If you’re freaking out because in this new world of COVID-19, the only way we have to communicate with our friends, loved ones, colleagues is to show up on video, I got you.
There are three things I’m going to teach you right now to make you look better and feel more confident on video. And if we’re just meeting, hi, I’m Gia. I’m a professional photographer, content creator, and educator. And my whole mission in life is to help people feel beautiful, confident, and empowered to share themselves and what they do freely without having all these weird self-sabotaging thoughts that stop them from actually doing it.
Tips on how to look better on Zoom include good lighting, a neutral background, a proper camera angle, and appropriate clothing. Dress as if you were in an in-person meeting and sit at a desk or table to elevate the camera.
And today I’m super excited because this is a question I’ve been getting so much, especially since quarantine started on how to look semi-decent on computer and on your phone. If you’re freaked out and you don’t know how to look better on all these digital platforms, you’ve come to the right place because I love teaching this stuff! And it’s so easy once you understand it.
And hello again, this is me chiming in from the future, as I’m editing this video, realizing that there are a few things that I want to make sure that I got in and really clarified, so they were easy to understand and implement.
First thing is that this video is not going to be about how to look good on your phone. It is only going to be about how to look good on Zoom, Google, Hangouts, and FaceTime, anything that has to do with your laptop. Wow. This is ridiculous. Created another video right up here on how to look good on IGTV and Instagram, FaceTime, and new apps like Houseparty.
All right, the last thing I want to say before we dig into the content, is that any sort of engagement that you can offer is so, so meaningful to me. So if you can like, comment, and better yet, even share this video with somebody that you think can appreciate it, it helps me so much in the algorithm and getting my videos seen. And it really means a lot to me as a creator, who’s producing this content. OK, all that said, let’s do it back into it.
The first thing we need to talk about is light because this is something that I know a lot of people want to get right, but they don’t necessarily know how, or they’re just like flat out not thinking about it and not realizing how much of an impact it makes. I am right now facing a giant window. What I’m not doing is having my back to that window. This type of light is called backlight because the light is literally coming from my back. When that happens, the little sensor in any sort of digital camera, can’t deal with the difference between brightness and darkness. It turns my face into a grainy mess. And the second is this, this is called sidelight, or in the industry, we like to say raking light. It’s called raking because it rakes across your skin. It pulls out every poor, every detail, everything you want not to be seen. It’s coming from this direction, quite harshly moving across my face. Now, the best thing to do is to turn toward a bright, big, soft light source. Now, this is something most of us have is access to a window.
This is my window right here. The caveat is that if the light is coming through this window, you want to have something to diffuse it or break it up and make it softer. This is where curtains that still let some of the light come through are super, super helpful.
So the first thing you’re going to want to do is test what it looks like in Zoom. Once you’ve downloaded the app, just go to your applications and press Z and you’ll hit Zoom.us. Once that’s open, click Start a New Meeting. Now you have access to your Zoom camera and you can see exactly what’s happening. And from here, you can make adjustments.
If we look at the light on me, it’s evenly lighting my face and there’s some light in the background. This is definitely optimal. If it’s an overcast day and you don’t have enough light, or if your meetings at night, you have to add supplemental light.
Now, everybody uses a ring light. However, if you’re trying to find a ring light nowadays, good luck to ya, because they have sold out everywhere, because everybody is trying to get great light for their video and doing the same thing at once. Don’t worry about a ring light. You don’t need one. What you can use is a lamp that’s placed right in front of you. I took this lamp that I had, that just has a little nice lampshade that is kind of see through, that’s important. So the light can actually get out to you. And what I’m going to do is place it right in front of me.
The idea, of course, is that it’s evenly hitting my face. So if I turn that on… I’m adding this light up here. Now, here’s the important thing to know. The light should be a little bit above my eyeline and aimed right at the center of my face. The reason you want the light a little bit above your eyeline is that it reduces what are called specular highlights. That’s when you get these bright, bright, hot spots on your face. If it’s a little bit above, it changes the angle that it’s coming down and your camera won’t record that.
For your key light, which is the main light, you’re going to have light in your face. You want it to be daylight balance so it matches the window and any other lights to have coming in. I just sort of casually drop that in that it should be LED daylight balanced or white light. But this is why. This is what I see happening a lot where we have the tungsten bulbs, which are the yellow bulbs that we have around in our light that is actually really good for our eyes. They create this golden cast that really makes it look super fake.
I’m going to show you the difference. (snaps) Now that’s not changing anything else except the color temperature. And now I look a little less like an oompa loompa. Just make sure that when you’re going for light bulbs, you go for some that have cooler tones, so daylight balance, or LED.
It’s super important in making you look like your skin tones are anywhere close to what they are in real life. Oh, I almost forgot the bonus tip that you really want to make sure is when you’re on your computer screen, turn the light all the way up. Screen also operates as a light source. This is super helpful also at night when things are really dark, to be able to have additional light.
For the most part, when it comes to light, more is more. As long as it’s angled beautifully at your face, you’ll look good. All right, let’s talk about angles. First mistake that I see people do is they’ll take their computer and they’ll put it at lap level. Now, if you see if I put it at my lap level, you’re seeing up into all this and my face is super distorted. In my case, I have a really elongated fivehead. It’s not particularly attractive. The other thing to note is that in order to see myself or other people on the screen, my eyes are looking down. So it’s not flattering. And it’s not really inviting when people can’t see your eyes.
The first thing to do is find a surface where you can elevate your laptop. You can see for me, I have a table, then I have a box and I have a little extender. And then my laptop is on it. By the time I sit down, the camera of my computer is above eye level. The reason you want that is it keeps your eyes nice and bright because you’re looking up. But then also when you angle like this, everything suddenly becomes more in proportion. The rule of photography, that makes sense when you think about it, but not a lot of people know is that whatever is closest to the camera is gonna seem bigger. And whatever is furthest away is going to seem smaller.
When you’re looking at these angles, what happens is we inadvertently angle it back and then your head is going to be further away because whatever is at the top of the screen is going to be smaller. Whenever it’s tilted back. That means that whatever is in the bottom of the frame, which is usually boobs and tummy is going to be big, and your head, which should be the focal point is gonna be small. So what you want to do is tilt it the other way. Especially if you want to minimize any thickness down below, you want to tilt it a little bit on this axis, so it’s angled down. This, you can only do if it’s lifted up high. Look at my angle now. Right now, it’s at 45 degrees. If I tilt it down, then all of a sudden, my face is nice and bright, and there isn’t as much girth down here.
Now, here is a secret bonus tip that not a lot of people know, watch this difference. If I’m leaning back, still bigger down here, smaller head. If I’m tilting this way, then all of a sudden we get a more of a slimming effect down here and a bigger, brighter face. What I’ve done is just leaned forward.
So…
I don’t want to be so emotional. Grab a pillow and put it right behind your back. That way, you’ll have a slight lean forward, big, bright eyes, a face that’s nicely proportioned and a bust that’s not distracting.
The other thing to factor in is distance. If my computer is too close, everything starts to get distorted. However, if I slide it away, all of a sudden that distortion is gone, my features look good. I combine that with that little bit of a lean forward, and I’m in a good position. It should be far enough away that you can reach your keypad, but not too comfortably. More like “The Walking Dead.”
All right, ready for my final tip? It’s thinking about your background. Now, I know it might seem obvious, but guess what? Your background is distracting. And if you look in my case, I have all of this stuff going on. The first thing you should do is figure out what your frame is going to be. So, I think right about there, I’m going to lean forward, which means I can come up just a touch and there, that’s where I feel good. All right, so I notice that I have all of this over here and all of this over here that I need to really think about. So, let’s get to cleaning. Ooh, this is heavier than I thought! (laughing) How about since this is visible, let’s jazz it up with some of my client gifts that aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, since we’re all quarantined. OK, look at how much better that is. I have a clean frame. It’s a little me. But, it’s not junky and clunky.
Those are my three tips for how to look amazing on Zoom. Now, just remember, nobody is judging you, and if they are, they’re a (bleep). So don’t worry too much about how you look. You can use these strategies to feel better and look a little bit better. But just know that you are perfect just the way you are.
Now, if you want to know how to look amazing on your phone for things like IG Live, Houseparty, and FaceTime, click this video right here. In the meantime, I’m so glad you’re here. You made it to the end of the video. It would mean so much to me if you were to subscribe. Be sure though, if you do, to click the notification bell, because otherwise it could get lost in the algorithm. And the truth is, for most of us, this is a really sucky time. And I would love nothing more than be able to hug my friends and family. Though, in the meantime, the only way we can communicate is via screens and digital technology. So I hope this helps you in feeling a little more confident in how to show up and connect with people you care about. Bye.
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Video url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO6utfQm7Bg
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Channel name: Gia Goodrich