What is the best webcam setup?
 

Advice anyone? For webcam girls.

Jay

http://dacams.com/ |headbang|

You mean the actual physical webcam? Pros mostly use things like a sony handycam. Picture quality is just so much better.

your a muppet. He's talking about being a girl behind the camera and the setup that requires.

As hony said camcorders make the best webcams. Just all in how much you wanna spend. A simple decent webcam can work fine or you can go to a camcorder with a power pan/tilt head on a tripod remote controlled of course. The thing I've found that seems to make or break how a cam looks is lighting, the lighting has to be right or chances are the girl will look like crap hot or not.

Computer wise it doesn't take alot basicly anything that runs XP worth a shit will work. Only time you get into needing a better computer is if she wants to work multi sites at the same time, like over 3-4. I've known girls that can make great money working only one site and others that have to work a half dozen to make enough to eat, all depends on looks, personality, and what they are willing to do.

Most of the girls I've seen on webcams look better with the lights off...

But if you got a hottie - turn the lights up baby! I've found that the 40-watt compact florescent lamps in the 4200 to 55oo kelvin range work the best with most cams. Use a cheal clip on reflector and a chunk of flash defuser cloth (available at most professional photo stores). These bulbs are cool enough to work under and inexpensive to operate. I do not recommend halogen bulbs - first, most have the wrong color temp and they are WAY too hot.

Bulbs in the 4200 to 5500 K color temp should be available at most photo shops but you can get them a lot cheaper from a professional bulb store (I use Bulbs Plus locally). Make sure you get the right color temp as this can throw things way off - then test them with your cam. My bulb store let me test a few until I got the right balance for my cameras.

Lighting is vital I agree, the only tip I'd add is to make sure your lights are slightly asymmetrical - e.g. one side is slightly brighter than the other. This causes you to look more 3D because of the slight shadow on the less lit side of any bumpy bits you have. ;-)

proper lighting is definitely key for any video or photograph, and if you're using your desk lamp there's probably a setting in your video camera to adjust the color temp... so you don't wind up looking all orange and weird