How to Look at the Camera When Recording on a Laptop or Webcam

Why you look like you’re looking down

On a laptop, the camera sits above the screen, but everything you want to look at sits on the screen: your face, your notes, the record button. When you look at those, your eyes drop below the lens and viewers see you looking at their chin. The problem gets worse the closer you sit, because the same gap between lens and screen becomes a bigger angle.

There are two fixes, and you need both. Move the camera so it points at your eyes from their level. Then move whatever you look at as close to the lens as possible, and remove anything else that competes for your attention.

The setup, step by step

1. Raise the laptop to eye level

A laptop on a desk films you from below, which shows your ceiling and pulls your chin up. Stack books or use a laptop stand until the lens is level with your eyes. If you look straight ahead, you should be looking at the lens, not over or under it. Use an external keyboard if you need to type.

2. Find the lens and mark it

It sounds obvious, but most people look at the general area of the camera, not the lens itself. Find the exact dot. Put a small arrow sticker or a strip of tape pointing at it while you practice. After a few videos you won’t need it.

3. Put your words directly under the lens

If you use notes, they belong in a narrow window pressed against the top of the screen, centered under the camera. Not in a document in the middle of the display, and never on paper on the desk. A teleprompter works best here because the text moves to where your eyes already are. Keep the lines short so your eyes move a little down, not side to side. See how to read a teleprompter naturally for pacing and delivery.

4. Shrink or hide your own preview

Your face is the most distracting thing on the screen. Check your framing and lighting before you start, then make the preview small and move it to the top center, or hide it. If it stays big in the middle of the screen, you will keep glancing at it.

5. Sit at arm’s length

Distance is the cheapest eye contact fix there is. At arm’s length, your eyes only need to move a few degrees between lens and text, so reading barely shows. Increase the font size to make up for the distance.

6. Frame yourself properly

Keep your eyes about a third of the way down from the top of the frame, with a little space above your head. Center yourself left to right. If you plan to post vertically, remember that a 16:9 laptop frame will be cropped at the sides, so stay centered and don’t lean out of frame.

7. Face the light

A window or lamp in front of you, slightly above eye level, lights your eyes. Light from behind turns you into a silhouette and makes eye contact impossible to read. If you have a window, sit facing it.

Common problems and fixes

External webcams and second monitors

With an external webcam, mount it on top of the screen you actually look at, centered. The most common mistake is a webcam on the laptop and notes on a big external monitor, which guarantees you look off to one side. If your camera clips to one monitor, that monitor is where your notes go.

If you use a Mac, the same rules apply to the built-in camera and to Continuity Camera with an iPhone mounted on the display. See our page on recording talking videos on a Mac.

Recording on a phone instead

Phones make eye contact easier, because the front camera and the screen are so close together. Put the text at the top of the screen, right under the camera, hold the phone at eye level on a stand, and keep it at arm’s length. Don’t hold it in your hand while reading, since any shake moves the text and your eyes follow it.

Scriptmade supports this directly: switch the studio to Phone, scan the code, and your phone becomes a teleprompter with the script at the top of the screen, under the front camera. When you tap stop, the take lands in the studio on your computer for editing.

Should you look away at all?

Yes, briefly. People in real conversations glance away when they think, then come back. A short look to the side between two points reads as natural. What reads badly is a constant downward or sideways drift, which is what the setup above removes.

Some editing apps also offer AI eye contact correction, which redirects your gaze toward the lens after recording. It can help rescue a take, but it works best on footage that is already close. Fixing the setup gives you real eye contact and nothing to correct.

A five-minute practice drill

Eye contact on camera is a habit, and habits need reps. Before your next real recording, try this short drill once or twice:

1. Write three short lines about anything, such as what you did this morning.
2. Load them into a teleprompter directly under your camera.
3. Record yourself reading them three times, a little slower each time.
4. Watch each take with the sound off and note where your eyes drift.
5. Adjust one thing, such as the text width, your distance or the preview size, and record once more.

Most people see a clear difference between the first and last take. The point is to find which part of your setup pulls your eyes away, so you can fix it once instead of fighting it every time you record.

Put it together

1. Raise the lens to eye level.
2. Sit at arm’s length, facing the light.
3. Put your script in a narrow window directly under the lens.
4. Check framing, then shrink or hide your preview.
5. Look at the lens for two seconds, then start talking.

To try it right now, open our free online teleprompter. It runs in the browser with no signup, so you can paste a script, set the speed and record your webcam. If you want the teleprompter over your camera preview plus pause trimming and captions, Scriptmade does that in one place. See pricing.