Placement: front, slightly above
Place the main light in front of the subject, facing them, at about the height of the camera or slightly above. Front light fills the subject evenly, so the camera records expressions and detail clearly. A light slightly above eye level avoids shadows under the chin while keeping the eyes lit; a light far above creates shadows under the eyes and brow, which tire a face on camera.
Place supporting lights to fill shadows, not to compete with the main light: a fill light from the side, softer than the main light, and a background light that separates the subject from the background. Three lights — main, fill, background — are the classic setup, and they can be scaled down to one light for a call, or up to several for a production.
Pitfalls: windows, overhead lights and mixed colour
A bright window behind the subject is the most common pitfall: it turns the subject into a silhouette, because the camera exposes for the bright background and the subject goes dark. The fix is to face the window, so its light falls on the subject, or to cover it, so the room's lights control the image. Never place a subject with a window behind them if it can be avoided.
Overhead lights directly above create shadows under the eyes, nose and chin, which age and tire a face on camera. Mixed lighting — a warm lamp on one side and cool daylight on the other — shows as two different skin tones on camera. Consistency of colour across all the lights on a subject matters more than the brightness of any single light.
A room checklist
First, the seat: face the light source, not the window, and sit where the light falls on the subject, not on the back. Second, the background: neutral, uncluttered, and not brighter than the subject, so the camera exposes for the subject, not for the background. Third, the screen: bright enough to read, not so bright that it lights the subject unevenly.
Fourth, the lights themselves: in front, slightly above, even, stable, and tested with a real recording or call. Fifth, the room's other lights: consistent in colour with the main lights, or switched off, so the subject reads as one tone. A room that passes all five checks will record well, and a room that fails any one of them will show it.
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