Ideal webcam atmosphere
 

What would be the perfect atmosphere?

my webcam is giving me some shitty results now and i was wonderin what i could do to improve it. it's a ge webcam that i got for 20 bucks, so i'm not expeting anythign marvelous.

i know it can do better cuz after i reposition the thing, i get really good quality for a bit, then it darkens the pic. i tried messing with the avaliable settings, but i couldnt get it to fix it again.

is there any special programs out there that will help u configure the cam to optimal settings?

Well, what seems to work the best with webcams is ambient lighting -- turn on the light in your computer room, and perhaps shine a desk light to the side of you. That should give a proper contrast of lighting to make everything more visible. Good luck!

Along with the lighting thing - Make sure the light is Behind the camera. And that the camera is not sitting in the shadow of something. This is the same as an actual camera shot outside. You don't want back lighting, or sharp changes in light as the image is captured by the camera.

Incidently: for 20 bucks, thats about as good a pic as you are going to get ;)