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:
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:
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