Control your Look while on Camera

Hello everyone today. I'm going to be showing you some fun stuff about color and your webcam. Now, this is not me speaking. This is a recording I had to use outside of seeing me live. So ignore what they're saying. But this is behind the scenes in my xsplit software.

And I'm going to be showing you how to change the color on your computer. Well actually no on your software. So I've got two scenes here and each scene has a logitech brio in each scene so I can change one scenes color from another. So I've opened up the webcam here for the webcam and it has different choices.

And so the first thing we're gonna look at is chroma key. I've just turned off the green screen and matched it to the green color just in that scene. So it's black. And then you can put a scene behind that. But chroma key works really well in this software xsplit because as you can see my curtain is very wrinkled, but you can't see any wrinkles in my other scene where I've hidden it as they say, so, and then they have the parts to adjust color.

So this is brightness and this is in each scene. So you can go up and down with the scene. It has certainly defaults of course. And so you just fiddle with it until you find something that you're happy with in terms of the brightness. And then we have contrast. So obviously that contrasts very hi and then to very low, once you go down, there is the low contrast and you just find the one that you're happy with for the scene.

And then we have alpha and alpha is just basically I'm getting the image in there, it seems to disappear. So we'll have to talk about that later. That's one of these things you don't know about. And then we have hue, so you can change the hue of the scene, they're basically from green to red, yellow, more yellow.

Let's see where we're going here and we haven't done anything. That's that's where we go, we're going very green on that end and then yellow and then it probably will be reds at some point. But yeah, it's a little yellowy red. So we're just adjusting the colors to make it look like we wanted to and then we have saturation which is the next one and that will be how much color to put into the scene.

So right now it was okay, but this is way too much saturation for the color. And obviously you can go all the way back to black and white and remove all saturation. So you have quite a good control of your colors and your hues and your saturation and then ou can of course find the one that you like the best or you can reset it to what was set before.

And then you can also change the color of the background, but I don't use that I use green screen and chroma key. And as you can see each scene is different and separate different colors. You can control each scene with each webcam so you could have different colors in each scene depending on the person's hue or what you want to show their. So these are two scenes with two webcam settings and so basically two webcams in each scene.

So one webcam, even though it's the same webcam, it has different settings for each scene, that's what I wanted to say. So that's quite powerful. You can do that just like a studio and now we're going to have a look at what are we looking at now. So we're going to look at the webcam and how you can put change the settings inside the webcam as well.

And if you didn't know that there's an advanced section, that's very good. And so we're going to have a look at inside the webcam and how to change some of the settings in there if you need them to. So first we have to get the webcam open and but before that I wanted to show my invisible chair that reappears instantaneously the minute I pull the green fabric off of the chair so you can go rewind if you want to look and see how much it disappeared before.

It's very good when you have a very ugly chair. So now, so now we're going to go and look at the web cam in the background settings for the webcam whichever brand you have, they should have some kind of webcam settings for you for the camera to change the camera settings and let's go and have a look and then open up the webcam.

And so first there we go, let's try that again and open up the webcam and here we go. I had to go find it and it was hiding in the background. So I went and cut out a few of the scenes so we don't we don't waste time chasing and this is what this one looks like for the logitech brio.

But of course your logic tech 920 is probably different or your other webcams but they all have similar principles. So usually they have a zoom and pan cross where you can change the angle of the webcam. You can zoom in and out with the webcam. You can't in oh no here I go zooming in and out.

I just can't pan so you can zoom in and out with your with your webcam. But personally I don't use this I use I use my software to manipulate what size I want objects to be. And then of course my webcam which I haven't shown you the position of is in the way so that's why I keep moving back and forth.

So anyway so andand also you can have on this one anyway, you can have a standard image or you can have a widescreen image but it doesn't show in this because of the software and of course you can have hdr which is better quality. That's why I probably got this webcam but I don't really use it because I don't want to use up.

It gives me I have to use more memory in order to store it. So the field of view is was interesting. I didn't know you could have almost three types of 65 is what I usually use because I want to try and keep my green screen very centralized but then there's 70's 8 and there's 90 and that gives you a wider field of view.

So then of course for me that's an issue because then I you can see outside of my green screen and so I want to keep it nice and tight so I always keep it at 65. Not that that's relevant for you, it depends on your camera, but these are some of the standard settings for a web cam in the back in the settings that you should try and make sure you set and there I am peering again because I can't see because it's in the webcams in the way. But basically the first one you want to look at is brightness and of course you can maybe adjusted in the software as well.

But if you don't have the software, this is where you can adjust the brightness of your image and there we go. Just you pick something that you like. Same with the contrast, you obviously can go up to 100 but you just pick what you like for your contrast. Auto focus. I don't like auto focus because it'll auto focus when I move and all of a sudden I'll be blurry and then focusing.

So I usually turn autofocus off and because I can manipulate it in the software as to what the image image is in terms of how far away it is from the camera, but that's for another discussion. And so then we're looking at color intensity and color intensity can go from, that's up to you know it's at 50% right now.

So I guess it goes up to 100 and so you can do something ridiculous up to 100% and then you just find it where you like it the best and this is an important one that had an issue with last time was the white balance. And so if I turn off the auto white balance which sometimes can be a bit too white. You can adjust it to what you want it to be what you like.

You don't have to obviously do the auto out and regardless I think I have a bit of a pink in my cheeks already, so I don't have to do too much but I don't want it to be as white as it was yesterday. So try and get some color in my face. So there you go inside your webcam. You can change all your colors if you don't have the software I have and as you can see just by comparing the two, they are quite different.

The other one is quite red and blurry and the one on the right is a bit more human. There you go.

Control your Look while on Camera Read More »

lady slouching

Body Language can affect your Confidence

Stand up Tall

There are many different things that will both influence your confidence and also be influenced by your confidence. Confidence is often a somewhat circular subject matter and this can often make it hard to know where to start.

This is the case with body language. Being confident gives you better body language. But having better body language also makes you more confident!

What Does Confident Body language Look Like?

Confident body language basically involves looking relaxed and calm. Many of us assume that confident body language will necessarily involve looking menacing or intimidating, but the reality is that this makes us look defensive.

Likewise, attempting to look aloof or cool will simply make you look like a try hard.

Remember the kids at school who smoked in their leather jackets and were just kind of tragic?

Being truly confident means you have nothing to prove, it means you aren’t overly concerned what other people think and it means you’re able to relax because you feel unthreatened.

For instance, while some people might think that having their arms crossed makes them seem aloof and indifferent, the reality is that it makes them look guarded and uncertain.

In contrast, if you have your arms apart and your legs apart, you are allowing yourself to be vulnerable. This instantly makes you seem far more confident because you aren’t concerned about threat from others and because you’re allowing yourself to take up lots of space!

Look comfy and you look calm. Look calm and you appear confident!

More Signs of Confidence

There are other signs that you are confident that go beyond comfort of course. One example is the subtle indication of ownership. There are many ways you can subtly imply ownership but the most common is touching. If you learn against a doorway, or if you put your arm across the back of the sofa, it creates the impression that you feel almost as though you own that thing.

That’s why leaning on a wall or doorframe is a surefire way to communicate a lot of self-confidence.

The same actually goes for touching people. And this is why touching someone on the shoulder can make you seem much more confident – especially if it is done in an encouraging and non-threatening way.

Remember though: body language is best read as a whole. It’s not so much a matter of each individual aspect of your body language that will convey a sentiment as it is the entire package.

 

Body Language can affect your Confidence Read More »

Confidence Leads to Influence

Confidence Leads to Influence

Becoming confident is a big step in being more influential.

When you exude confidence, that will show through to others.

They will have no choice but to see you as someone that has a handle on situations.

The good news is confidence is not something you are born with. Sure, some people naturally are confident and it is easier for them to be that way.

Confidence is something that can be learned.

It may take rethinking some of your beliefs but it is possible.

Learn

The first step towards being confident is to learn as much as you can about the situations you are in.

Knowledge is power.

If you have the necessary knowledge, you will be in a position to answer questions that arise. This makes you authoritative in the minds of those that are not as well versed. Few can argue with you when you have that authority.

Define

Next up is to define what you want to accomplish.

With the End in Mind.

Know what the desired end result should be and work back from that. Many people try to wing it and go with the flow, thinking that the results will come to them naturally. While that can work once in a while, usually, it’s more effective when you know what you want right from the start.

Map

After you determine what you want to accomplish, you can map out a plan in the form of goals and milestones.

Step by Step and Mark the Milestones.

By breaking down the process into smaller tasks, it becomes more manageable. This will easily add to your confidence levels because those smaller tasks will be easier to complete. It’s also a great feeling each time one of those milestones are met.

Nothing is set in stone and there is room for change when you make up your plan. Part of confidence is knowing when something isn’t working and to have the courage to adjust. By doing this quickly, you will not lose face. In fact, when you make the decision to change you will show that you maintain the confidence needed. No one can be right 100% of the time. The key is to try not to be wishy-washy when altering your path. Be firm on why you are changing and make the decision quickly.

Taking the steps to becoming more confident is entirely plausible. Confidence will naturally lead to becoming more influential. It takes commitment and time. But the rewards are simply too great to ignore.

Confidence Leads to Influence Read More »