Why Do I Look So Bad On Video Conferencing? w/ Doug Canfield

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Welcome to another episode of
Park Avenue Plastic Surgery Class,

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the podcast where we explore controversies
and breaking issues in plastic

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surgery. I'm your co-host Doreen Wu.

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I'm excited to be here with Dr. Lawrence
Bass Park Avenue plastic surgeon,

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educator, and technology innovator,
and our special guest, Doug Canfield,

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president of Canfield Scientific
in Parsippany, New Jersey.

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The title of today's episode is "Why Do
I Look So Bad On Video Conferencing?"

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We've all had this experience.

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We sign into the video conference with
our work colleagues and spend the next

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hour looking at our
face beamed back at us,

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too much time to get uncomfortably
familiar with some things on our faces and

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necks that we'd rather not see. Dr.
Bass, is this stress from the pandemic?

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Do we really look like
that? What's going on?

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Really, it's multifactorial,
there's a lot going on.

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Certainly we're stressed and
that's taken a toll on people's

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appearance.

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A lot of people have put off beauty
and medical treatments because

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they're working from home
a lot more of the time.

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And so it really shows how much
Botox and fillers and facials and

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other treatments contribute to
the quality of our appearance.

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But also there are some technical reasons

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and I'm going to let our guests
discuss them a little bit.

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We're very pleased to have
Doug Canfield with us,

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who's the president of
Canfield Scientific.

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Canfield Scientific is the leading company

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in plastic surgery and cosmetic
dermatology and medical

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dermatology as well for
advanced photo imaging

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solutions, amongst a
variety of other things.

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And so Doug is an expert
on photography as it

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applies to human appearance
and medical care.

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So Doug,

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maybe you can share with us some
of the reasons why these video

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conferencing solutions seem
to show us in such a poor

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light.

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Thank you, Dr. Bass.
And thank you, Doreen.

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Most of us are using webcams that are
built into our computers or clipped onto

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our computers and by definition
webcams have wide angle

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lenses and that

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flattens our face and distorts our
features. So, you know, that's, inherent

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to video conferencing.

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And certainly I think there
are some ways that we can

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overcome some of that.

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But I think it's inherent to
video conferencing and webcams,

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and unless we're using supplemental
cameras for our video conferencing,

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we have to deal with those distortions.

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And are there things about photography
in general that make us look good or bad

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or show us some feature
we don't normally see?

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Absolutely.

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I think lighting and we have to remember
that photography is the recording of

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light and that the
lighting systems themselves

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produce different shadows.

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So if we're in a room where
we have a window light,

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that's coming across our face in a
certain direction that can give us

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shadows that make more features
pronounced. And for example,

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for me,

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I have fairly deep glabella lines
and in my forehead and I have fairly

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deep intraoral hollows.

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And if I don't have flat lighting coming
from the front you can really see the

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pronounced effects of
those, of those skin folds.

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And I think that's kind of the
difference between medical photography

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and portrait photography
and this kind of basic

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imaging where we're just trying
to show the person that they're

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present and attending on a
video conference. You know,

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medical photography is very format fixed

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to produce something very reproducible.

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Portrait photography does a
lot of things to soften our

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appearance and hide their flaws.

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People are typically photographed
at a little bit of an angle,

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not head on the lighting is going
to be softer to conceal things

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and make us look our best video
photography and conferencing

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is, you know, your boss wants to see
if you're awake during the meeting.

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They want to see, you know,

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you want to see your colleagues who
you haven't seen maybe in a while and

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just know they're there and see
their smile. So it wasn't engineered,

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I would guess to be particularly
technically accurate

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in rendering how we actually
look. Does that make sense?

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Yeah, I think that makes a
lot of sense. And you know,

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for me you make a lot
of good points that we

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enforce for most of our meetings that
have cameras on because we want to

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see people present and there's so much
interaction that happens right between

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between teams that you don't
need to interrupt each other.

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You can sort of see the facial
lines and the expressions and the

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thumbs up. And this interaction only
happens if you have your video camera on.

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Exactly. Now tell me Dr. Bass,

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have you seen this effect a lot with
all the work and social video meetings

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taking place during the pandemic?

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Yes.

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this is an extremely common occurrence
and it's actually been termed

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zoom dysmorphia because
we have really gotten

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an unrealistic view,

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a not real view of our body image
based on how we look on zoom.

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And this is different from
Snapchat dysmorphia, you know,

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Snapchat dysmorphia is you're
looking at everybody else.

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They look pretty good
because of those filters.

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So they're looking better
than they really are.

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And you're looking at yourself
the way you really are and saying,

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why don't I look as good as them? And
the reason is because that's not real,

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it's been altered in zoom. It kind of
pushing you in the other direction.

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I mean, first just you're looking at
yourself, not like you look in the mirror,

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but reflected back unflipped

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and sitting there for an
hour, looking at yourself,

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looking at your face as you move and
talk and animate that always shows more

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wrinkles, more sags and
bags than a static picture,

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where you pose and look
your best. Hopefully.

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So there's no question that people are
seeing things they didn't know before.

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There's no question. This is fed
unhappiness with one's appearance,

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and there's no question it's bringing
people into the office now that things

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have opened up, you know, at
the tail end of the pandemic,

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people are coming in to chase things
that they saw on video conference.

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Does that mean I just have to live with
it or is plastic surgery an option?

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Well,

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there are always surgical and non-surgical
treatments that we can use to enhance

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your appearance.

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And things you see on zoom
sometimes are real things.

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You know, we don't look down under
our neck very much in real life,

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but we sure see that a lot more often
on video conferencing than we do

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in real life. And you may not realize
how much skin is hanging there,

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that wasn't there five years ago.

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So that's something that we realistically
would address with some kind of

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plastic surgery,

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but there are a bunch of other
things you can do to improve

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your appearance on these video conferences
from a photography point of view.

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So Doug, how can that be done?

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The very first thing we can do is
that you're having a conversation.

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You need to have your camera at eye level.

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You need to be able to
look into the camera.

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And oftentimes with the laptops, the,

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the video camera can be at the hinge can
be low and looking up your nose instead

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of having a conversation, you
have this very distorted view.

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If you have it too high,

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it's more like a selfie pose where
you're trying to thin out your face,

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but it's not a conversation.

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So the very first advice is to get the
camera at the height of your eyes and

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to frame the your view so
that you're not too too close,

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but that you have a
nice portrait view. And,

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and typically that's the upper
chest and you frame yourself that

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way. And then there are things, you know,

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that you can do with the lighting
that can make a big difference.

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So adding some soft
light behind your screen,

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that's slightly above the screen and
behind it will soften your features.

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And then the last bit for
sort of composing the scene

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is, you know, thinking about what's
behind you and do you have a neutral wall?

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Do you have a few things to
for on the wall? That's okay,

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but if it's cluttered, it's
probably not. Okay. And, you know,

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so these are all the things that we can
think about as we sort of set the scene.

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And the color of your background is
important both in clinical photography,

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but it's also important in
your video conferencing,

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because if it's too
distracting or too harsh,

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that can actually change the color
balance of your video camera.

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So you want to have that neutral
backdrop. So you are the point of focus.

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And are there technical things
that the video conferencing

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platforms provide that can
help us modify our appearance?

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Similar to what I described for Snapchat,

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has this filtered into Zoom and
Microsoft Teams and some of the

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other video conferencing?

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Absolutely. So the filters are
there. And you know, I typically

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don't personally like the
synthetic backgrounds because you,

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when people move you can see
the sort of the breakthrough,

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but what I think does work
quite well is to use the blur,

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where they are actually
blurring the background.

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And then it's your actual
background with just softened again,

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allowing you to sort of
stand out in front of it.

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And that looks much I think
more professional and tends
to handle the artifacts

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better. And then of course the last thing,

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if you're so inclined is
you can use a filter on your

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face as well and soften the features.
And usually if you go to the extreme,

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it's visible to the audience,

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but if you do a moderate
amount of filtering,

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you can really soften some of those
lines and features on your face as well.

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And the last one is exposure
a little bit brighter

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and you're going to fill in those shadows
a little bit more and your skin is

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gonna look a little bit
more even. So, you know,

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a brighter image maybe a little
softer on the face on the skin tones.

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And then I personally like
the soft background behind

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you.

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These are some great tips and tricks
for our listeners and are all relatively

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easy to implement. So lastly,

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I'd like to wrap up this episode with
some final takeaways for our listeners?

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So it's important to realize the video
conferencing does not really show

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us the way we actually
look because of that close

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distance in front of the computer
and the nature of the video cameras.

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In most computers,

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we tend to flatten and widen our
facial appearance and anything

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that's coming from low,

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a low sitting camera or
a handheld cell phone,

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which is often held at or below
the jaw line definitively shows

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us at our worst. So adjusting position,

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adjusting lighting is
critical to looking our

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best in these applications,
separate from that.

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We're looking at ourselves differently
than we look in the mirror.

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And so it's natural that we feel
different about our appearance because it

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doesn't seem like us.

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I had that experience today.

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I was looking at myself on a video
call and a little feature on one of my

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eyebrows that's not on
the other side, you know,

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it's flipped from what I saw in the
mirror when I shaved this morning.

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And I'm saying like, "wait,

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am I getting that on the other side
as well?" And then I realized, no,

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it's just flipped around. So
it's natural that we have some

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discordance or mismatch about our
appearance when we look at these video

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pictures. That being said, though,

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it does say some things about how we
actually look to the outside world

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and just like tailoring our appearance,

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if we're going to a party or a
wedding or a business meeting

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is important.

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Tailoring our appearance on these video
conferences is important to put our best

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foot forward. So I will
stop with that. And Doug,

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thank you for joining us in
sharing your excellent insights

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and anything you'd add at this point?

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Well,

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I think the big one is to make sure that
you make eye contact with the camera

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and to bring your smile. It makes
a really big difference. And

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you,

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I think will spend more time looking
at your audience and less time studying

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your asymmetric eyebrows. I,

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want to thank both Dr. Bass and
Doreen for inviting me and I hope

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you'll invite me back sometime.

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Definitely. Thank you, Doug,

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for being a guest on our podcast and
sharing your insight and knowledge with us

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today,

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and thank you to all of our listeners
for joining us to hear about the reasons

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why what we see on video conferencing
is not our most flattering angle.

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I hope you found this episode as
fascinating and informative as I did.

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If you think of other exciting
developments or trends
in plastic surgery that

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you would like us to discuss
in upcoming episodes,

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please reach out via email or
Instagram. We'll see you next time.

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This is Doreen Wu, thanking you for
joining Dr. Bass, Mr. Doug Canfield,

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and me for this discussion of how you
can look your best on video conferencing

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technologies. Be sure
to tune in next time.

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And don't forget to
subscribe to our podcast,

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Thank you for joining us in this episode
of the Park Avenue Plastic Surgery

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Class podcast with Dr. Lawrence
Bass Park Avenue plastic surgeon,

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educator, and technology innovator.

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The commentary in this
podcast represents opinion.

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This podcast does not
present medical advice,

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but rather general information about
plastic surgery that does not necessarily

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relate to the specific conditions
of any individual patient.

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No doctor patient relationship
is established by listening
to or participating

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in this podcast,

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consult your physician to advise you
about your individual healthcare.

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