If you’re using your laptop’s built-in webcam for video calls, then you probably look something like this:

Ew. The angle is terrible - it looks like I’m towering over you. This is not a flattering angle for me or anyone else. And even if the angle is bad, that only matters if people can see me at all! Notice how the ceiling light totally blows out the picture, making me look dark and muddy. The camera is struggling with the high-contrast scene, so it’s giving me a 5 o’clock shadow that isn’t actually there (or, at least, it isn’t as bad as it looks).

You could turn on a desk lamp to make the image more legible, but that angle is still horrible. I don’t consider this a meaningful improvement:

When I’m in a video call, I look like this:

Note the following:

1. Framing. My face and shoulders fill the center of the frame.
2. Angle. The camera faces straight forward. You aren’t seeing me from below or above, and you aren’t seeing my side profile.
3. Lighting. My face is evenly lit.

Let’s take apart these fundamentals.

Framing and Angle

Maybe you have an external monitor, and you put your laptop on a stand next to the monitor. In that case, you probably look like this:

This angle is less creepy than the laptop shot, but overall it’s even worse than before. I’m too far away! Remember, when you’re on group calls with several people, your video feed will be a small tile. Your coworkers will get only a couple inches of real estate to see your face, so this kind of framing is not good. And, even if the camera was closer, I’m not even facing towards it. Video calls already don’t feel overly personal, but off-angle cameras make it much worse.

Framing is easy. Buy an external webcam, and put it in a place where it will face you straight-on, slightly above eye level. Typically, the top of your monitor is a good spot.

If you use a laptop but not an external display, there are still options that may work for you. The obvious solution is to get a monitor, as even the cheapest, shittiest monitor on earth will not only serve as an excellent mounting point for your webcam, it will instantly improve your desk’s ergonomics.

Maybe you travel a lot, and lugging around a monitor isn’t an option. That’s fine! Get an webcam with a tripod socket, and get a little stand for it. Look up “webcam stand” on your favorite ecommerce website. They’re cheap and effective.

Some people care so deeply about webcam framing that they’ll even put their camera dead-center in front of their screen. This is unnecessary in most cases, but it’s a good idea if you have a very large monitor that would place your webcam high above your head.

Lighting

Here is the difference a couple ring lights can make:

The difference should speak for itself. My face is pulled out of shadow, which allows subtle facial movements to be seen more clearly. This is critical, because verbal communication isn’t just spoken words. Smiles and frowns, eyebrows raising and lowering, eyes widening or squinting, all of this contributes to the nuance of verbal communication, and good lighting helps that nuance make its way through a video call.

My desk faces a large window. So, even without the ring lights, my lighting is better than yours might be. However, had I taken these photos at night, the “without lighting” shot would be a disaster.

Ring lights are dirt cheap, and they work great. You don’t need a “nice” one. Buy them wherever you want, and shop around. I haven’t observed a meaningful difference in quality between a $10 ring light and a $20 ring light.

Where do I place a ring light?

Initially, I was planning on sharing photos of my ring light placement, but I worry that someone might take that as gospel. Instead, I’ll just give some advice.

The best place for your lighting devices will depend on several factors:

1. The room available in your workspace.
2. The existing lighting in your workspace.
3. Whether or not you wear glasses.
4. Your own personal taste and preferences.

There is one firm rule, though: “concentric with your camera” is not the right spot for your ring light. If a ring light is concentric with the camera’s lens, you’ll get “ring light eyes.” That’s when your pupils look like they have bright white halos. I find it distracting and creepy-looking, but given how prevalent “ring light eyes” is among streamers and TikTokers, I might just be weird.

If you have glasses, it’s especially important to have your lights offset from your camera. This will prevent the lights from creating glare on your glasses, which would obscure your eyes.

You Don’t Need a Good Webcam

I use a Logitech C270 for my video calls. Logitech’s website lists them for $30, but they’re readily available online for $20 or less. It’s only 720p, and it has a plastic lens. It’s as cheap as any name-brand webcam out there. Yet, my image looks as good as most folks’ video feeds on a Google Meet or Zoom call! You simply don’t need a good webcam to look good in most video conferencing apps.

If your lighting is bad, or your angle is bad, it doesn’t matter how good your camera is.

Instead of spending $70 on a webcam, I recommend spending $30 on a webcam, and $40 on lighting and mounting hardware. If you decide you need a better webcam later, you’ll still need quality lighting to get the most out of it.

Remember that your video feed only gets a few square inches of real estate when you’re in a group call. When an image is small, the crummy-ness of a cheap webcam isn’t as noticeable - as long as your lighting is good.

If you take a lot of one-on-one video calls, where your video feed shows up larger on other people’s screens, the quality of your webcam still isn’t a big difference-maker because of compression. Before your video gets sent out to other folks in a call, Google (or Zoom, or whoever) compresses it like crazy. This means that a lot of image detail gets crushed out of your video feed before anyone sees it. Even if you have a great webcam with a glass lens and a full-HD sensor, you’re the only person who will see the rich colors and detail such a camera can produce.

Caveats, caveats, caveats

If you’re just using it for Zoom/Google Meet/Teams/whatever, don’t bother with a fancy webcam. A cheap webcam and a ring light will take you much further than an expensive webcam with no external lighting.

However, if you use your webcam for video recording, or your employer is shelling out unholy sums of money for WebEx, it might be worthwhile to spring for a higher-end webcam in addition to a couple of good lights. If your company has that kind of money, they’d better be paying for the nicer camera too.

Side Note

Is anyone else shocked by how awful the video quality of TV news broadcasts has become? Half the time they call in to an “expert,” it’s clear the person has put no thought into the fact that millions of people are looking at them. It’s not a technology limitation. NBC was streaming live HD video with immaculate sound and video quality from Baghdad in 2007, yet they can’t seem to figure out how to put a ring light in someone’s living room. Blows my mind.

Regarding Backgrounds

Zoom/Google Meet/Teams/etc usually offer features that let you change your background. The most popular one seems to be a simple background blur. Remember that these features obscure your background, but they don’t make you look any better or worse.

Despite the gorgeous vista (heh) behind me, I’m still washed out, distant, and facing the wrong way.

Also, it’s okay to have stuff in your background! We’re all human. Your office is a workspace, but it’s also part of your home.

It’s okay if it looks like someone lives in your home.

My apartment is too small for a perfectly clean background to be feasible. There’s a huge metal shelf behind my desk, and it has loads of stuff on it. But, instead of hiding my background, I doubled down! I reorganized my workspace to make the background more interesting. I put my vintage computers up front, where people can see them. They make a great conversation piece, and their bulky beigeness helps to obscure some of the hodepodge covering the rest of the shelf.

tl;dr

Framing, angle, lighting. That’s what matters for a good video call. You don’t need a great camera or an immaculate background.