Tips & hints

Camera Calm scores four things while you practise: framing, light, gaze and steadiness. Here's what each one actually measures and the fastest way to improve it.

1. Framing — why "too close" usually isn't

Framing measures how large and how centred your face is in the frame. Most laptop and webcam lenses are wide-angle, so at a normal, comfortable sitting distance your face only fills a small part of the picture — which the score reads as "too far back," even though the distance feels completely normal to you.

The fix is simple: move your screen or chair closer than looks right to you, until your face and shoulders fill more of the frame, roughly how you'd be framed in a video call close-up rather than a wide shot. This matters more on wide-angle built-in webcams (common on MacBook Air and MacBook Pro) and on many external webcams, where the same physical distance produces a smaller face in frame than it would on a phone camera.

If you're consistently scoring low on framing despite sitting close, try raising your laptop or webcam so the lens is roughly at eye level rather than looking up or down at you — this also tends to improve your gaze score.

2. Light — even and in front of you

Lighting measures brightness and how even the light is across your face, sampled from the centre and edges of the frame. The most common issue is a window or bright light behind you, which leaves your face in shadow no matter how bright the room looks to your own eyes.

Face a window or lamp so the light falls on your face, not behind you. A single light source in front of, or just to the side of, the camera usually gives the most even result. Overhead-only lighting (a ceiling light with no light in front of you) tends to still read as uneven, since it lights the top of your head more than your face.

3. Gaze — the lens, not the screen

Gaze measures whether you're looking at the camera lens itself, versus looking at your own video preview, notes, or another part of the screen. It's normal to want to check how you look, but every glance down or sideways reads as a drop in eye contact.

Try covering or shrinking your self-preview so it's less tempting to look at, and put a small sticky note or marker right next to the lens as a reminder of where "the person you're talking to" actually is. If your camera sits well below eye level, raising it closer to eye level makes it easier to look at the lens and the screen at roughly the same time.

4. Steady — settle in before you start

Steadiness measures how much your face position shifts frame-to-frame — rocking, leaning in and out, or frequent adjustment. A small amount of natural movement is fine; the score responds to repeated or large shifts.

Before you start a session, plant your feet, rest your hands somewhere comfortable, and take a breath before the first word. If you're on a chair that swivels or rocks, locking it or sitting further into it can make a bigger difference than expected.

General setup checklist

A few minutes on setup usually matters more than anything you do during practice itself.

• Stable surface: put your laptop or webcam on a solid desk rather than your lap, where small movements translate directly into a shaky picture.
• Eye-level lens: prop your laptop up on a stack of books, or use an external webcam, so the camera is close to eye level rather than pointed up your nose or down from above.
• Light in front, not behind: check what's behind you — a bright window behind you will always lose to whatever's happening on your face.
• Plain background: a tidy, uncluttered background isn't scored, but it does make it easier to focus on your framing and gaze.
• Test before it matters: use the "Try it now" option on the homepage, or a practice session once signed in, to check your setup before a real call or interview rather than during one.

These scores are a practice guide, not a verdict — the goal is a comfortable, confident setup, not a perfect number.