Improve Video Quality

Many of you will record your video interview in the privacy of your home. There are many external conditions that you can control to improve video quality. The following sections describe ways that you can manage your environment to record a great video interview.

Don't Use Your Monitor as a Light Source

As you'll see, many of the recommendations involve lighting. It's important to have enough lighting in the right places. First, you need more than your computer's monitor as a light source. Second, you don't want the background light to be brighter than the foreground light. You'll see instant improvement by turning on a desk lamp. It doesn't matter what type of light bulb you use. It's important to have a light source facing your face.

Most webcams automatically make adjustments. You'll see that color quality improves since you provided front lighting. You'll also notice that the front light causes the webcam to lower the overall exposure, including the background.

Soften the Light

Sometimes you get too much of a good thing in the wrong place. For example, you may inadvertently highlight your forehead with a shiny spot.  The simple solution is to diffuse the light with printer paper.  To soften the light, tape the paper to the open front of the lamp.  Also, as the paper reduces the brightness of the lamp, the webcam's auto exposure adjustments will cause the background and the monitor reflection to increase.

Instead of covering the lamp, you may want to turn the bare lamp around and reflect the light off a wall. This creates a bigger, softer and dimmer light source. You may also want to turn off the background lights because the dimmer front source may make them appear too bright in the back.

Wear a White Shirt

In efforts to automatically improve quality, webcams take the brightest area in a frame, assume that it's white, and try to make adjustments until that happens. This effort to lock onto a color balance can cause unpredictable changes in quality. One second normal, next second too green, next second too red, and so on. The webcam tries to make something white whether it is actually white or not. The solution is to give the webcam what it's looking for. Wear a white shirt.

You'll also see that with white in the foreground, the webcam will disregard various light source colors in the background.

Clean Up Your Background

You want employers to focus on you, not on the pictures hanging on the wall behind you. Put the focus on you by using a backdrop. A neutral grey backdrop works best since it also improves the automatic white balance adjustments made by your webcam. Also, make sure you turn off the lights behind the backdrop.

Use a Mic

For better quality audio, use a clip-on microphone. Webcam microphones are inconsistent and sound often rises and fades as you move toward and away from the webcam.

Other Considerations

• Make sure you're not uploading or downloading anything else while recording the interview.
• Close all other programs to speed up your computer, and to eliminate any audio alerts (e.g. bells or pings).
• If using a laptop, you may have problems with video when in power saving mode. Change your computer to AC power or switch your computer to maximum performance.
• If you connected an external webcam to your computer via a USB hub, consider changing to a direct USB port on your computer.
• Clean the lens of the webcam. Use a soft, lint-free cloth (not a tissue or any other paper cloth) and a mild cleaner, such as one used for eyeglasses.