Today in TechUpgrade Your Life: How to video chat like a pro
Firing up a video chat with friends, family, or co-workers is easy. Looking good and sounding better during your video chat? Not so easy.
This week on Upgrade Your Life, Yahoo! News' Becky Worley shows us how to make sure you're properly lit and sounding loud and clear while you're on a video call. She also had some tips on how to record video chats, place video calls on your smartphone, and more.
1. Can you see me now?
Hey ... who's that shadowy figure staring back at me from my computer screen? Yep, that's probably you—unless, of course, you've got the proper lighting figured out.
First things first, says Becky: make sure you're not sitting right in front of a bright window or a blindingly white background. If you are, well … consider moving away from the background light.
Next, you should light yourself so that you're brighter than your background. Try placing a desk lamp in front of you (and behind the webcam), and pivoting the light so it's shining directly on your face. And make sure your webcam is at eye level—not sitting on your desk, angled up toward the ceiling lights.
Finally (and if at all possible), try to get a little distance between you and your background, particularly if you're dealing with a white wall behind you.
2. Can you hear me now?
Some video chat setups handle feedback issues with ease; others, not so much. If your video calls are getting interrupted by the annoying shriek of feedback, Becky suggests turning off your desktop speakers and putting on a headset—or, better yet, getting a mic-equipped pair of headphones.
Got a Bluetooth headset for your cell phone? It'll probably work for video chat over your Bluetooth-enabled laptop or desktop. Check the Bluetooth settings or control panel on your PC, and find the setting that let you add a device and the pair your headset—just like you did on your cell phone.
3. Video quality
Not thrilled with how you look over the built-in webcam on your laptop? You always could upgrade to an HD webcam from the likes of Creative or Logitech, but Becky didn't notice much of an improvement in her side-by-side tests.
Instead, she has a different idea for boosting video chat image quality: using the superior optics and lenses in a "prosumer" digital camera or camcorder, which you can connect to your PC or laptop via FireWire.
First, make sure your camcorder has a FireWire port (more details here) and just plug it into your system. Next, turn the camera on and when you open Skype, go to Preferences, click on Video, and select your camcorder as a second video source.
4. Record your video calls
Several downloadable programs are available for recording your Skype calls or other video-chat sessions. Becky suggest Call Recorder, while other options include IMCapture and HD Skype Recorder.
Keep in mind, however, that in several states it's illegal to record a voice or video chat without the consent of all parties on the call. When in doubt, ask permission before hitting the "record" button, and confirm that you're recording before resuming your chat.
5. Video chat on a smartphone
Need to make a video call while you're out and about? Many of the latest smartphones boast front-facing cameras for video chat, including the iPhone 4 (which has native FaceTime video calling) and the HTC Evo 4G. Skype for iPhone recently added support for video chat (if you haven't updated the app recently, go ahead and do so), while Android users can try video-enabled apps like Fring and Qik.
6. Shut down Skype when you're done chatting
The secret sauce that makes Skype possible is "peer-to-peer" technology, which means that every online user of Skype shares the burden of routing, processing, and powering all those voice and video calls.
It's a clever idea, and hey—if you've got bandwidth to spare, go ahead and do your part by keeping Skype running in the background, even when you're not chatting. If bandwidth is at a premium, though, consider quitting Skype until you ready to chat again.
— Ben Patterson is a technology blogger for Yahoo! News.
