Looking Your Online Best

Pro Tips from a Photographer’s Perspective

Daniel Miller, illuminated by soft light from left, fill reflector on right, camera 15 degrees above face, and framed by selected artworks from the subject’s collection.

Now that we are back at work after the pandemic, we are learning that the efficiencies gained in working at home aren’t going anywhere. If, like most of us, you are unhappy with the way you look during Zoom/Skype/Google Meet/Facetime meetings, here are a few simple no/low-cost solutions to your dilemma. After all, you certainly don’t want to have anything distracting the audience from your genius!

Camera Position

First, get your camera in the correct location, as every other variable is based on this, and that is, 10 to 15 degrees above the center of the face, also known as the nose. This is easily done by raising your device with a box or a book, or better yet, a tripod. A camera placed too low provides a dramatic view of your nostril hair, and too high a camera can give you a Frankenstein forehead, or in my case, a sweeping panorama of my bald spot. Also, your camera should be parallel to your erect spine to avoid a distorted key-stoned background.

Lighting Theory

The secret of making great photographs is mastering lighting. What we want here is soft light. The way to think about it is this: the smaller the light source, like the sun, the harder the light, the larger the light source, like an overcast day, the softer the light. The only thing hard light is good for is accentuating texture and detail, like the wrinkles and flaws in your skin. So if that is your thing, have at it! Otherwise go for the biggest light source you can find.

Lighting Solutions

The first thing to do is to turn off those darned room lights! They were made to illuminate the room, not the power and beauty of your face, and believe me, everyone can express power with their face.

Computerized cameras have been programmed to find the average white balance (AWB) of every scene they capture. To eliminate the possibility of your face having a strange color cast, don’t mix light sources like daylight and fluorescent lights.

So turn off the room lights, and pin a white bedsheet across the window that you will use as the source for illumination to soften the light. To fill the shadowed side of your face with light, set up a white bounce card. This card can be any stiff white material, like cardboard. Alternately, you can throw another white sheet over anything of an appropriate height to bounce the light in. The closer the bounce device is to your face the more light it will provide. If you don’t have a window in your office, just buy a ring light online. The ring light works like a solid light of the same diameter to address the above issues.

Test Your Setup

Now it is time to make a video of yourself in your new setup, watching for:

-soft and kind lighting

-no distractions like shiny or bright colors, backlighting, strange objects (Our eyes are always drawn to the brightest thing in a given setting)

-no merging which is the unintended result when three dimensions are reduced to two, giving the appearance of a lamp or plant growing out of your head

Audio

If you want to sound like a hero to your fellow meetees, purchase an inexpensive microphone so people can hear you. In fact, it was a professional videographer who insisted that I get a good mic for a series of webinars I led.

Then, turn your phone to “Do Not Disturb” and exit all social media apps. Last, lock the door of the room from which you are broadcasting from and you are good to go!

 Questions?

Feel free to email me at info@buelteman.com and I’ll respond!