Technology continues to remove the bonds of human limitation, and the best webcams make it possible to be thousands of miles away while sitting in your home office. Unfortunately, the glory of video communication is often lost due to poor image quality. If you’re consistently frustrated by grainy or shadowy visuals, below, we’ll run through some quick tricks on how to improve laptop camera quality.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- Improve a laptop’s webcam quality by updating software settings and being mindful of your lighting and background.
- Ensure you have no lighting or commotion behind you when streaming. Instead, place a soft light behind your laptop screen to enhance image quality.
- Check your internet connection, as low bandwidth per second causes blurry images.
And for webcam beginners, if you’re just getting started and need help getting up and running, check out how to install a webcam on your laptop.
Insider Tip
Soft lights are best when trying to improve webcam quality.
How Can I Improve the Camera Quality on My Laptop?
After you’ve figured out how to connect your webcam to your laptop, you should understand your settings and surrounding to get the most precise image possible. The great news is that improving video quality is often quick, easy, and cheap! Of course, you can’t increase the overall screen resolution or jump to HD levels without purchasing the right equipment. But, there are plenty of ways to improve what you have to optimize picture quality.
Once you have everything set up, go through the privacy settings so that only trusted apps can access your webcam. We have a resource explaining how to enable webcam access if you’re looking for a guide on this.
Update Webcam Settings and Image Software
If you use a specific app or website to stream or record video, such as Zoom or Google Chat, ensure you’ve updated to the latest settings. Regularly check for updates because using older versions can reduce the image quality.
It’s also essential to check for webcam driver updates. You can update your driver through the device manager settings for those using a built-in laptop webcam.
Warning
Laptop webcams are notorious for being poor quality and often don’t come close to the visual clarity of external options.
Analyze Lighting and Background
By considering your environment, such as learning how to fix a webcam and how to invert a webcam, you can optimize your video quality. For best results, place a light behind your monitor, and ensure there is little light behind you. When you place a light source behind the laptop screen, this lowers the laptop’s exposure settings and gives a clearer image.
Make sure your background isn’t too bright. For example, sitting in front of a bright lamp or a window ruins the screen resolution and makes it hard for viewers to see. Additionally, avoid a background with too much movement. Too much background activity creates choppy webcam footage.
Check Internet Speed
As usual, poor internet connection is one of the biggest impediments to high-quality video. If you do a lot of video conferencing, it’s worth purchasing high-speed internet. If your internet connection becomes too slow, this results in blurry or delayed footage.
STAT: For best results during a video chat, you should have an internet bandwidth per second of at least 1.0Mbps. (source)
