Guide · Works with any webcam
Better Zoom lighting. No ring light needed.
Good light comes from in front of you, a little above eye level. Here's how to get it with what you have, and how to frame the shot.
Check yourself first: open the free webcam test. It shows how bright your picture is and tells you when you're too dark or backlit.
Light your face
- Face your light.Sit facing a window or a lamp, with the light behind your camera. Daylight from a window is the best free light there is.
- Raise it a little.Put the light slightly above eye level, pointing down at you. Light from below looks spooky, and light from directly above casts shadows under your eyes.
- Soften it.A bare bulb makes hard shadows and shine. Bounce a lamp off a wall, use a lampshade, or pull a sheer curtain over a sunny window.
- Get rid of the backlight.A bright window behind you makes the camera expose for the window, so your face goes dark. Turn around, close the blinds, or add a light in front of you.
- Don't mix colors.Warm bulbs and blue daylight together make your skin look patchy. Use one kind of light, or turn off the overhead light.
Frame the shot
- Camera at eye level. Set your laptop on a stack of books so you look straight into the lens, not up from below.
- Head and shoulders. Leave a little space above your head, with your eyes about a third of the way down the frame.
- Sit an arm's length back. Too close distorts your face; too far makes you small and hard to read.
- Center yourself. Sit in the middle of the frame, and check what's behind you.
Let software help, a little
Zoom has an Adjust for low light option in its video settings that brightens a dim picture. On Mac laptops with Apple silicon, and with Continuity Camera on an iPhone 12 or later, Studio Light in the Mac's Video Effects menu brightens your face and dims the background. Both help, but they can't make a dark room look good. Real light still does most of the work.
Check it before the call
What Green Room does automatically
Green Room is a free menu bar app that checks your picture while you're getting ready, not after the call has started.
- One line under the preview. It tells you about a covered lens, a dark room, a backlit face, or sitting off-center, too close, or too far.
- Private by design. It looks at about one frame a second, on your Mac, and keeps nothing.
- Ready to record. Before a recording, it checks the camera's resolution and frame rate too.
On a Mac? Green Room checks your lighting and framing in one line.
Open the panel and read the line under the preview: covered lens, dark room, backlit, off-center, too close, or too far. Free, with no account.