How to Add a Spotlight Effect to a Screen Recording on Mac

To add a spotlight effect to a screen recording on a Mac, you need an editor. The Screenshot toolbar and QuickTime Player can't dim part of a video. In Screen Bolt, open the editor's Effects panel and click Add Focus Region. Then place the bright rectangle with the Region fields and set Dim Amount, Feather, Corner Radius and Duration.

The dimming is rendered into the exported video. In version 1.11.5, pressing F doesn't add a focus region because of a known bug, so use the button.

What a spotlight does

A spotlight keeps one rectangle of the screen at full brightness and darkens everything around it for a few seconds. The viewer still sees the whole interface and knows where they are, but their eye goes to the bright area.

It works well for:

• A settings field or toggle buried in a busy page
• One row in a table or dashboard
• A notification, badge or error message that is easy to miss
• The single line of code you are talking about in a long file

If you only need to point at something, an arrow or a highlight shape may be enough. If something on screen must be hidden, use blur instead. Both are covered below.

What macOS can do without extra apps

The built-in Screenshot toolbar (⇧⌘5, Command-Shift-5) has two options that come close. Neither one is a spotlight:

• Record Selected Portion records only a rectangle you drag. Viewers see that area and nothing around it, and you have to choose the area before you record.
• Options ▸ Show Mouse Clicks draws a circle at each click. It marks where you clicked, not an area of the screen.

If cropping to one area before recording is all you need, the built-in toolbar does that for free. To dim around an area after recording and keep the full frame, you need an editor with a spotlight or focus effect.

Add a spotlight effect with a focus region in Screen Bolt

These steps assume you recorded in Screen Bolt. By default the editor opens as soon as you stop recording.

1. Make your cuts, trims and speed changes first, so you time the spotlight against the final edit.
2. Move the playhead to where the spotlight should begin. Press Space to play or pause, ← or → to step one frame, and ⇧← or ⇧→ to jump 5 seconds.
3. Click the Effects icon in the sidebar's icon strip.
4. Click Add Focus Region. This adds a 5-second focus region, which you edit under Edit Focus Region.
5. Under Region, change X, Y, W and H while watching the preview until the bright rectangle sits over the area you want.
6. Set Dim Amount, Feather and Corner Radius (see the next section).
7. Set Duration.
8. Check where the region sits on the timeline, and drag it if it doesn't start where you want.
9. Press Space to play the section back, then export. The F key does nothing. F is meant to add a focus region, but the key is filtered out in 1.11.5. The other add shortcuts work: T adds a text overlay, B adds a blur region and M adds a marker.

Dim, feather and corner settings

Starting points that usually work:

• Dim Amount: a middle value keeps the rest of the interface readable, so viewers keep their bearings. Go higher only if the surrounding screen is distracting. Near the top of the range the outside area is close to hidden. That still doesn't make a focus region a privacy tool, so put a blur region over anything private.
• Feather: a little feathering makes the effect look like a spotlight rather than a cut-out. Keep it low when the target is small, such as a single button, because a wide soft edge eats into it.
• Corner Radius: match the shape of what you highlight. Rounded cards and buttons suit a rounded spotlight. Table rows and code lines suit square corners.
• Region size: leave a small margin around the target. A rectangle that touches the edge of a button looks cramped, especially with feathering.

Time the spotlight

Each focus region has one rectangle and one Duration. It doesn't move during its time on screen.

• Start slightly before you talk about it. If you say "click Save" at the 12-second mark, start the spotlight a moment earlier so the viewer is already looking there.
• Keep it short. A spotlight that stays on after you've moved on makes the rest of the video feel dim. The default 5 seconds suits most single points. Raise Duration when you explain something for longer.
• Move attention with a second region. To guide the viewer from one area to another, end the first region and add a new one at the next moment with a different Region.
• Adjust on the timeline. Drag a region to move it, and drag its edges to change its length.
• Use markers in busy edits. Press M to drop a marker at each moment you plan to spotlight, then jump between them with [ and ].

Spotlight vs zoom

Zoom is Screen Bolt's other way to draw attention. When Create zooms automatically is on, the editor turns your clicks into zoom regions, and you can add more with ⌘K (Add Zoom at Playhead). We cover that in how to zoom in on a screen recording.

Pick a spotlight when the important area isn't where your cursor is, or when the viewer needs to see it in relation to the rest of the page. Pick zoom when text is too small to read at normal size, or when the action follows your cursor.

You can use both in one video. Where a spotlight overlaps a zoom, play that stretch back before exporting to check the bright area still covers your target.

If you want to remove one zoom, right-click it on the zoom track and choose Delete This Region. Don't turn off Auto Zoom on Click in the Zoom panel for this: that toggle disables every zoom region, including the ones you added by hand.

Other ways to highlight an area in a screen recording

Annotations live in the editor's Annotations panel; see how to add arrows and shapes to a screen recording. To label the spotlighted area, add a text overlay with T, covered in how to add text to a screen recording. The full list of effect settings is on the Effects and Overlays help page.

If it doesn't work

• Pressing F does nothing. This is a known issue in 1.11.5. Use the Add Focus Region button in the Effects panel.
• The bright area is in the wrong place. Select the focus region and adjust X, Y, W and H under Region while watching the preview.
• The effect looks heavy or the video feels dark. Lower Dim Amount, add a few pixels of Feather, or shorten Duration.
• The spotlight starts too early or too late. Drag the region along the timeline. Make cuts and speed changes before adding spotlights so the timing doesn't shift under you.
• Your spotlights vanished after reopening a video. Videos opened with Create project from video..., Open project... (with a movie file) or Recover unfinished recordings... load without a project, so edits to them aren't saved. Export before you close the editor. To keep edits, drop the video onto the clip track of a Screen Bolt project instead.
• Export is refused in the free version. Free exports are limited to 3 minutes at 720p and carry a watermark. The export sheet checks the 3-minute limit against the full recording, so a long recording trimmed under 3 minutes is still refused.

FAQ

Can I add a spotlight to a video I didn't record in Screen Bolt? Yes. Open it with File ▸ Create project from video... and add a focus region as usual. Edits to an imported video aren't saved, so export in the same session. Auto zoom and cursor effects aren't available because there is no cursor data.

Does the spotlight show up in GIF exports? Yes. Focus regions are rendered in exports, and GIF exports have your edits baked in. GIF export needs a license.

Can the spotlight follow my cursor? No. A focus region stays on the rectangle you set. If you want the view to follow the cursor, use a zoom region.

Is the spotlight effect in the free version? Yes. The editor features all work in the free version; only exports are limited (720p, 3 minutes, watermark, no GIF). As of November 2026 the license is a $79 one-time purchase, shown on the pricing page.