Webcam: A Guide

For all of you broadcasters, video makers, video editors and video watcher out there this guide is for you. This guide will show you how to turn your boring webcam shots into something of a masterpiece. You can have it all with this guide.

Intro

This guide is assuming you know how to work a webcam, that the webcam is working and that you also have a basic idea of internet video. In this guide we will be showing you how to: Make your videos more interesting, high quality, add effects and make them fun and better videos, get started on streaming,

Lingo

Before we get started there is some lingo you need to know to understand some things.

• Stream- You video broadcast
• Broadcaster- Person streaming video
• Lifecast- Constant streaming of your day-to-day life
• Viewer- Person watching stream
• Resolution- Size and quality of video
• Moderator- Person who is chosen by broadcaster to monitor chat and discipline chatters if need be.
• Staff- Person who works for the host website
• Pro*- Person who has paid to get ads removed
• Slow Mode- Puts the chat cap on the amount of message sent for a certain amount of time
• Voiced- Slow Mode does not effect a voiced person, also used to show importance
• Bot- A nonhuman controlled chatting bot, usually used to play games and automate messages
• FME- Short for Flash Media Encoder, used to broadcast with more customization
• Bit Rate- Rate at which video is transferred higher bit rate the better the quality
• Lag- Delay between real time and video time

Purpose of Stream

What is the point of your stream? Its hard to throw a camera in front of you and keep it entertaining. While there are people who will show up they most times will not stay. If you are broadcasting a trivia show do not have a stream of video games.

Webcam Position

In the camera world there is a rule know as the “rule of thirds”. Imagine a tic-tac-toe bored across your camera view. Anything where the lines cross is going to be more interesting.

Blue Area are a good place to put your subject.

Now this rule is always subject to your surroundings and abilities. The rule is used very little in the internet video world because most time the background is less appealing than when you would take a photo. This does not mean you should not use the rule of thirds. It simple means that you should consider what the camera is showing.

Background

The background is important in the sense that you do not want something very distracting in the background. No televisions or places with a lot of activity (buses, parks, streets). You want the subject of the video to be very clear and clean. If you are broadcasting somewhere were there is a lot of activity zoom in on yourself (not to close). If you are somewhere dark, turn on a light and vice versa.

Bad Background

Good Background

Lighting

The lighting for a internet video is very important you do not want too much light making a glare but not enough light making it hard to see. The best way to get an good light exposure is to use overhead lighting and behind camera lighting. No lighting should be towards camera or at low spots. You want to eliminate as many shadows as possible. Remember to always go off what the camera sees not you. It is important to use what looks best, if a light makes it look bad then do not use it.

Good Lighting

Dos and Don’t