Marta tended to disappear during virtual meetings with her team, about 20 people. Then Marta attended the Mastering Virtual Presentations training where she adjusted her “Camera Presence” until it was perfect.

“Camera Presence” is how you show up when you’re virtual.

You want to make the people you’re talking to feel like you’re right there with them.  You want all the technology to melt away to create a feeling of closeness.  And you want them to react warmly toward you the moment they see you.

Camera presence is a subject where small things make a big difference.  Here are some of the key mistakes people make.  I’ll show you with photos of Janet, our Lead Trainer. 

See how you’re doing with all these points.

1.  Camera angle is important.  This is the most frequent mistake I see.  Your camera lens needs to be on a straight horizontal line directly across from your eyes.  Most people are looking DOWN at their laptop.  This makes you look like you’re looking down at the person listening to you. HOT TIP: We should NEVER see your ceiling.  Looking up isn’t any better.  You need to be looking directly across into the lens.  This means putting your laptop on a laptop stand (or a bunch of books, or a box, etc.) and making sure the lens is HIGH enough to be horizontally across from your eyes.

2. Hollywood stars know that lighting is EVERYTHING.  This was the biggest mistake Marta was making. Most people are in the dark and so was she.  They don’t know what ENOUGH light looks like.  The light needs to be in FRONT of you.  It needs to light up your face.  It needs to not reflect in your glasses.  See how COLD Janet looks when she’s in the dark.

3. Some people are so thoroughly in the dark, they look like they’re in the Witness Protection Program.  This is mainly because the source of light is behind them (usually a window) and they have no light in front of them.

4. This is better, but many people make the mistake of lighting only half their face (usually because there’s a window on one side), while the other side of their face is dark.  This does not bring out the best in you. Look at all the shadows on the left side of her face.

THE RULE FOR LIGHTING IS THERE SHOULD BE NO SHADOWS ANYWHERE ON YOUR FACE.

5. Here the lighting is better, but Janet is sitting too far away.  Look at all that dead, empty space over her head and around her.  Whatever she says to you will not be as impactful as it would be if she were filling the screen.  She’s creating a “distance barrier”. You should fill the screen.

6. Fill the screen, but not at a weird angle – the top of Janet’s head is chopped off.

7. This is what you look like when you are looking at the other person’s video on the screen during the conversation.  If you’re talking while looking at my video, it looks like you’re talking to my knee.  Not impactful, not powerful, not effective.  I know, I know, I know – YOU feel comfortable looking at the video and you don’t feel comfortable looking into the camera lens.  I totally understand.  But this is how you LOOK when you feel comfortable.  Not good.  You need to get comfortable looking into the lens while you’re talking.  This makes a HUGE difference in how effective you’ll be.  Someone might have a great knee, but it doesn’t deserve all that attention. :)

8. This is what you look like when you are looking at the camera LIGHT.  You need to look at the camera LENS – NOT the light.  Yes, this is better than looking like you’re talking to my knee – but now it looks like you’re talking to my left ear.  Eye contact is king when it comes to human relationships and the camera lens is their eyes.

9. Here Janet is off-center.  You need to be in the center of the frame for the most powerful and effective communication.

10. Here we go!  The camera angle and lighting are terrific.  Look how good Janet looks with her face fully lit up!  Compare to the darker photos above and you’ll see what I mean.  She’s centered and close enough to fill the screen.  Looking straight into the camera lens, she looks like she’s looking straight at you.  If she showed up for your meeting looking like this, what would be your first reaction?  If you’re like most people, you’d like her right away. Her camera presence is great.  And that sets the right foundation for excellent communication and a wonderful relationship.

Take a look through all these photos and see which person you most connect with.  You can see the difference all these points make and adjust your camera presence so YOU create the best impression and relationship.

NOTE ABOUT LIGHTING:  Lighting is SUPER important.  You can get an inexpensive “Ring Light” that clips onto your laptop and a wide variety of others on Amazon.  No, we don’t sell them, but you can easily find them with a search on Amazon.  We had to experiment with different lights until each member of our team found the right ones for us. 

Keep adding lights until your face has NO SHADOWS and is all very well lit in its entirety. In my office, I have to use 4 big lights in the morning until the sun comes over to my window.

Janet has a window on her left side (you can see it in the photo) and a ring light clipped to the laptop on her right side to light up the dark side.  You need to light up your WHOLE face and make sure it is WELL LIT.  This is important.

So what happened after Marta attended Mastering Virtual Presentations and perfected her camera presence? Here’s what she said… 

“I went from being invisible to everyone focused on me in meetings. They’re now fully engaging with me. As a result, I’ve developed an extraordinary relationship with the team. It started with making myself visible.”

What is your presence like on camera? Let’s find out!

Feel free to send me a screen shot of yourself and I’ll give you my impressions of how you’re showing up coaching tips on what you need to do to look even more fabulous on camera. 

Be the cause!