Lighting advice for WFH office

[AntonG]

My SO works from home in Teams/Zoom meetings most of the day and is struggling with decent lighting.

She is using an HD Logitech WebCam (we use the same one at my work and we have no lighting issues with all the offices having proper illumination).

We have moved her desk around her flat to try get the best lighting position (currently next to window seems to be best) but still has shadows/darkness.

Unfortunately as she is renting replacing/installing new fixed lights is not an option.

She got one of those round lights that clips on side of desk which wasn't bright enough and got an even bigger one from China shop (I know!) Which seems totally useless also.

Any advice what light we should rather be investing in?

She is happy to get quality equipment if it the answer to her (lighting) issues.

 

[pikolec]

Hands-down, the best lighting is natural light from behind the screen that she is looking at.

But that is very rare, so the next best thing is to reduce the effect of the source of the sunlight with curtains and blinds so that any artificial light can take effect.

The worst is to have the light coming from behind. This should be avoided. My experience is that even with blockout curtains, if the sunlight is behind, you're paddling upstream.

There are tons of articles about how to arrange lighting for photography and lots of great DIY tips/tricks.Vloggers on youtube have also added lots of videos.
Things to keep in mind:
- single source of light = bad; multiple light sources = better
- diffuse the light to soften the shadows.
- Balance the source of light so that the pupils don't dilate too much - harsh light in front will make you squint
- Intentionally adding a shadow makes for a more realistic picture.


My WFH office has the natural light coming from over my right shoulder and that is not great. I have to keep the curtains closed to reduce the overall lighting level in the room, but that made it too dark, so I added a bedside-lamp without a lamp-shade (i.e. naked bulb) behind my screens. But that light was way too harsh, so I rigged a home-made light diffuser (using wax paper, but you can also use tracing paper). I mounted that on a make-shift mount using a plastic cool-drink bottle and added a reflector made from tin-foil reflector behind. It is a little janky (ok, it's a lot janky), but it is behind my screens and is enough to fill in the light to balance against the natural light coming through the curtains.




And I don't get eye-strain from the lighting in front of me.

 

[souljazk]

Have you tried her cam on another laptop? Is the camera run via a USB hub by any chance?

 

[brakpanpolisie]

My SO works from home in Teams/Zoom meetings most of the day and is struggling with decent lighting.

She is using an HD Logitech WebCam (we use the same one at my work and we have no lighting issues with all the offices having proper illumination).

We have moved her desk around her flat to try get the best lighting position (currently next to window seems to be best) but still has shadows/darkness.

Unfortunately as she is renting replacing/installing new fixed lights is not an option.

She got one of those round lights that clips on side of desk which wasn't bright enough and got an even bigger one from China shop (I know!) Which seems totally useless also.

Any advice what light we should rather be investing in?

She is happy to get quality equipment if it the answer to her (lighting) issues.

What light fittings are currently installed in the room and how big the room roughly m²?