp plays the video in the hero from that second. Nothing numeric on this page comes from here — all of it was read off the pixels.
Have you ever noticed that old videos in movie shot on film have this glowy foggy
look to it? That effect is called bloom and I’m going to show you how to do this
effect on Shotcut so stay tuned. I’m just a normal person with no video editing
background. I wanted to start making YouTube videos and maybe cool
transitions and effects. I don’t really plan on being a professional
video editor so I was looking for a free easy to learn video editing software.
Luckily I stumbled on Shotcut, a free open-source video editing program that
can do many of the tricks you can do on more enterprise video editors like Adobe
Premiere or DaVinci Resolve but with a much simpler and leaner interface thus
dramatically shortening the learning curve. It just takes using your
imagination. So let’s learn together. This tutorial is done on Shotcut version 24.10.29.
So we are doing the bloom effect and this is actually a really really simple
and easy effect to accomplish. So I’m going to do it on two different types
of videos. The first one is an indoor video which would be perfect for the
bloom effect and then the second one is an outdoor video also would benefit from
this glowy ethereal kind of angelic look. So the first thing I’m going to do
is I’m going to drag the two videos on my timeline so I’m going to drag the
first one in here and then I’m just going to cut it down because this is
a little long and we don’t really need to do it for the entire clip and then I’m
going to drag the second clip here on the same track. I’m just going to remove
the gap between them and so now you have the first one here an indoor and
then you have an outdoor one where the Sun is kind of peeking behind that
tree. So that’s it. That’s the first step. The second step now is I’m
going to right click that same track. I’m going to go to track operations and I’m
going to add another video track on top of this and what I’m going to do is I’m
going to make a copy of these two clips and I’m going to overlay them on top
of each other on the top track. So I’m going to make a copy of the first
clip and I’m going to go on the top track and I’m going to paste and then
I’m going to put it right on top of the first one. Same thing on the second one.
I’m going to make a copy. I do that with control C if you have windows and then
I’m going to select the track and then I’m going to paste right on top and I’m
just going to line that up so that they’re exact and again you’re not
going to notice the effect yet. There’s nothing. It’s just two identical
tracks or two identical clips on top of each other. So nothing to write home
about with that particular move. So I’m going to select the top track of the
first clip and now I’m going to go to filters and in order to execute this
particular technique we’re going to need four different filters and I’m
going to need mask simple shape. So I’m going to look for mask simple shape
right there and I’m going to add that to the track or add that to the filters.
I mean and then the second one is color grading. So I’m going to look for
color grading. We got color grading right there. The third one I’m going
to look for Gaussian blur. So we’re going to look for blur and then
Gaussian right there and then last but not least we need an opacity filter.
So I’m going to look for opacity. So I’m going to turn off the other three filters
so that we can isolate each and every filter and then set the settings for
that before I move on to the next one. So at this point the only thing
selected is the mask simple shape and as you can see here in the middle of
the screen there is a very small rectangle and that basically indicates which
part of this video has the mask simple shape applied to it but I actually want
the entire video to have that mask. So you can either drag the handles all the
way to the end or because this is a 19 by 20, a 1920 by 1080 timeline I know
that the size of the video is 1920 by 1080. So I’ve set it and it’s off center
because I also want to set the position I want to make sure that I zero out the
position so here and then here zero and zero. So now it’s all the way to the
edge and it takes up 1920 by 1080. So that’s the first part or that’s the
first setting of the mask simple shape. The second part of this is I need to
make sure that softness which defaults to 20 I need that to be 0%. So those are
the two sets of settings and once you’re done with that we can then move on to
the next filter which is color grading. So I’m going to select color grading
and the only aspect of color grading that applies to us would be the
highlights and so what I’m going to do is I’m going to drag the handle a
bit here so you can see the RGB setting and for me what seems to work is around
here I select here around eighty five point six percent on all three so I’m
going to set eighty five eighty five point six eighty five point six and eighty
five point six and we’re done with color grading I’m going to show you
what it did so I’m going to toggle it on and off so basically all I did is I
dragged the highlights all the way up to eighty five point six across in all
colors. So the third filter now is Gaussian blur so I’m going to select the
Gaussian blur make sure that’s selected and as you can see here Gaussian blur
usually defaults to four percent and I’m actually going to bump that up to
about thirteen point eight percent and as you can see here it becomes really blurry
and I’m going to toggle it on and off as you can see how much blurrier it is with
the Gaussian blur turned on and set to thirteen point eight. Last but not least
is opacity so I’m going to select opacity and as you can see here you
haven’t really seen any effect because opacity is set to one hundred percent so
that means it’s one hundred percent opaque and what I’m going to do is I’m
going to make it a little bit more transparent so that the video underneath
can show a little bit and I’m going to drag that down to about let’s say thirty
thirty six percent and so now you’re you’re seeing a little bit of the lower
video here showing through on the top one and so basically that’s that’s the
bloom effect so I’m going to play the video here as you can see the hands now
have kind of this ethereal glowy look and I’m going to toggle the top track on
and off so that you can see the difference of what the bloom effect added
so once again let me play it here and that’s basically the bloom effect it’s
pretty easy again I’m going to try that on the second video here maybe it’s a
bit more impactful on an outdoor video especially something like this one so
again I’m just going to select that clip again and then I’m going to add the
four filters that I showed you earlier so first one is mask simple shape so I’m
just going to go a little bit faster mask simple shape the second one we want
color grading so I’m going to add color grading on the second one on the
third one we want Gaussian blur so I’m just going to do a search for blur
and then Gaussian and then the fourth we want opacity so we’re going to uncheck
the other three we’re going to go back to mask simple shape to make sure that this
box takes up the entire area that we can we can do that that’s fine and the
softness we’re going to drag it all the way down to zero and then we’re
done with mask simple shape we can then move on to color grading and again I’m
just going to go all the thing I care about is the highlights I’m just going
to move it all the way up I already know what settings I’m going to put so I’m
just going to manually input it in there so I’m going to put 85.6 and then
85.6 and then 85.6 again again this one is really blown as you can tell the
highlights are really blown but again this is not the final result of this so we
go to Gaussian blur and for this one we’re going to set it again to 13.8 which
is really blurry and then last but not least to finish up the technique we’re
going to go to opacity and we’re going to set it to 36 and I’m going to play this
video now it’s a little stuttery because I’m not using proxy but the difference
between the original which is this one and then one added with bloom effect
as you can see again there’s a little bit of a mystical angelic look to it and
again that’s that’s the bloom effect and that’s it this is actually a really
quick technique but it goes a long way and it it definitely does add kind of
that old-school film look to any of your videos so hopefully you like this
technique and if you like this video don’t forget to like and subscribe and
once again I’ll talk to you next time I just want to remind you that if you
haven’t yet go visit my channel I’m sure you’ll find tons of Shotcut related
videos and don’t forget to subscribe so that you know when I drop a new
Shotcut related tutorial if you ever wondered what I do with these
techniques I actually implement them on my own videos in my travel and food
review channel called bentacular please stop by and visit and I would love for
you to subscribe as well once again I’ll see you next time
