- Hey, would you like a few tips
to look better in Zoom meetings?
Well, it's easy, and it's coming right up.
(loud whoosh)
(camera shutters)
Hey, during the pandemic,
Zoom meetings or Microsoft Team meetings
have become the norm,
and they are really, really successful.
But a lot of people have said,
actually, they'd like to look a bit better
in those meetings, you know,
those webcams, they're not very flattering.
Well, I've got a few things that you can do
that are gonna make you look better on webcam.
And I have purposely filmed this on a mobile phone
so that you could see
I'm not using snazzy lenses and lighting,
I'm using a small in-built camera,
just the same as on your laptop.
And stick around till the end of the video,
'cause I've got a bonus tip at the end,
which is gonna make finding
the right place in your house easy-peasy.
Zoom, it's a fantastic platform,
and it's made our work a lot, lot easier
during the pandemic.
But they don't always look very flattering, do they?
The first thing more people do
when they set up their computer for a Zoom meeting
is to put their laptop down on the desk,
get ourselves all sorted,
and guess what, it's not a flattering look, is it.
It's not good for the chins,
it's a great view of the ceiling.
Look at it, it's an angle.
Did you ever see somebody taking a selfie
and putting the camera down here?
It's a question of gravity.
What we're doing when we look down
and lean forwards to look at the webcam is
we're getting gravity grab all the skin off our head
and push it forwards, which means, we've got more chins,
we've got more bags under our eyes,
we've got more wrinkles,
it's actually helping make us look wrinklier than ever.
So, is there anything we can do about it?
Well, of course, there is!
Just get your laptop and get it higher,
and suddenly, gravity is working in your favor
because gravity now is pulling everything backwards.
Your chins are going, the wrinkles are going,
the bags are going, and you're looking up towards the light,
which makes the picture look even better.
So, how do we do that?
Well, just get your laptop,
and when you put it down on the desk,
get something underneath it, maybe some books,
maybe a cushion, I'm using my bread bin,
get it up to eye level, eye level looks good,
but if you can go even further,
it looks even better.
Now, let's talk about light
and where you set your laptop up
because so many people start just here,
with a light source behind them, and as you can see,
the camera's reading off the light source,
and it's underexposing me.
So my skin tones look gray and washed out,
it's not a great look.
All I've gotta do is turn around,
get the light behind me,
and then, suddenly, I've got a nice light on my face.
All the wrinkles are filled in.
Ha, start feeling human!
So, with the light source behind the camera out there,
we're gonna have a much better lit picture.
It's gonna be a lot more flattering lighting,
and, okay, today helps because it's an overcast day,
and I haven't got bright sunlight coming in.
If you do have bright sunlight coming in,
you're gonna be squinting, it's gonna be harsh light,
that's not gonna be so good.
So, what can we do then?
Well, we'll head away from the window,
but don't be afraid to use an ordinary table lamp.
So, it's an overcast day today,
and the lighting isn't too bad,
but by putting a table lamp,
just here, turning it on,
and putting it behind the camera.
Suddenly, we've got a nice even light on the face.
Remember, when you are choosing rooms,
make sure that you look at what's behind.
We've got a nice plain background here.
But you gotta make sure
that there's nothing sticking out
at the back of your head.
Those shots where you appear
to be wearing a light fitting on your head
are not flattering.
Things that appear to be growing out of your body
don't look good in pictures,
they're a bit distracting.
And if you are going to choose a shot
with a bookshelf behind you,
make sure the books are appropriate.
If you've got a speech or a presentation to deliver,
one thing not to do is to put your notes
on the desk in front of you
because what's gonna happen, as you are delivering,
is you're gonna keep looking down,
and that's not great for the camera,
and it's not great for the audio, either.
So, here's a great tip,
get your notes and tape them behind the camera.
That way, when I'm reading,
and I'm reading off notes now, you can't tell,
it looks like you've got
the best teleprompter in the world.
You're gonna look so slick.
Can I just say, one thing to avoid
under any circumstances, is these downlighters.
Look at the horrible light they put on your face.
Can you see, nothing's even.
We've got deep shadows, we've got highlights,
it's just not nice, and as I walk around the room,
I'll go into deep shade, and as you can see,
they're just uneven, hot spots everywhere,
they're really not good.
These are a photographer's nightmare.
You don't want to be filming anywhere near downlighters.
Here's a simple one.
It's very easy when you're working from home
to forget that, for your meeting,
you need to dress for the meeting,
where whatever you'd wear to be
in that meeting in real time.
And don't forget, you know,
you only need to dress from here to here on the screen,
so that's probably just a shirt.
Try to think about noise as well.
Don't set your laptop up in front of the washing machine
just before it's about to go onto a spin cycle,
and radios and televisions
are going to need turning off, too.
And make sure everybody in the house knows
that you're about to go into a meeting,
and if that means making
a little Do Not Disturb sign to put on the door,
that's a great idea.
Oh, yeah, one last thing.
If you do have a dog,
and we love our dogs, don't we, we love them to bits,
but we don't necessarily want them in our Zoom meeting.
Hello, Charlie, here.
You can go and have a kip in the other room
while we have our meeting.
Sweet dreams, Charlie, bye.
Now, I said at the beginning of the video
I had one killer tip at the end, and this is it.
In fact, I'm holding it just here,
a mobile phone or an iPad
because they're mobile, they're small,
and they have a camera, and what that means is,
you can hold it up in front of you
and do the perfect recce.
You can walk around your house,
you can see where the light works best,
you can have a look if there's anywhere
that makes you look like a complete idiot
with things growing out of your head,
you can check the light,
you can find exactly where you need to be,
even before you start the meeting.
You can set your laptop up and think,
oh yeah, it's the light for me.
It looks good today.
You put a table in front of you here
with the camera on it,
and then, we can raise the camera up
and get the angle we need.
So there you have it,
a few fast, free, and easy fixes
that'll have you looking better on your webcam today.
(loud whoosh)
(camera shutters)