Take your video presence from home to the next level

In this instructional blog, I will share with you some pro-tips for how to take your video presence to the next level in terms of professionalism and engagement. Each as important as the other, and should be added as a whole to your video presentations

1. Lighting

2. Sound

3. Context

Why is all this so important? As with all steps up in professionalism, when done well, the lay person will never notice they are there - but would always know when they are not. Today, I guarantee you, if you watch a newscast you will see at least one interviewees ceiling - they have still to learn not to look down into their laptop displaying the glories of their ceiling decoration, and their nose hair(!) We just file them away as less serious, less important messages.

From a somatic perspective, we mistrust or resent someone we are forced to look up toward, without knowing why they are above us. When you force an audience to look up to you, because you are looking down into the camera we set off on the wrong foot. Watch a professional news caster or teacher online and they are always meeting your eye-line or looking up to the camera. Similarly we have an ancient fear of walking into poorly lit spaces, spaces where we can't easily see a persons hands or clearly read their intent from body language. I will cover all this - and notice the response in your audiences. Finally, if all you can hear is a tinny thin voice, your concentration strays from the message to picking out the audio line. A rich, broad spectrum sound field allows you to fully engage with what is being said. Again, I would point you to any news broadcast and you will hear immediately how disadvantaged a message with poor audio quality is compared to the messages surrounding it. Indeed, you might conclude, having learned all this that some interviewees are deliberately allowed to continue to shoot their own message for political gain! Lighting We could and perhaps should talk more about shadows, they give us perspective, character, shade but they can also blanket and disrupt, hide and literally make shady. Lighting is the tool we use to mitigate the unwanted effects of shadows. I use 2 specific types of lighting in my set up

This lighting ring has several features and is meant for close work with facial detail - this helps mitigate the angle of general lighting as it falls on your face

It also has a clip to hold or mount your camera (and in this case I am using my smartphone) - because I like to use that when I am presenting. Notice that you can clearly see the ring reflected on my glasses if I am not paying attention - this may rule out the use of a light ring for you Next Steps: Book an online tech-check with me: