If you make videos and wear glasses, then you know how much of a problem it can be with the glare coming from your main key light reflecting directly on your glasses and being seen by you and whoever is watching your videos. I often find it distracting when I see it in videos and frustrating when I see it in my own content. In this article, I’ll show you 5 ways of preventing or at least reducing those glare issues, when you are filming yourself on camera.
So you’ll be hopefully avoid this problem and make your videos look clear and professional.
- Tip 1: Wear glasses that have an anti-reflective lens coating.
This first tip is less of an immediate fix like the other tips, unless you’re getting some new glasses right now, but when you do next choose any new glasses, your optician may be able to add a anti reflective coating to your glasses in front of the lens itself. This special coating will reduces the amount of light that bounces off your glasses creating glare. Not only can this help for making videos like this, but also in your everyday glasses wearing life, it also improves your vision and comfort by reducing eye strain and enhancing contrast.
- Tip 2: Remove bright items in your line of sight.
Bright items such as windows, mirrors, screens, lamps, or your key lights can reflect light onto your glasses and create glare. If these light sources are causing the issue, just simply move them out of the way, either move them away from your filming area or cover them. If your main glare light source is a window, just close the blinds. If you can see your key light in your glasses, just move it until it’s not.
- Tip 3: Adjust your light placements.
The issue that most creators (wearing glasses) are probably having, is the main key light, the one that’s in front of you is the problem, but you can’t simply just turn it off because, you need light to see yourself on the camera. But because position and angle of your lights can directly affect the amount and the direction of glare on your glasses, something is going to have to be done about that main light.
You can try raising your lights above head height, moving them further away from you or closer, or using a diffuser to soften the light. You’ll find that you will have to find a balance between making sure that the light isn’t producing that glare in your glasses while at the same time making sure that you are well lit, because moving your light source, away from you, will make you appear darker, moving it higher, can give you unwanted shadows, both of which can sometimes be remedied in camera and in post, or just by experimenting with different lighting setups.
- Tip 4: Adjust your camera angle.
You can try tilting your camera slightly up or down, or moving it closer or further away from you. This method may change the perspective you’re going for, if you prefer an eye level shot, which is geared towards building a connection with the viewer by being on the same level as them, then having a slightly higher or lower shot may end up giving you a viewing perspective (for your viewers) that you are not happy with.
- Tip 5: Adjust your glasses angle.
You can also try tilting your glasses slightly down or up, or wearing them higher or lower on your nose. I’m not a fan on this because for me, if I were to change the angle too much, then I haven’t got the hair to hid a tipped pair of glasses which makes it quite obvious and potentially distracting to the viewer that my glasses aren’t sitting properly, or the moment my glasses go down my nose a bit, I just want to immediately push them back up again, but for you, you may find that this is a helpful suggestion.
With all of these tips, the main thing is to practice these different test positions, have a session where you are just setting up to find that ideal position, turn on your key lights, your background lights, your fill lights and set up the camera, as if you were going to start any other content you usually make. Not to press record, but if you can, with a flip out LCD screen, and just look what the camera can see, or if you’ve not got a flip out screen, then record a few test shots. If it doesn’t look good, make the minor change and try again, until you’ve cracked it and got the setup and lighting position that suits you best.
In some instances, you may find that you’ll have to upgrade your current light to a more suitable one, if you’ve got a small light, then getting a larger softer light might be advantageous because it’s going to make reflections less noticeable, but in most cases you should be able to find a workaround with the equipment you’ve got via some form of minor alteration.
So, those are the five tips that I use to prevent glare issues while wearing my glasses when I’m filming myself on camera. I hope they will help you too.
If you want to see the video version of this article, which features examples in more of a visual medium, check out the YouTube link below: https://youtu.be/fZQ9N8Tr7I4