I do a lot of video calls, and in my place there's a lot of backlighting which causes me to look like this on calls:

This lighting makes doing video calls pretty hard, and being brown doesn't help either. But fortunately I found a way to light up my face much better:

I could just sit near a lamp or something, but I had a few more requirements:

Everyone has their own requirements for a workstation, so this varies by profession.  But I had a very specific set of criteria:

• I wanted the desk to move around easily (so I can work from any part of the home).
• I wanted zero wires hanging from it (so it doesn't look all janky).
• I wanted the desk to go from sitting to standing instantly.
• I wanted there to be lights to combat the backlighting from the windows.

Having zero wires, good lighting, and an adjustable sit/stand desk all in one is a tall order, but after a little digging around I found a unique solution!

Find The Right Desk:

I wanted to go 100% laptop at my place, and keep the desktop only at the office.  This meant my $2,000 HumanScale desk had to go.  This thing was a beast, and a fantastic sit/stand desk, but for just a laptop it was comically large:

For scale on how big the desk is, it can easily engulf my full 88-key piano:

So I dug around for a desk that's specifically for laptops, can easily go from sitting to standing, and rolls around:

TA-DA!

This is a Unique Furniture Adjustable Laptop Desk I found on Amazon:

It kind of reminds me of a desk you'd see at a hospital.  But it's super functional:

It can roll to anywhere, and with the push of a lever it goes up or down, meaning you can use it while sitting or standing:

I'm not saying I HAVE done this.....but theoretically you can roll this into the bathroom and work while you....ummm...you know.

Finding The Right Lighting:

I do a ton of video consulting calls from home, and it sucks that I look like this from my laptop webcam:

This lighting setup is pretty bad, and being brown doesn't help.

On my old desk I had 3 photography lights on stands behind the desk to brighten the picture during calls:

....but if I wanted to move around AND have zero wires, this setup was no longer viable.

Instead I found these LED lights I could clamp on the desk:

It's just two Aputure LED Lights with two Dinkum Systems Clamps.  This makes it easy for me to remove the lights whenever, and also zero wires!

Just turn a dial and the light adjusts to how bright I want it.  At night the very lowest setting lights up my face big time.  In the daytime I only need the light to about the half-way setting.  So these are more than enough to light my big brown face on webcam!

If you too would like to work from a hospital desk that looks like it has dildo's coming out of it, you can grab the lights here:

• Aputure LED Lights.
• Dinkum Systems Clamps.
• Unique Furniture Laptop Desk.

Without the lights clamped on, it's almost impossible to see me with all the backlighting:

With the lights clamped on, everything looks so much better. The webcam can easily see my face AND the cityscape background:

Much better!  All thanks to this desk that kind of looks like an alien:

Hope this was useful :)

Sincerely,

Neville Medhora

P.S. I've nicknamed the desk "The Alien" when the lights are clamped on.  Here's me trying to impersonate The Alien: