Three tips to improve your video calls!

Times are hard and around the world people are getting used to practicing physical distancing, and meeting with colleagues, friends and family online. Many also work entirely out of their home studio.

During these times the smartphone has risen to become one the key tools to keep in touch, whether it’s business or pleasure.

In case you are unhappy with your current video conferencing set up we got some good news! Improving on these issues is easy, just follow the three steps below! These tips were put together with professional Photographer Pasi Salminen.

1. Device position

A good rule of thumb is to remember that the device your are filming yourself with (i.e. laptop, smartphone, tablet) should ideally be leveled with your eyes.

Staring down on the laptop camera or smartphone is not only a rather unfavorable angle to film yourself but can also cause pain to your back and neck. Lifting the camera thus also helps you to stay in an upright position when talking to friends or colleagues, also during longer discussions.

Use the Black Eye Filming Handle Tripod to lift your smartphone so that you are not staring down!

2. Use a lens to improve your angle

Another pain point in video calls is the narrow frame usually associated with the selfie cameras on our smartphones, laptops and tablets.

This is where a smartphone lens comes into play. When video calling you won’t have access to your main camera, so fitting more in the frame is important if you want to include your friends, family or your dog!

Use the Wide G4 lens for this purpose, and you can easily get all your loved ones in the same image!

3. Lighting is everything

While video calls might not be the same as strolling around the evening woods or city streets to capture that perfect evening light, believe it or not light plays an important role also in video conferencing.

Light is like the make-up of video calls, and even if you don’t do make-up in real life, this trick is worth trying for both guys and gals! Use the Kodak Selfie light to attach an additional lighting source to your phone, or anywhere you feel it best works for you! Also, consider getting yourself a bigger ring light.

Try a few different angles and see where your face gets the best, cleanest light. Couple the selfie light with white-screen videos on Youtube and you’ll have the best lighting you’ll need.