Free Webcam Lighting Hacks for your Video Calls (Episode 128)

Welcome to the Video Made Simple podcast where we refashion your perception of video by presenting new ideas with tangible outcomes that will change the direction of your business. I am your host, Chris Schwager, and one of the key qualities of a video that really easily grabs the attention of viewers is proper lighting.

[00:00:23] If you're on YouTube channel, you'll see right now there's some proper lighting going on here. You know when done right, it can make a statement for your brand the way you want it. So let me give you, in this episode some free webcam lighting ideas to upgrade your video calls.

[00:00:41] Now, if people can't see you on camera, then it's a pain, and you might have experienced this if you've gone on a video call to only find that the recipient is in silhouette. It's not very interesting, is it? Lighting allows you to set the mood of the video. In films, it's how you set the atmosphere in the sense of meaning for the audience. It's mostly the same with setting up your video call. When you're sitting in the dark. What does that say about you?

[00:01:13] When your lighting is crap, people can't see anything clearly, you know, and you really do run the risk of losing attention. But if you are well lit, you can leverage the capacity of the video to keep them interested and it's one less distraction for both of you. And those nuances of body language are definitely going to be seen.

[00:01:35] I'm gonna show you how to achieve better lighting, most likely with. You've got now.

[00:01:41] Number one, you can use daylight coming through blinds. The caveat to all of this is that if it's coming over overcast or the sun's piercing through, you do not want to compete with that. It will slow you down because it changes all the time and those variables can be quite distracting for the recipient. Okay? But daylight coming through, if it's your only source of lighting, then open up the blinds, get some light through as long as it's not from behind and creating a big silhouette of you.

[00:02:13] Now, two, if you don't want to use the blinds or you prefer to shut those and use artificial lighting something in your room, for instance, um, try and get them dimmable so you can adjust them a little bit and that'll make it a bit easier. So you can kind of remove the harshness or just play with it so that you can set a mood or a scene that makes life very easy for you when you do a video call. So you can just go over, switch it, set it to three, sit back down and get on with your video call.

[00:02:43] Number three, if it can be movable, then that's really great. The premise of having things moveable is to try and just move it once, set and forget. Leave it alone. The more adjusting and continually making modifications to it, the more you run the risk of spending all your time on those technical variables, making adjustments, trying to get the improvement, trying to better it, and less time on the things that are really important to you in your business, and that is doing your job, doing what you are paid to do.

[00:03:15] Look, number four. Make it consistent. Whatever you do with your lighting, just do it once and you don't have to adjust it all the time. This is so important in our DIY Video Program, which is something that we really focus on for our clients. We don't want them to do anything more than they need to, right? So get a setting. And stick with it. I'm keep pressing, uh, the importance of this, but it's so interesting that people can get bogged down with these variables and it really does get away from 'em, and all of a sudden, the day blows out or their meeting blows out because they're constantly doing these adjustments and they're never able to get it right.

[00:03:54] Number five, people. Number five. If you only have your computer monitor, you can actually get a bit of bounce, uh, particularly if you've got a large monitor, you know, like a super bright Mac or something like that. You can get a lot of bounce from that, right. So people telling you, Oh, don't use your monitor as a light source. Well, if it's your only light source, then yeah, do it. Because it actually can create a little bit of soft fill on your face, which is better than nothing, right? It's not gonna compete with daylight or it's a low light source, right? So it's not gonna be great, but it may just give you a little bit of soft feel on the front of your face.

[00:04:30] There's nothing worse than having people in silhouette, right? If you can just provide a little bit of light on your face, that can be just enough to keep things going. Now, the problem with having your screen as the light source, you don't wanna be flicking around and changing screens all the time because obviously that will change the light source on your face.

[00:04:47] Um. Also, if you're on a Zoom call or something like that, deselect that auto exposure setting, you know, it's can be very annoying. It's constantly fluctuating, um, in, uh, situations where there's, uh, you know, amateur lighting, it can always be fluctuating. It gets quite, uh, exhausting. So you can actually go in there and, and switch that off. I think by default, Zoom actually has that selected. So deselect that. Um. Particularly if you're on a pro set up like the DIY Desktop Studio, it's gotta be deselected, you know, Otherwise it'll just make a good system look shit, because you know, those, those adjustments already been made continually. So that can be annoying. Switch it off, but um, also have your consistent lighting from your display.

[00:05:27] Number six and final point, if you have a light behind you like that harsh sunlight that I'm talking about, are you able to turn your laptop around so that that light is facing the front of you? Okay. Um, and if you are, it'll just be chalk and cheese as to the image that you'll get from your webcam. If not, use the blinds. Cut it out completely. And as I said, use those other light sources or try and use those other light sources to help better your look.

[00:06:01] Even with our DIY Desktop Studio with professional gear, we follow these same principles. Set it up how you need it and leave it. If you want more information on the DIY Desktop Studio, go to ridgefilms.com.au/diy and check it out.

[00:06:19] With proper lighting, you will keep things far more interesting and you also make sure people remember you. If you want more lighting information, then be sure to subscribe to this channel where you'll get weekly Video Made Simple ideas to present your videos like a pro. That's all for this episode.

[00:06:37] Thanks for listening and see you next week.