If you’ve ever tried hopping on a video call or streaming using that cheap webcam you had lying around, you know it looks like, well, a cheap webcam. Flat lighting, dull colors, and zero depth to speak of. It’s one of the biggest reasons why I use my DSLR as a webcam.
But before you spend hundreds of dollars buying a new camera that’s overkill for use just as a webcam, consider software options. With nothing but free OBS plugins and a few filters, you can transform your garbage webcam into something that actually looks good.
Why DSLRs look better than cheap cameras
Lighting, color, compression, and processing do most of the damage
DSLRs usually produce balanced images with precise white balance, shallow depth of field, and sharp, detailed subjects. The visual difference in clarity comes primarily from having a much larger image sensor and better lenses. That’s exactly why a 24-megapixel DSLR image will look much better than a 24-megapixel phone camera or webcam.
This is, of course, a hardware difference. Most DSLR or mirrorless camera sensors are about half the size of your usual $20 webcam. Yes, using plugins and filters in OBS will dramatically improve the image you get out of you webcam, but it won’t magically make it better than a professional camera. However, as long as you’ve got good lighting and a reasonably good webcam, you’re good.
Turning a basic webcam into something usable
A few free OBS plugins can dramatically improve sharpness, color, and depth
For those of you who don’t know, OBS can do way more than just record your screen. The program has a bunch of built-in filters that can let you tweak the image you get from your webcam. On top of that, you can download plugins that add further functionality like pro-grade color grading tools, sharpness, and background blur tools among other features.
The first thing I did to improve my webcam’s image was to sharpen it. You can use the built-in Sharpen filter for this, but be sure to use conservative values. Most people tend to over-sharpen their footage and end up looking crispy and overprocessed.
Depending on how sharp the image from your camera is, aim for a value between 0.15 to 0.25. However, you might need to increase or decrease this range depending on your lighting and camera sensor size.
Then comes color correction. Most cheap webcams typically produce footage where the color seems flat, with little to no contrast and inconsistent white balance. This is where the Lumetric Corrector comes in. It’s a free Lua script that gives you professional color grading tools right in OBS.
Color grading and applying LUTs in OBS isn’t very difficult. If you’re doing it with an external script like Lumetric Corrector, simply download the script, place it in your scripts folder, and add it as a filter to your camera source. Once done, you’ll be able to access advanced tools like exposure controls, white balance adjustment, and separate RGB color wheels for shadows, midtones, and highlights. You can also apply one of the 25+ presets with a single click if manually moving sliders around gets confusing.
Generally speaking, you should start with the auto-white balance setting to fix any color cast from your lighting. Once you get the white balance right, bump up the saturation and add some contrast to bring some color into your footage. This step alone will make your footage look a lot more polished, but you will have to experiment with different values to see what works best.
You can also use this in combination with OBS’ built-in LUT (Look Up Table) filter. Just add the Apply LUT filter to your camera source in OBS and select a LUT from either OBS’s built-in library or download one online. There are tons of sites on the internet where you can find free LUTs for all sorts of different looks.
Keep in mind that while you can skip white balance, saturation, and exposure corrections before applying a LUT, these settings work best together. Sure, you can slap a specific LUT directly on top of your webcam footage, but you won’t be making the most of it unless you get the exposure and white balance right.
Another small detail I added was a vignette for a more cinematic, polished feel to my footage. I used the Vignetter Lua script for this. It’s free, and comes with over 16 presets for you to choose from. The classic cinematic vignette preset will do most of what you’re looking for. However, you can adjust the intensity, shape, and even the color to your liking. Keep it subtle though, otherwise the vignette itself can be distracting.
Last but not least, I added some skin smoothing using the DeBlemish Filter script. It’s a free script that helps reduce skin blemishes and wrinkles without making you look like plastic.
There are limits software can’t cheat
Tweaks help, but don’t be unrealistic
As significant an improvement as using OBS filters and plugins can make to your webcam footage, they won’t fix everything. As mentioned before, your cheap webcam doesn’t have a very big image sensor inside, and hence, doesn’t capture images as well as a professional camera.
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Good hardware helps, but some simple tweaks make a big difference, too.
The easiest way you can fix this is lighting. Making sure there’s enough, and more importantly, diffused light on the subject (in this case your face) can make a significant difference in how the final footage looks. Then you can add the filters and plugins mentioned above for a much better result than before.
Try this before spending on new gear
Better results often come from setup and tuning, not upgrades
You probably don’t use your webcam every day, which makes it hard to justify buying an expensive one. With the option to use your phone as a webcam becoming increasingly accessible whether you’re on Windows, macOS, or Linux, the best webcam for your PC might already be in your pocket.
However, if you’ve already got one lying around, it’s worth giving it another shot with better lighting and some software tweaks to improve the image. If you do it right, you can get footage that can look similar to what a DSLR might produce for a fraction of the cost. A $20 webcam with good settings and plugins beats an expensive camera with no knowledge.
