OBS Best Webcam Settings Guide
In this OBS manual settings guide, I'm going to teach you how to maximize your webcam's quality for free using OBS. I'll cover the only three settings you need and how to tweak them to get the best image possible.
If you don’t already have Open Broadcaster Software Studio (OBS Studio), here’s their official website. To get your improved webcam footage from OBS to Zoom, I have a guide on that here.
Before all this, you'll want to make sure your resolution and frames per second (FPS) are set to whatever settings you'll eventually stream or export to. For example, I like to use my Logitech Brio at 3840x2160 resolution (4K) and 30 FPS. My Razer Kiyo Pro is set to 1080p, 60 FPS.
In the sources section, first double click your camera.
Set your resolution and FPS. Then click configure video.
Let's get into the Big 3 settings. Exposure, White Balance, and Gain.
Exposure
The first setting to adjust is exposure. Exposure is the amount of time the webcam lets light in before producing an image. In “real camera” jargon, this is shutter speed.
The goal is to set the exposure so it lets in enough light to keep the image bright, but not so much that there is too much motion blur or drops in the frame rate. Here is a quick explanation of how exposure works:
In traditional DSLR and mirrorless cameras, there is an opening that lets in light is called the aperture. There is a shutter in front of it that opens and closes to let in light whenever you take a picture. A slow shutter speed (high exposure) lets in more light and a fast shutter speed (low exposure) lets in less.
The shutter speed (1/100) means the camera will open the shutter to let in light for 1/100th of a second before closing.
Shutter closed on a traditional DSLR.
When taking video, how much light is taken in is all done digitally. So all you have to remember is: increasing the exposure lets in more light, while decreasing it lets in less.
When the exposure is too low (fast shutter speed), the image will be too dark. When the exposure is too high (slow shutter speed) you get three problems:
First is motion blur. Since the webcam is taking in light for so long, any movement will have a ghosting effect.
Motion blur from exposure being too high.
Secondly, you will see a drop in the frame rate and there will be a delay between the time you move and the time you see movement on screen. This is again because the webcam is waiting so long to take in light that it can’t keep up with 60 FPS.
The third problem with having the exposure too high is bright colors like whites will look blown out as if they’re glowing. This is what most people are referring to when they say a shot is “over-exposed”.
Over-exposed.
Proper exposure.
Some webcams have custom settings menus such as this.
To fix these issues, first turn off any auto exposure settings. This gives you more precise control and it stops the camera from changing up the brightness of your image without your permission. Whether the tick box says “auto exposure”, or a gimmick like “RightLight”, it doesn’t matter. Turn that mess off.
Then, move the slider to where the frame rate has no stutter but the image is still bright enough. For example, on my Brio, -5 is usually a good number for my two light setup unless there's a lot of light coming in from the window. The lighting conditions vary so every time I start up OBS, I tweak the settings based on the current light. If you can't get a setting that's bright enough without frame rate drops, the issue is the lighting, not the webcam or settings. I've linked my 5 lighting/post processing tips to help you solve that problem.
White Balance
Setting #2 to fix is white balance. This determines if the white in your image appears more blue or more red. The value is measured in the Kelvin scale. The higher you set the value, the “warmer” the color temperature, and the lower the value the “cooler” the image will look.
Again, turn off auto white balance. If you are recording with any daylight, as the sun’s position changes in the sky, so does its color temperature. This will cause your auto white balance settings to spaz out and your colors will be all over the place. Aside from just being annoying on stream, it makes for a massive headache trying to color correct to get a consistent looking shot while video editing. Adjust the slider to where your skin tone looks as close to how it looks in real life as possible. You can purposely offset this to give your shot a different feel as well.
Too warm.
Too cool.
Just right (for me).
Gain
Setting #3 is gain. Also known as ISO, gain is how sensitive your camera is to light. The higher the gain, the brighter your image looks, but also the grainer it looks. Turn off auto gain if you have a setting for it (turning off auto exposure usually turns off auto gain as well).
Keep this as low as possible without the image being too dark to reduce artifacting and noise. That’s that staticy effect.
The specific value you’ll be aiming for will vary by camera, but try to keep this under 50 if possible. Most of the lighting legwork should be done by the exposure setting first. This is different than brightness - a completely artifical way of adding light - which I tend to leave alone. Easy, done.
Too dark, not enough gain.
Too much gain.
Bright and minimal grain, perfect.
The webcams I demonstrated in this guide are the Logitech C920 and the Logitech Brio (my reviews). Combine these settings with my lighting tips to boost your webcam quality even further.
A few webcams have their settings shuffled around a bit compared to my tips above. Specifically, the Elgato Facecam’s gain is actually controlled by the brightness slider. Here’s a full guide for that device. Also the AVerMedia PW513 on “auto” has both the gain and exposure controlled by the brightness slider.
Summary
Here’s how to choose the best settings for your webcam:
1. Set your resolution and frame rate to the highest your PC can handle.
2. Adjust the exposure so your image is bright without dropping frames.
3. Set your white balance based on your light color temperature.
4. Decrease the gain as low as possible to avoid graininess.
