In a media-dominated society, appearance matters. Let’s discover some useful tips and tricks to look great when attending a video call with the boss
Face-to-face meetings through video conferencing are undoubtedly a more powerful mean of communication than the traditional phone calls. However, most people still prefer the latter. The problem is the subtle discomfort that many users feel when they are placed in front of a camera, even those of one’s own pc. The concerns are mainly about one’s own appearance: how do I look? Does the platform reproduce my image in a proper way?
While it is easy to answer the second question – it is sufficient to choose a good HD Video conferencing product like R-HUB`s TurboMeeting (http://www.rhubcom,com) – the list of check-outs to prepare oneself to a video meeting is not as intuitive and easy-to-imagine as we expect. Paul J.Bailo, author of the book “The Essential Digital Interview Handbook”, observes that “Everyone thinks they know what they’re doing but they’ve never been trained to do it”. Therefore, it is important to learn the basic techniques to look fine on the screen:
Set the lights properly
The point is to Avoid shadows under your eyes which make you appear ugly or not natural. In order to reach this result, avoid default lighting that usually comes from overhead. Instead, place two soft light sources behind the web cam (on the right and left sides) and another behind you.
Set the angle of your cam properly
Cam can be tilted of a certain amount of degrees, which obviously affect their field of view. Laptop cams are fixed, and – unfortunately – usually do not capture your face at the right perspective. You have to adjust your cam or your laptop in a way that captures your face and your shoulders and with an alignment of lens at your eyes’ level.The utilization of a small tripod can be helpful.
Set your room and yourself
It is inevitable that the cam captures also a piece of the room or the environment where you are sitting during the Conference. The ideal solution is that behind you there is only a white wall, so that your interlocutor does not get distracted and no extra messages are involuntarily conveyed (for example, the glimpse at an unmade bed in the background creates immediately a bad impression).
Similar considerations work for your appearance. Dress formally, as if you were in a real job meeting. Check the temperature in order to avoid sweating, and consider that you should stand up for any reason.
Set your staff or people around you
Distractions during a conference are always bad. This is the reason why you should alert people that are in your house or in the office during your conference to keep out. Similar considerations work for pets. Having your cats that jump on your lap during a meeting with a job interviewer is not only annoying, but also embarrassing and creating a bad impression.
Avoid consulting notes
A video conferencing is slightly different from a real meeting. Consulting notes or reading something or checking for something on the PC means losing immediately the right perspective in front of the cam and creating a sense of noise and confusion. Prepare yourself before the conference, so that you do not need to move or shake your body too much.
The post How to Look great during a Video Conference appeared first on RHUB Blog: Web Conferencing & Remote Support.
