Look Great on Camera: Lighting & Camera Placement Tips for Meetings & Interviews

Hi everyone, it is Jennifer Tarle from Tarle Speech. Welcome back to the Art of Clarity. And today we are talking about something a little bit different. We are going to talk about lighting and how important lighting and number two, camera position. How important this is when you are giving a presentation or even just in a meeting. So let's start with lighting. What I'm going to do is I'm going to turn some of my lights off and on so you can see the difference in what I look like without all the lighting. And then at the end of the video, I'm going to show you what each of these lights look like and I'm going to link them all so that you can buy them as well. For the second part, I'm going to move my camera around so you can see the positioning of the camera and how different it makes me look. And I will say that this gets back to perception. So the way that you look, people are making some subtle judgments based on how you look in your camera. And so let's fix all of that and look amazing in every meeting with just some simple fixes for your camera placement and your lighting. Okay, let's start with lighting. Right now, I am facing windows in my office. They aren't right in front of me, they are a little bit off to the side. That is light source number one. Light source number two, I have a lamp on in the corner of my office. Light number three is in the corner of my room and that is sort of lighting up the wall behind me and it's adding a little more light above me. I have two lights next to me and these lights are in front but a little bit off to the side. And the reason they're a little bit off to the side is if they're right in front, it glares off of my glasses and I just can't see. So we also have to be practical here. You need to be able to see. So you don't wanna get too crazy with your lighting and make it too bright. All right, I'm going to turn off my lamp that is in the corner. You can see right there how different that looks. Now I'm turning off light number two and now I have to stand up. I'm gonna turn off light number three. Okay, look how different that looks. I just don't look as alive, I'm going to say. All right, now let's turn back on my light in the corner. You can see it kind of lights up behind me but it also lights up my face even though it's not directly shining on me. Now I'm gonna turn my light on that is behind my computer and you can already see how much more alive I'm looking and now this is light number three. Okay, all of these lights I can adjust. Now typically when I am in meetings, this light is not as bright that is right in front of me and off to the side and in fact, oftentimes I don't even turn this on but I do turn this light on when I am recording videos because then it just has a clearer picture. So let me turn this one off. Again, this is my typical setup for when I'm in a meeting, when I'm working with students, very, very basic. So even if you only have one light in front of you or if you sit in front of a window, it is going to make all of the difference. Okay, so that's lighting. Now let's talk about seating. I'm gonna move my seat here. Okay, you can see that now I really look sort of short and I just am kind of, I have all this space above my head. So just by raising my chair, I look taller and I just look better. This allows me to be looking more at my camera so that I am talking directly to my student and directly to you because if I am a little too low and you're up here, it looks kind of weird. Also, I'm sitting back right now. It's not bad to move around when you're in meetings but if you are presenting, it looks so much better if you stay nice and tall. For a lot of my students who are doing interviews, I do recommend even standing up as you are in an interview. I also really highly recommend, if you want to look your best, to get some computer stands. Okay, I'm recording on my computer right now so that I can move my computer around and show you different angles with my computer. Okay, some people will tip their camera too far forward. I'm gonna do that right now and then even if my chair is here, like you can see my desk, you can see my mess that I have all around me and it's just kind of like cutting me off a little bit and it's just not looking, I don't look as confident when I am sitting like this. Again, if I tip the camera and I also want to mention that my computer and my camera is about an arm's length away from me. So you can even see right now, even though I'm in the middle of my camera, I'm still looking better. Now let's add the higher chair. Okay, and there we go. Nice and confident looking. Okay, the last mistake that I see is that I can see kind of in people's mouths and up their noses and I'm gonna show you this. So oftentimes people will not have their laptop on a riser and then it kind of looks like this and in some severe cases, this is how I see people, like this and some of the time I get this, which now I just look a little ominous. I look like I'm kind of lording over you. So again, these are just little things to think about. I've been working with a lot of people recently on interviewing and all of these little tips and tricks will make you look better and will leave a better impression with the person who is doing the interview. So again, this was kind of an unscripted video podcast that I'm making for you, but I've been talking about this so much this week and so I just wanted to give you those tips. So again, think about lighting, think about camera position and think about just looking as tall and as confident as you possibly can. Okay, now I'm going to go and get all of my things and show you what I use to look my best in meetings and in my videos. Here is light number one. I love this light because you can change the direction of this and you can store it completely flat and this can even angle up to the ceiling. I actually use this a lot. I see a lot of clients who don't live in the US and so sometimes I'm seeing people late at night my time and it's dark in my office and then it looks a little too dark. So I use this and then it shines light on the ceiling and it just brightens up the whole room and it just makes for a better atmosphere. So it's really easy to work. You, I think I unplugged it here, so you turn it on here, okay, you can see the light here. Now I have different color modes that I can use and then I can make it brighter. I can turn it on max and I can change this all and then there is a timer on it as well. Technically, this is a light that is supposed to help you when it's not very sunny outside to get some like sun exposure for your eyes to help you sleep but I use this as a part of my lessons and my setup for recording and for just seeing students in class. Hey everybody, here is light number two. This is really, really nice. This has a nice sturdy base. This is adjustable so I can make this taller and shorter to meet my needs. I never really use this but you can put your phone on here and record videos from that. You can also pair your phone with your computer so that you can use like the really good camera on your phone during your meetings. I find that to be cumbersome, I just don't do that but that's what this is for and then this moves around all the way like this and then you have this ball so you can kind of put it forward and back. Really easy to use. Plugs in with the USB-C which I appreciate so that I have like a little port over here to plug in a lot of USB-Cs. Really easy to use so you just push and hold and again, you have different brightnesses and then you have different color modes. So let me do that again with the color modes so you can see. And so this is again nice when I'm seeing students at night, I can use different color modes so that it's a little better on my eyes and it just feels a little bit nicer instead of having that like blue light on me. Okay, here's my big guy, I love this one. So this sits on the floor, it has like the nice cover on it so it's not going to scratch your floors. Again, it's a place for your phone if you want to use this. You can control it on the back here and turn it on and on on the back. Lots of adjustments again with the top, you can make it go all the different angles. You can go forward and backwards and you have these little like screw pins that are gonna hold it in the place that you want it. But what I love about this is that it comes with a remote and so I love this because I have this set up in the corner of my room and then I can just adjust it while sitting at my desk. Not gonna show you all the things but it has the different brightnesses and the different colors as well. Really, really nice and really easy to use. And last but certainly not least, you need a laptop stand. I have two that I love. So this is kind of my go-to. I really like this and I also have a really long, almost like a table that fits on top of my desk. This is really nice because it's super sturdy. Now, when I traveled from place to place for work in my car, I would take this with me because I just loved it. It's super sturdy, really high quality. And for my tablet, this is great because this kind of spins the whole way and then this is adjustable here. And then I don't use it for this but this is actually for books as well and you have these little things on the back that you can bring around to the front to keep your pages where they need to be. So it's kind of like multi-purpose. But again, I use this more for my tablet and it works really, really well. And sometimes I'll even have my phone sitting on here because I can have it sitting up like this if I'm trying to check messages while I am in meetings or anything like that. And this is nice because it completely goes flat and this is easy to throw in your bag if you are traveling for work as well. So these are great and then I have, like I said, that long table-like one that I'm going to tag for you. Take a few minutes, treat yourself, buy a light, buy a laptop stand and really make yourself look amazing in your next interview or in your next Zoom meeting at work. Thanks so much for being here, everyone. If you have any tips that you wanna share, let me know. Maybe I can do a follow-up lesson and give some more tips and tricks that you all use to look your best in your meetings. Thanks, everyone. Have an amazing day.