In the last few months Americans working from home have had to adapt to conducting all their business on video conferencing. There may not be a company out there whose profile has grown quite so exponentially in 2020 as Zoom. With the amount of people now working from home, video conferencing for family meetups,and having watch party video calls with friends, people are working a lot harder on making sure they come across well on webcam. Adorn Cosmetic is here to make the process easier, with some useful tips you can implement at home.
How to Look Good on Video Calls
A lot of what it takes to improve your appearance on Zoom is common sense. Here are some of the most straightforward steps you can take.
It’s important to cover the basics. Comb your hair, shave, or apply makeup, and think about what clothing you’ll wear. With the low resolution and framerate of most video conferences, busy plaid or patterned outfits will undermine your aesthetic and turn off viewers. Wear plain, solid colors, but avoid garments of bright white or dark black, as the camera picks them up in ways that make them appear like ‘blobs’ of color.
Proper lighting is essential. Make sure you have a lamp or other light source near your face to shed even, steady lighting. Don’t sidelight or backlight our face, and avoid sitting with your back to a window (you’ll be silhouetted by the window light). Facing the window will give you access to soft, people-friendly natural light. Lift your computer so that your camera is at eye level. This is the most flattering angle. You don’t want to be shooting from a low angle.
Gimmicky backgrounds can be fun, but ultimately you don’t want the other people in the call to be distracted by what’s behind you. Bookshelves are another popular choice, to make yourself look more scholarly and convey personality, but they also prove distracting on calls. A simple wall, or a wall with maybe one hanging art piece or photograph, can be an effective backdrop.
Socially distance from your camera. Many cameras are wide-angle, meaning that if you get too close, it will distort your features.
How Can I Look Good on Zoom at Night?
Nighttime presents more challenges for those in video chats, as the readiest source of good lighting is now unavailable. One solution, beloved of YouTubers and influencers with home studios, is the ring light. A suitable ring light can cost as little as $13 (plus batteries) and can make a world of difference to your video meetings, improving the appearance of your skin tone and overall boosting the color temperature of your video feed.
The Easiest Makeup to Look Good in Zoom Calls
When it comes to doing makeup for Zoom meetings when you need to look your best, there are ways in which the format makes it easier, and ways that it makes it harder. The low resolution of the calls means that issues such as dark circles are less likely to show up, but at the same time, the different conditions mean that you are likely to look washed out and flattened on camera in ways you probably don’t in person. So, to make sure you’re looking camera ready for Zoom, the best way to prepare is to do your makeup looking into your webcam. It’s important to remember that your appearance in person will be different to how you look on camera, so this may not end up being a look that you’re happy leaving the house with.
Take a large brush and load it with bronzer, tap off the excess, then blend it across your cheeks and nose.
Apply more to your temples, the edges of your forehead, and over your eyelids. Check in the webcam to make sure it’s making a difference.
Then apply blush over your cheeks, nose, eyelids, and edges of the forehead. You can be liberal with the amount: it needs to show up on camera.
Subtleties that may show up on a celebrity makeup artist’s makeup tips video on YouTube or television are less likely to be apparent on a smaller, lower-resolution screen on people’s phones. That said, if you want to update your look with permanent makeup to make your routine easier on a day to day basis, Adorn Cosmetic is available to help you plan your new look. We offer permanent eyebrow makeup, permanent eyeliner or eyelash enhancement to save you curling your lashes, beard and facial hair tattoos, and tattoo doctoring.