Webcam Lighting Basics for Video Calls

Lighting affects how you look on a video call more than the webcam itself does — a great camera in bad light still looks worse than a basic camera lit well. The fixes below use light you likely already have before you consider buying anything dedicated.

Face your light source, don't back it

The most common video call mistake is sitting with a window or lamp behind you — your camera exposes for the bright background and your face goes dark. Face a window or lamp instead, so the light falls on you rather than behind you.

Soften harsh overhead light

A single overhead light creates hard shadows under your eyes and chin. A desk lamp positioned at roughly eye level in front of you fills those shadows in without needing dedicated video lighting equipment.

Match color temperature to avoid a color cast

Mixing warm lamp light with cool daylight from a window can cast an odd color tint that's hard for your camera's white balance to correct automatically. Where possible, keep your primary light sources at a similar color temperature, or let natural window light dominate and treat lamps as fill rather than the main source.