From the course: Improved Video Conferencing with Digital Cameras

Are simulated backgrounds worth using?

From the course: Improved Video Conferencing with Digital Cameras

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Are simulated backgrounds worth using?

- [Instructor] How about simulated backdrops, are they worth considering? I think they are, I do. There's a couple caveats, but let's take a look at some. We're in Skype right now, Zoom has them as well, as do other applications. So here I am with my normal, this is just my normal, boring, backdrop. And I can substitute it though, these other simulated backdrops, and I have a wide variety to choose from, and let's take a look at some of them and let's give our critique of the various styles that are available, okay. So, the next one here, this is fun, this is like a hip studio, isn't it? This would be like something that would be in South San Francisco or something like that. And I kind of like it, to tell you the truth, even though it's busy and I normally don't like busy. But, I think it has a real fun vibe to it. I'm not appropriately dressed though to have this backdrop, and that would be one thing that I would consider is like, does it go with you? In other words, does this guy look like he belongs in this space? Probably not. This one I think is very effective and I would love to have this office. And I kind of like it. In terms of simulating backdrops, this one to me is one of my favorites, because it feels sort of natural, it feels like this really could be a place that I'm working. So I'm sort of grooving on this one right here. And then this of course, especially with shelter in place, and everything that's going on, people could go, wow, is that your place? And I can go, well, not exactly, but I have my eye on it. (laughing) But in terms of tasteful, simulated backdrops, I think this one's pretty good. It's not distracting, it has a nice vibe to it, it fits very much in with what we're seeing right now in the best case scenarios. Then we get into these that have these scenes in the background. This one, I feel like I constantly have to get out of the way of the bridge. I kind of find myself learning so I don't cover up the bridge. Probably not ideal, at least not for me. And now we're really getting into what I consider, a world I don't want to be in at all, this is far too busy for me. This is just crazy, I just cannot see myself using a backdrop like this. Or like this as well. Okay, so we see the wide variety and again, as you may have guessed, I like the simpler ones better. I think they're cooler. Now, the thing that happens sometimes with these, we're not seeing any halo effect or any loss of ears or hair that happens with these, but if you're moving around a lot, depending on your connection, depending on your computer, depending on the backdrop and software that you're using, my big complaint with the simulated backdrops is that sometimes you just start to lose part of you, the computer has a hard time masking on the fly. If that starts to happen, I consider that distracting, and I would stay away either from that backdrop or maybe it just isn't a simulated backdrop day for you. But if you're getting a nice, clean look like we have here, and it stays that way and you just don't feel like cleaning your room that day, yeah, they're all right. Go ahead and use them.

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