Do you look into the camera?

Josh100LuBu

Super Poster
Whilst making videos do you look directly into the lens of the camera or do you watch yourself from the screen at the side? I tend to look all over the place, i'm naturally an over excited person.
 
I try to look into the camera. My view is it's like eye contact in the real world - good eye contact makes someone feel more able to connect to you.

That said, to be quite honest I'm not always looking directly at the camera, since I typically record my videos without my glasses on, and my vision extends about 3 inches in front of my nose before getting blurry without them. ;)

I won't just stare at the camera though either. I don't like using scripts for my videos, rather just knowing what points I want to cover, and then covering it in a way like I'd explain it to a friend - so at times there are moments where I'll be thinking about the best way to word something while I'm speaking, and I'll often do the whole thing where you kinda look up and to one side while remembering/thinking of new things. Otherwise though I try to maintain a fair amount of eye contact with the camera.
 
I don't do videos that require me looking at a camera :p

BUT, I learned a tip that can be applied to both videomaking and life in general: when getting shot for a photo or video, try to look a few inches above the lens of the camera. For my school photos, I look more natural when I used this trick, rather than an idiot looking intimidatingly straight into the souls of the picture viewer
 
For the majority of the time I look into the camera but I only use the camera for my news videos which I have to remember a script for so if I can't remember something I look away until it comes to me xD
 
I try to look into the camera. My view is it's like eye contact in the real world - good eye contact makes someone feel more able to connect to you.
I try to keep looking at the lens for the same reasons.

BUT, I learned a tip that can be applied to both videomaking and life in general: when getting shot for a photo or video, try to look a few inches above the lens of the camera. For my school photos, I look more natural when I used this trick, rather than an idiot looking intimidatingly straight into the souls of the picture viewer
Though, I may give this a try.
 
My camera doesn't have a flip screen, so I just look straight into the lens. I guess that makes my life easier, although I do tend to look all over the place when I'm talking!
 
I have not made any videos that involve web cam, but I would like to add vlogs to my channel and I feel that looking into the camera makes people feel like you are paying attention to them and they pay attention to you in return, so if I did, I would do my best to keep good eye contact when needed. .
 
I am experimenting. Half the time I use a script so I have put it in all different places. I find just below the lens is best for me. It still looks like im looking straight but I can see im looking slightly lower.
 
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