Once you know it, it’s fairly simple: self.navigationController.navigationBar.tintColor = [UIColor blueColor]; self.navigationController.navigationBar.alpha = 0.7f; self.navigationController.navigationBar.translucent = YES; The translucent property seems only to determine wether the main view should be visible under the navigation bar, and resizes the view appropiately.
From this answer [self.navigationController.navigationBar setBackgroundImage:[UIImage new] forBarMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault]; self.navigationController.navigationBar.shadowImage = [UIImage new]; self.navigationController.navigationBar.translucent = YES; self.navigationController.view.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor]; self.navigationController.navigationBar.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor]; Also, as suggested by Josh in the comments, to put the bar back to default: [self.navigationController.navigationBar setBackgroundImage:nil forBarMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault];