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by Chris Woodford . Last updated: January 14, 2022.

E ver wanted to run your own TV station? A webcam lets you do just that. With one of these tiny, bug-eyed cameras hooked up to your computer , you can broadcast pictures of yourself or your home to the entire world! A webcam is a bit like a digital camera and works much the same way. But unlike a digital camera, it's designed to make relatively compact digital photos that are easy to upload onto Web pages or send across the Internet . It all sounds simple enough, but how do webcams actually work? Let's take a closer look!

Photo: This Microsoft LifeCam VX-1000 webcam can stand on a table or clip to the screen of a laptop. It has a built-in microphone and a long USB cable carries both picture and sound to your computer. Some laptops and netbooks have built-in webcams. That sounds like a good idea in theory but, again, it limits you to showing pictures of what is directly in front of the computer. Other popular cams are made by Logitech, Creative, Hue, and TeckNet.

How does a webcam work?

How does an image sensor chip work.

Here's a closeup:

Webcams versus digital cameras

So the image sensor is the "electronic eye" of a webcam or a digital camera. It's a semiconductor chip made of millions of tiny, light-sensitive squares arranged in a grid pattern. These squares are called pixels . Basic webcams use relatively small sensors with just a few hundred thousand pixels (typically a grid of 640 × 480. Good digital cameras use sensors with many more pixels; that's why cameras are compared by how many megapixels (millions of pixels) they have. A basic webcam has about 0.3 megapixels (300,000, in other words), while a digital camera with 6 megapixels has over 20 times more—probably arranged in a rectangle with three thousand across and two thousand down (3000 x 2000 = 6 million). A better camera rated at 12 megapixels would have a 4000 x 3000 pixel sensor. Take a photo the same size with those two cameras and the 12 megapixel one is going to give you 1000 more dots horizontally and 1000 more vertically—smaller dots giving more detail and higher resolution . A single pixel in a really good sensor is something like 10 micrometers (10μm) in diameter (5–10 times smaller than the diameter of a typical human hair)!

How does an image sensor convert a picture into digital form?

When you take a digital photo or stare into your webcam, light zooms into the lens. This incoming "picture" hits the image sensor, which breaks it up into individual pixels that are converted into numeric form. CCDs and CMOS chips, the two kinds of image sensor, do this job in slightly different ways. Both initially convert incoming light rays into electricity, much like photoelectric cells (used in things like "magic eye" intruder alarms or restroom washbasins that switch on automatically when you put your hands under the faucet). But a CCD is essentially an analog optical chip that converts light into varying electrical signals, which are then passed on to one or more other chips where they're digitized (turned into numbers). By contrast, a CMOS chip does everything in one place: it captures light rays and turns them into digital signals all on the one chip. So it's essentially a digital device where a CCD is an analog one. CMOS chips work faster and are cheaper to make in high volume than CCDs, so they're now used in most low-cost cellphone cameras and webcams. But CCDs are still widely used in some applications, such as low-light astronomy. Whether images are being generated by a CMOS sensor or a CCD and other circuitry, the basic process is the same: an incoming image is converted into an outgoing pattern of digital pixels. Let's just refer to "the image sensor" from now on (and forget about whether it's a CCD and other chips or a CMOS sensor). First, the image sensor measures how much light is arriving at each pixel. This information is turned into a number that can be stored on a memory chip inside the camera. Thus, taking a digital photograph converts the picture you see into a very long string of numbers. Each number describes one pixel in the image—how bright or dark and what color it is.

Step by step

• Light from the object (in this case, a bicycle) enters the camera lens.
• The image sensor inside the camera splits the image up into millions of pixels (squares). An LCD display on the back of the camera shows you the image that the sensor is capturing—not an image of the object seen through a series of lenses (as with a conventional camera), but a redrawn, computerized version of the original object displayed on a screen.
• The sensor measures the color and brightness of each pixel.
• The color and brightness are stored as binary numbers (patterns of zeros and ones) in the camera's memory card. When you connect your camera to a computer, these numbers are transmitted instantly down the wire.

Who invented image sensors?

Photo: Albert Einstein—ultimate father of the webcam? Photo courtesy of US Library of Congress .

Comparing webcams

Striking a balance, what can you do with a webcam.

Most of us have smartphones with built-in cameras, and easy-to-use video chat apps like Zoom and FaceTime (or WhatsApp and Snapchat if you prefer), so why on Earth would you want a separate webcam? Some people still prefer to do things the old fashioned way. With a smartphone, all you can really do is speak and chat; with a webcam, running on a desktop computer, you can also type, exchange files, share your desktop, and other things that may be tricky on a mobile. So there's still very much a place for old-style webcams in the age of Android smartphones and iPhones. Webcams are also handy if you want to publish a frequently updated still image of a particular place for others to view on the Internet. For example, a zoo might publish live pictures from its zebra or giraffe house. Webcams are relatively inexpensive—much cheaper than smartphones—so you're going to care much less if they're damaged or stolen. The third reason is for security. Maybe you want to monitor your home while you're on vacation, check your dog is fed and watered, or keep an eye on a sick or elderly relative. Webcams let you do all these things. Wireless cams, connected to your home router, can be especially discreet and convenient. And one final reason: a webcam, connected by a cable or wireless, can show you things a smartcam can't. Want to cut your own hair? An easy way to see round the back is to place a webcam behind you and watch the screen as you chop. You can't really do that with a phone, where the screen and the camera are built into a single unit.

To chat to someone online, you both need a device with a webcam (or a smartphone with a built-in cam) and you both need to be running the same video chat program on your computer or mobile. Skype , the best known chat program, runs on pretty much any type of computer or mobile device (though it no longer runs on older machines with operating systems like Windows XP or old versions of Linux ). FaceTime works only on Apple (iOS) devices. And Google Hangouts runs on desktop machines, Apple (iOS) devices, and Android mobiles.

Video chat programs work just like still webcams—only they're uploading photos constantly. Suppose I am video chatting with you. My camera captures a picture of me, turns it into digital format, and sends it my computer. The chat program on my machine "streams" the image information across the Internet to your computer. The chat program on your machine receives the image information and converts it back into a picture, which it displays on your screen. Meanwhile, your camera is doing exactly the same thing with a picture of you and sending it in the opposite direction. This two-way process happens constantly, so each of us gets a constantly updated picture of the other. To speed things up, video chat programs like Skype make a direct connection between your machine and mine, bypassing centralized servers. This very efficient way of using the Net is called (VOIP) Voice Over Internet Protocol and is an example of what's known as P2P (peer-to-peer) networking. .

Webcam stills

Suppose you want to broadcast images of your garden on a website and update them at regular intervals. You can do that with a webcam. You simply point the cam at your garden, hook it up to your computer, and install a special piece of software . The software captures an image from the cam every five minutes (or at some preset interval) and copies it onto your website using a simple process called FTP (file-transfer protocol) . Every time a new image is uploaded, it replaces the previous one on your website. When people look at your site, they see the latest image that your cam has uploaded. Most people design their cam pages so they do what's called a "meta refresh" (automatically reload) every few minutes. That ensures they're always showing the latest image.

Photo: Live feeds from the International Space Station are among the many (out-of-this-world) wonders you can watch thanks to webcams!

Here are some examples of webcams that work this way:

• Explore.org Livecams : A great section of live animal and nature cams.
• Skyline : From the Trevi Fountain in Rome to the skyline of New York City, this site offers live views of tourist "honeypot" sites from around the world.
• Surfcams in Australia : There's great live daytime footage of surf spots here.
• Panda cam : Watch a live feed of Yang Guang the panda from Edinburgh Zoo in Scotland.
• YouTube Live : Probably the biggest selection of live cams online (though it also includes TV "broadcasts" and other live streams).
• International Space Station : Watch space walks, experiments, and other live stuff from space.

Monitoring your home

Photo: Do my plants need watering? If you have an old smartphone or tablet you no longer use, it's easy to set it up as a Wi-Fi-connected security camera you can monitor remotely. There are quite a few apps that will help you do this (search your favorite app store for "home security monitor").

Can I use my digital camera as a webcam?

If you liked this article..., find out more, on this website.

• Analog versus digital technology
• Digital cameras
• Photography : Our introductory article to old-style film photography.
• Light : The science of light—a form of electromagnetic energy.
• VOIP (includes how Skype works)
• Moving Images: From Edison to the Webcam by John Fullerton, Astrid Söderbergh Widding (eds). Indiana University Press, 2000. A series of cultural and technological essays that put webcams in their wider historical context.
• How to Do Everything with Online Video by Andrew Shalat. McGraw-Hill Professional, 2007. Covers all aspects of online video, including how to record, upload, and share videos on your website.
• Handbook of CCD astronomy by Steve B. Howell. Cambridge University Press, 2006. As the title suggests, this book is mainly about using CCDs for making images of space, but the first half of it (about 100 pages or so) is all about CCDs generally (the different types, the quantum physics of how they work, and so on), so it's worth a look if you're interested in CCDs for other reasons.
• Why is everyone covering up their laptop cameras? by Julie Lasky. The New York Times. March 25, 2020. Some top tips for looking your best online.
• Mark Zuckerberg tapes over his webcam. Should you? by Alex Hern. The Guardian. June 22, 2016. Security experts seem to agree with the Facebook supremo that covering your cam is a good idea (when you're not using it).
• Why is everyone covering up their laptop cameras? by Danny Yadron. The Guardian. June 6, 2016. Fears of covert surveillance prompt many people to stick tape over their cameras, but are they just being paranoid?
• Software turns webcams into eye-trackers by Brown University. EurekAlert! June 1, 2016. Eyetracking studies are an essentially part of usability testing; now you can do them with a simple webcam and a bit of JavaScript code.
• Webcams See All (Tortoise, Watch Your Back) by Quentin Hardy. The New York Times. January 7, 2014. People worry about CCTV and surveillance, but apparently not about webcams.
• Intimacy on the Web, With a Crowd by Matt Richtel. The New York Times. September 21, 2013. Explores the webcam modeling industry—and the people who earn a living through it.
• Teleconferencing on the Cheap by David Schneider. IEEE Spectrum, June 29, 2012.
• Four IEEE Fellows Share Queen Elizabeth Prize for Digital Cameras by Samuel K. Moore. IEEE Spectrum. February 8, 2017. Inventors of the CCD and CMOS image sensor share a prestigious prize for their contributions to optics.
• Nobel Prize in Physics 2009: Masters of Light : Explains the contributions of Willard Boyle, George Smith, and Charles Kao to our modern digital world. Includes a copy of a page from Boyle and Smith's lab notebook where they talk about their discovery of the "charge bubble device" (as it was originally called).
• CCD versus CMOS : A good, clear explanation of the key differences between CMOS and CCD image sensors from a leading manufacturer.
• Convert a Webcam to work outdoors in bright light : A simple Instructable showing how to dismantle a webcam and make a new aperture to reduce the light falling on the lens.
• How to Use Your Camcorder as a Webcam : Another Instructable, this one shows how to send pictures from a camcorder to your computer's webcam software.
• Why Do Birds Fly in a V-formation? : A very clever but relatively simple science-fair project from Science Buddies in which you measure the drag on model birds using a webcam.
• DIY Street-View Camera by Roy D. Ragsdale. IEEE Spectrum, October 4, 2009. You can make your own Google Streetview-type images—and here's how.

Text copyright © Chris Woodford 2007, 2018. All rights reserved. Full copyright notice and terms of use .

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The Camera-On/Camera-Off Dilemma

A new study offers some guidance for striking a balance between class cohesion and privacy. Plus, strategies from teachers to encourage camera use in context.

When the Cornell professors Frank Castelli and Mark Sarvary switched from in-person to remote teaching last spring, they established an “optional, but encouraged” policy for video cameras. Concerned about equity issues, they didn’t want their students to feel uncomfortable if they lacked access to a private space or were embarrassed by their home environment, for example.

“The Covid‐19 pandemic has already increased college student anxiety and depression, and a mandate for camera use may add to that trauma,” they reasoned in a new study . But by the end of the year, the duo realized that they might have struck the wrong balance. Faced with a sea of blank screens, they often wondered whether they were talking to themselves. How were their off-screen students reacting to challenging material? 

While the professors wanted to respect student privacy, the lack of ambient feedback when the Zoom camera was off put a real damper on learning. “Instructors benefit from receiving nonverbal cues from their students such as smiles, frowns, head nods, looks of confusion, and looks of boredom, so that they can evaluate their teaching in real time and adjust accordingly to improve student learning,” Castelli and Sarvary write—emphasizing the value that comes from being able to read students’ faces . 

Students, too, benefit from being able to see each other onscreen. In the study, a majority indicated that “using videoconferencing helped build trust and rapport with other students and helped them to develop a sense of identification with others in their group.” The social context of living classrooms—the often-invisible human connection that reinforces learning—was missing for students, who insisted “that being able to hear and see each other in real time helped construct a ‘more complete picture’ of their peers.” 

If both sides of the educational equation were losing out, then a middle ground needed to be found, the professors thought—one that respects the rights of students but supports the social dynamics of learning, at least in some situations. 

To refine their strategies around camera use, Castelli and Sarvary surveyed hundreds of students to identify their main privacy concerns. The students, it turns out, weren’t staying off-camera for the anticipated reasons. Forty-one percent of students said they turned their cameras off because they were “concerned about [their] appearance”: They had messy hair, were wearing pajamas, or hadn’t yet showered, the study reported. Relatedly, 17 percent of students felt that everyone was watching them, creating a sensation of unbearable self-consciousness.

Equity-related issues also cropped up. Underrepresented minorities were twice as likely to be concerned about their homes being visible and were 12 percentage points more likely to cite a weak internet connection—perhaps a reflection of how the pandemic can exacerbate the digital divide.

QUICKLY ESTABLISH A NORM

Being proactive about cameras early on can be an easy first step to establishing the norm—more so than during the school year, if a camera-off culture has set in.

That’s because virtual classrooms—and the expectations that follow—may be new to most students. In the study, one in 10 students didn’t turn their camera on simply because they felt that was the norm. “If you don’t explicitly ask for the cameras and explain why, that can lead to a social norm where the camera is always off,” Castelli and Sarvary warn. It can quickly become “a spiral of everyone keeping it off, even though many students want it on.”

To counter this, Castelli and Sarvary recommend including the camera policy in the class syllabus and explicitly encouraging camera use on the first day of class. A camera-on norm can also help address the main reason why students turned their cameras off: concerns about their personal appearance. If students anticipate being seen on camera, they’ll be more likely to brush their hair and dress appropriately. 

TEACHER-TESTED STRATEGIES TO ENCOURAGE CAMERA USE

Addressing norms doesn’t mean that students will turn the camera on daily—you’ll still need to make accommodations for students, and you’ll need to encourage camera use contextually.

For Liz Byron Loya, a visual arts teacher in Boston, encouraging students to turn their cameras on has its roots in building a positive community, not in expecting compliance from students. 

“Focus on trust, both teacher to student and student to student,” writes Byron Loya. “Students who know they are safe and cared for by their community will be more comfortable having their cameras on.” 

Icebreakers and games—Pictionary and charades come to mind—can help ease students into turning their cameras on, especially if they feel that the focus is less on them and more on the activity.

Byron Loya also offers specific tips for encouraging students to turn their cameras on:

• Survey students to identify barriers preventing them from participating.
• Remind students that they can use a virtual background if they don’t want to show what’s happening behind them.
• Encourage students who have social capital to use their cameras.
• Enable the waiting room and greet students one by one as they enter your virtual class.
• Use Zoom’s “Ask to Start Video” feature to invite students to turn their cameras on.
• For students who are reluctant about giving a live presentation, provide an option to submit a prerecorded video.

For students who request to keep their cameras off, high school teacher Katie Seltzer holds camera-optional Socratic seminars. “Students in the outer circle, who typically would be evaluating the participation of their peers in the inner circle, used the chat feature to echo powerful comments they heard and ask questions of the inner-circle group,” writes Seltzer. There’s no stigma associated with having their cameras turned off, since the activity allows them to fully participate in a way that mirrors the activity in traditional in-person classrooms.

Alex Shevrin Venet, a community college teacher and former school leader at an alternative high school in Vermont, believes that the key to encouraging students to turn their cameras on starts with the teacher. Model mistakes and try to be authentic, she suggests, and let students know that it’s OK to be themselves on video.

“Don’t worry about sounding rehearsed or making your space look Instagram-perfect,” writes  Venet. “Embrace the fun and silly moments when pets and family members make guest appearances. Create an environment where students recognize that turning cameras on means laughter, making silly faces at friends, and being seen for who they are.”

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What is WebCam?

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A webcam is a video camera that is connected to a computer or other device, typically via a USB port, and is used to capture and transmit video over the internet. Webcams are commonly used for videoconferencing, live streaming, and other applications that require real-time video communication. Webcams can be built into laptops and desktop computers, or they can be separate devices that can be attached to a computer or other device. Some webcams also have built-in microphones, which can be used to capture audio along with video. Webcams typically have a small form factor and are designed to be portable, making them convenient for use in a variety of settings. Many webcams also have adjustable focus and other features that allow users to customize the video capture to their needs. Webcams are a useful tool for enabling real-time video communication and are widely used for a variety of applications, including videoconferencing, online education, and live streaming.

History of Webcams:

The concept of the webcam can be traced back to the early days of the internet when researchers at the University of Cambridge in the UK developed a system called the Trojan Room Coffee Pot, which used a webcam to allow people to check the status of the coffee pot remotely. This was one of the earliest examples of a webcam being used for real-time video communication.

• Webcams became more widely available in the late 1990s when they were introduced as a component of many laptops and desktop computers. These early webcams were often low-resolution and had limited functionality, but they paved the way for the development of more advanced webcams in the 2000s.
• In the early 2000s, webcams became more widely used for videoconferencing and other applications that required real-time video communication. This trend was fueled in part by the growth of broadband internet, which made it possible to transmit high-quality video in real time.
• Since then, webcams have continued to evolve and improve in terms of their resolution, functionality, and convenience. Today, webcams are widely used for a variety of applications, including videoconferencing, online education, live streaming, and security.

Purpose of the webcam:

The primary purpose of a webcam is to capture and transmit video in real time over the internet. Webcams are commonly used for videoconferencing, live streaming, and other applications that require real-time video communication.

• Webcams can be built into laptops and desktop computers, or they can be separate devices that can be attached to a computer or other device. Some webcams also have built-in microphones, which can be used to capture audio along with video.
• Webcams are widely used in a variety of settings, including business, education, and entertainment. They allow people to communicate with each other remotely through video and audio, which can be useful for remote team collaboration, online education, and other applications where face-to-face communication is desired.
• The purpose of a webcam is to enable real-time video communication and to facilitate the exchange of information and ideas through video and audio.

Use a Webcam:

Using a webcam is typically a straightforward process, but there are a few steps you will need to follow:

• Install the webcam: If you are using a standalone webcam, you will need to install it on your computer or another device by connecting it to a USB port. If you are using a built-in webcam, you do not need to install it.
• Install any necessary drivers: Some webcams may require drivers (software that enables the webcam to work with your computer or device) to be installed in order to function properly. If you are using a standalone webcam, you may need to install the drivers from the manufacturer’s website or from a CD that comes with the webcam.
• Set up the webcam: Once the webcam is installed and the drivers are installed, you may need to set up the webcam by adjusting the settings or configuring it to work with your computer or device. This may involve selecting the webcam as the default input device in your operating system’s an audio and video settings.
• Use the webcam: Once the webcam is set up, you can use it to capture and transmit video by launching a webcam application or using it with a videoconferencing platform or other video communication software.

Using a webcam is typically a simple process that involves installing the webcam, installing any necessary drivers, and setting up the webcam to work with your computer or device. Once the webcam is set up, you can use it to capture and transmit video for a variety of applications.

Working of Webcam:

Webcams work by capturing video and audio through a camera and microphone and transmitting it over the internet in real time. When a webcam is turned on, it captures video and audio from the environment and converts it into digital data. This data is then transmitted over the internet to a recipient, who can view and hear the video and audio in real time.

• Webcams typically use a USB connection to connect to a computer or other device, although some wireless webcams are also available. Once the webcam is connected and turned on, it can be used to capture and transmit video and audio by launching a webcam application or using it with a videoconferencing platform or other video communication software.
• Webcams work by capturing and transmitting video and audio in real-time over the internet, allowing people to communicate with each other remotely through video and audio.

Types of Webcams:

There are several types of webcams that are commonly used, including:

• Built-in webcams: Many laptops and desktop computers come with built-in webcams, which are integrated into the design of the device. These types of webcams are convenient because they do not require any additional setup or installation, but they may have limited functionality compared to standalone webcams.
• Standalone webcams: Standalone webcams are separate devices that can be connected to a computer or other device via a USB port. These types of webcams are more flexible than built-in webcams and may offer more advanced features, such as higher resolution, adjustable focus, and built-in microphones.
• Wireless webcams: Some webcams are wireless, which means they do not need to be connected to a computer or other device via a physical connection. Instead, they transmit video wirelessly over a network connection.
• High-definition webcams: High-definition (HD) webcams offer higher-resolution video compared to standard webcams, which can improve the quality of video transmission.

Overall, the choice of webcam depends on the specific needs and preferences of the user, such as the intended use of the webcam, the desired resolution and functionality, and the available budget.

Webcam Privacy:

Webcams have the potential to raise privacy concerns, as they can be used to capture and transmit video and audio in real time. In order to protect your privacy while using a webcam, it is important to take some basic precautions, such as:

• Use a webcam cover: A webcam cover is a simple physical barrier that can be placed over the webcam when it is not in use. This can help prevent unauthorized access to the webcam.
• Use a virtual private network (VPN): A VPN encrypts your internet connection and can help protect your privacy by making it more difficult for third parties to monitor your online activity.
• Be aware of your surroundings: Be mindful of what is in the background of your webcam video, as it may reveal personal information or sensitive material.
• Use a password: If you are using a webcam for videoconferencing or other applications that require login credentials, be sure to use a strong password to protect your account.
• Use the webcam’s privacy settings: Many webcams have built-in privacy settings that allow you to control access to the webcam. Be sure to familiarize yourself with these settings and use them to your advantage.

By taking these precautions, you can help protect your privacy while using a webcam.

Applications of Webcams:

Webcams are widely used for a variety of applications, including:

• Videoconferencing: Webcams are commonly used for videoconferencing, which allows people to communicate with each other remotely through video and audio. This can be useful for business meetings, remote team collaboration, and other applications where face-to-face communication is desired.
• Online education: Webcams are used in online education to allow students to attend classes and lectures remotely. This can be useful for students who are unable to physically attend classes due to distance, schedule conflicts, or other reasons.
• Live to stream: Webcams are used to capture and transmit video in real time for live streaming applications, such as live concerts, sporting events, or other types of performances.
• Security: Webcams can be used for security purposes, such as monitoring a home or office remotely or providing a live feed of a public area.
• Social media: Webcams are commonly used to capture and transmit video for social media platforms, such as YouTube or Twitch, which allow users to share their video content with a larger audience.

Overall, webcams are a useful tool for enabling real-time video communication and are widely used for a variety of applications.

Limitations of Webcams:

Webcams have some limitations that should be considered when deciding whether to use them for a particular application. Some of the main limitations of webcams include:

• Quality: Webcams can vary in terms of the quality of the video and audio they capture, and some webcams may produce lower-quality video compared to other types of cameras.
• Internet connection: Webcams rely on a stable internet connection to transmit video and audio in real-time, so if the internet connection is slow or unstable, the video and audio transmission may be disrupted.
• Privacy: Webcams have the potential to raise privacy concerns, as they can be used to capture and transmit video and audio in real time. It is important to take steps to protect your privacy when using a webcam, such as using a webcam cover or a virtual private network (VPN).
• Compatibility: Webcams may not be compatible with all types of computers or devices, so it is important to ensure that the webcam is compatible with the computer or device you are using before purchasing it.

While webcams can be a useful tool for enabling real-time video communication, they have some limitations that should be considered when deciding whether to use them for a particular application.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, webcams are video cameras that are used to capture and transmit video in real time over the internet. They are commonly used for videoconferencing, live streaming, and other applications that require real-time video communication. Webcams can be built into laptops and desktop computers, or they can be separate devices that can be attached to a computer or other device. Webcams have a number of advantages, including their convenience, portability, and ability to enable real-time video communication. However, they also have some limitations, such as variations in quality, reliance on a stable internet connection, and potential privacy concerns. Overall, webcams are a useful tool for enabling real-time video communication and are widely used for a variety of applications, including videoconferencing, online education, live streaming, and security.

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What is a video essay?

First, let’s define video essay.

There is narrative film, documentary film, short films, and then there is the video essay. What is its role within the realm of visual media? Let’s begin with the video essay definition. 

VIDEO ESSAY DEFINITION

A video essay is a video that analyzes a specific topic, theme, person or thesis. Because video essays are a rather new form, they can be difficult to define, but recognizable nonetheless. To put it simply, they are essays in video form that aim to persuade, educate, or critique. 

These essays have become increasingly popular within the era of Youtube and with many creatives writing video essays on topics such as politics, music, film, and pop culture. 

What is a video essay used for?

• To persuade an audience of a thesis
• To educate on a specific subject
• To analyze and/or critique 

What is a video essay based on?

Establish a thesis.

Video analysis essays lack distinguished boundaries since there are countless topics a video essayist can tackle. Most essays, however, begin with a thesis. 

How Christopher Nolan Elevates the Movie Montage  •  Video Analysis Essays

Good essays often have a point to make. This point, or thesis, should be at the heart of every video analysis essay and is what binds the video together. 

Related Posts

• Stanley Kubrick Directing Style Explained →
• A Filmmaker’s Guide to Nolan’s Directing Style →
• How to Write a Voice Over Montage in a Script →

interviews in video essay

Utilize interviews.

A key determinant for the structure of an essay is the source of the ideas. A common source for this are interviews from experts in the field. These interviews can be cut and rearranged to support a thesis. 

Roger Deakins on "Learning to Light"  •  Video Analysis Essays

Utilizing first hand interviews is a great way to utilize ethos into the rhetoric of a video. However, it can be limiting since you are given a limited amount to work with. Voice over scripts, however, can give you the room to say anything. 

How to create the best video essays on Youtube

Write voice over scripts.

Voice over (VO) scripts allow video essayists to write out exactly what they want to say. This is one of the most common ways to structure a video analysis essay since it gives more freedom to the writer. It is also a great technique to use when taking on large topics.

In this video, it would have been difficult to explain every type of camera lens by cutting sound bites from interviews of filmmakers. A voice over script, on the other hand, allowed us to communicate information directly when and where we wanted to.

Ultimate Guide to Camera Lenses  •  Video essay examples

Some of the most famous video essayists like Every Frame a Painting and Nerdwriter1 utilize voice over to capitalize on their strength in writing video analysis essays. However, if you’re more of an editor than a writer, the next type of essay will be more up your alley. 

Video analysis essay without a script

Edit a supercut.

Rather than leaning on interview sound bites or voice over, the supercut video depends more on editing. You might be thinking “What is a video essay without writing?” The beauty of the video essay is that the writing can be done throughout the editing. Supercuts create arguments or themes visually through specific sequences. 

Another one of the great video essay channels, Screen Junkies, put together a supercut of the last decade in cinema. The video could be called a portrait of the last decade in cinema.

2010 - 2019: A Decade In Film  •  Best videos on Youtube

This video is rather general as it visually establishes the theme of art during a general time period. Other essays can be much more specific. 

Critical essays

Video essays are a uniquely effective means of creating an argument. This is especially true in critical essays. This type of video critiques the facets of a specific topic. 

In this video, by one of the best video essay channels, Every Frame a Painting, the topic of the film score is analyzed and critiqued — specifically temp film score.

Every Frame a Painting Marvel Symphonic Universe  •  Essay examples

Of course, not all essays critique the work of artists. Persuasion of an opinion is only one way to use the video form. Another popular use is to educate. 

• The Different Types of Camera Lenses →
• Write and Create Professionally Formatted Screenplays →
• How to Create Unforgettable Film Moments with Music →

Video analysis essay

Visual analysis.

One of the biggest advantages that video analysis essays have over traditional, written essays is the use of visuals. The use of visuals has allowed video essayists to display the subject or work that they are analyzing. It has also allowed them to be more specific with what they are analyzing. Writing video essays entails structuring both words and visuals. 

Take this video on There Will Be Blood for example. In a traditional, written essay, the writer would have had to first explain what occurs in the film then make their analysis and repeat.

This can be extremely inefficient and redundant. By analyzing the scene through a video, the points and lessons are much more clear and efficient. 

There Will Be Blood  •   Subscribe on YouTube

Through these video analysis essays, the scene of a film becomes support for a claim rather than the topic of the essay. 

Dissect an artist

Essays that focus on analysis do not always focus on a work of art. Oftentimes, they focus on the artist themself. In this type of essay, a thesis is typically made about an artist’s style or approach. The work of that artist is then used to support this thesis.

Nerdwriter1, one of the best video essays on Youtube, creates this type to analyze filmmakers, actors, photographers or in this case, iconic painters. 

Caravaggio: Master Of Light  •  Best video essays on YouTube

In the world of film, the artist video analysis essay tends to cover auteur filmmakers. Auteur filmmakers tend to have distinct styles and repetitive techniques that many filmmakers learn from and use in their own work. 

Stanley Kubrick is perhaps the most notable example. In this video, we analyze Kubrick’s best films and the techniques he uses that make so many of us drawn to his films. 

Why We're Obsessed with Stanley Kubrick Movies  •  Video essay examples

Critical essays and analytical essays choose to focus on a piece of work or an artist. Essays that aim to educate, however, draw on various sources to teach technique and the purpose behind those techniques. 

What is a video essay written about?

Historical analysis.

Another popular type of essay is historical analysis. Video analysis essays are a great medium to analyze the history of a specific topic. They are an opportunity for essayists to share their research as well as their opinion on history. 

Our video on aspect ratio , for example, analyzes how aspect ratios began in cinema and how they continue to evolve. We also make and support the claim that the 2:1 aspect ratio is becoming increasingly popular among filmmakers. 

Why More Directors are Switching to 18:9  •  Video analysis essay

Analyzing the work of great artists inherently yields a lesson to be learned. Some essays teach more directly.

• Types of Camera Movements in Film Explained →
• What is Aspect Ratio? A Formula for Framing Success →
• Visualize your scenes with intuitive online shotlist software →

Writing video essays about technique

Teach technique.

Educational essays designed to teach are typically more direct. They tend to be more valuable for those looking to create art rather than solely analyze it.

In this video, we explain every type of camera movement and the storytelling value of each. Educational essays must be based on research, evidence, and facts rather than opinion.

Ultimate Guide to Camera Movement  •  Best video essays on YouTube

As you can see, there are many reasons why the video essay has become an increasingly popular means of communicating information. Its ability to use both sound and picture makes it efficient and effective. It also draws on the language of filmmaking to express ideas through editing. But it also gives writers the creative freedom they love. 

Writing video essays is a new art form that many channels have set high standards for. What is a video essay supposed to be about? That’s up to you. 

Organize Post Production Workflow

The quality of an essay largely depends on the quality of the edit. If editing is not your strong suit, check out our next article. We dive into tips and techniques that will help you organize your Post-Production workflow to edit like a pro. 

Up Next: Post Production →

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Pros and cons of keeping your camera on during distance learning

By Cate Meister

As distance learning continues, students face a crucial question: will they choose to leave their cameras on in live meetings? 

At first, it seems that using the video function of online meeting platforms is the more obvious choice.  However, by now students have quickly learned that there are setbacks to having their cameras on and not everyone may feel the same way about camera use.

Here are some positives reasons to keeping your camera on during class:

It helps build a sense of community within the “classroom.” 

In a school where the average grade-level size is 900 students, you often will not know the majority of your classmates at the beginning of the year. Students usually get to know their classmates as the year progresses by interacting with each other in class. With distance learning, however, building a sense of community within the class is difficult, especially when students see a grid of blank squares instead of the faces of their classmates. 

“I really miss the relationships with the students,” math teacher Jane Springer said. “I think the more students [who] can leave their cameras on, the better, as it helps form those relationships. It’s hard to form a relationship with a black screen.”

When other people can see what you are doing in class, it forces you to focus.

Having their cameras on compels students to reflect on the image that they are presenting. Chances are, students will want to present the best version of themselves.

While this could mean brushing their hair and getting out of bed for many students, it could also mean putting their phones away, actively note-taking, following teachers’ instructions and minimizing their distractions because they know that other people can see them. 

“I feel [keeping my camera on] just gives me some sort of accountability when I’m in class, that way I’m not on my phone or distracted,” junior Jovana Hester said.

It sends a message that you are engaged in class.

With your camera on, teachers can see exactly what you are doing in class.  If you aren’t paying attention, this could be problematic. However, if you are paying attention, teachers will know and you’ve got nothing to worry about.

It’s also easier to respond to teachers with a quick nod is than typing into the chat or unmuting. You’ll also stand out in classes where most students do not have their camera on.

Camera use allows teachers to better gauge the needs of their classes.

Much of our communication is done through body gestures and facial expressions. Teachers rely on physical reactions to get a sense of how students feel about their class. 

For example, a classroom of students slumped in their chairs with expressionless faces might prompt a teacher to make their lesson more exciting. 

And even when students might be agreeing that, they think this is an appropriate amount of homework, their facial expressions may say otherwise. When a teacher cannot see their students’ faces, a valuable source of communication and feedback is lost.

On the other hand, students may experience some unpleasant effects when they keep their video on during class:

It can be intimidating when no one else is showing their face.

Although it may sound trivial, highschoolers are much more likely to do something when they know that their peers are too. Being the only student with their face displayed on a video conference can feel uncomfortable. This unintentional form of peer pressure is subtle but maintains influence over high schoolers.

“If the majority of students have their video on, I turn mine on as well,” Haroun said. “In classes where teachers don’t ask students to turn their cameras on, [almost] all students, including [me], keep their videos off.” 

Participation might be uncomfortable when students are being watched.

There is an undeniable self-consciousness that comes along with keeping your camera on. Many students may find that for them, the chat function of different video conference platforms is a good alternative to turning their camera on, unmuting and speaking in front of the class. The chat also provides a good tool for students who usually wouldn’t participate in person because they feel uncomfortable speaking in front of others.

Camera use is impacted by varying living situations and distractions.

A student with only one other person in their home is going to have a much different learning environment compared to a student with five other people in their home. Students with hectic households might feel like they are disrupting others when they have their cameras on. 

“There are reasons at times students might not want their cameras on. Maybe it’s something going on in the background with family they don’t want everyone to see, maybe they didn’t get to clean their room or woke up late,” Springer said.

Furthermore, students who have parents, siblings or other relatives all working from the same place may have less internet capacity and bandwidth.  

“If it does get to a point where I have to constantly keep turning [my camera] on because of connectivity, I’m just not going to turn it on,” Hester said.  

Regardless of camera preferences, it is clear that online learning poses new challenges for both students and teachers. Everyone has been forced to adapt to the unique demands of virtual schooling. Mutual communication and understanding between students and teachers will remain vital for successful distance learning.

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5 reasons to let students keep their cameras off during Zoom classes

MD/PhD Candidate, Wayne State University

Disclosure statement

Tabitha Moses does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Wayne State University provides funding as a member of The Conversation US.

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As the 2020-21 school year gets underway – both at the K-12 and college level – many students find themselves attending online classes via Zoom or similar teleconferencing platforms.

Although sticking with remote instruction may be the correct decision from the standpoint of public health , it is not without problems .

As a researcher who studies behavior and the brain , I have found the evidence suggests that online instruction can pose a range of challenges for students if they are required to keep their cameras on during class. Here are five reasons why I believe students should be allowed to keep their cameras off instead.

1. Increased anxiety and stress

Online, students are often expected by their teachers to look at the screen for the entire class and stay focused on the video feeds of their classmates. This can result in feelings of prolonged eye contact, which can feel threatening and uncomfortable . Feeling as though everyone is watching can be distracting as students focus on how they may appear to others.

This discomfort is enhanced by the fact that the faces on the screen are often large and appear very close. This can trigger the body’s “ flight or fight ” response, leaving students feeling on edge and impairing their concentration .

2. ‘Zoom fatigue’

While “ Zoom fatigue ” may sound no different than regular fatigue, science suggests that it is different and that constant video engagement may exacerbate the problem .

Most of us learn much from nonverbal cues . The face-only format of online video still results in missing many nonverbal cues such as hand gestures, and requires people to work harder to interpret the ones they can see.

The face-only format also leads people to focus more on verbal cues, which can be tiring . When there are many faces on the screen, most people try to pay attention to all of them – a type of multitasking called continuous partial attention .

People have trouble doing this. Switching quickly between tasks can impair memory and decrease the ability to perform tasks. The multitasking required for engaging in a class with multiple active video chats is no different. These problems result in participants being less engaged and feeling drained .

3. Competing obligations

While it would be ideal for all students to sit at home in a quiet room free of distractions during online classes, this won’t always be the case. Students across all stages of education may be responsible for taking care of other family members or even their own children .

Access to child care is even more limited than usual during the pandemic. This may mean that some students multitask by caring for their kids or siblings while attending an online class. These responsibilities may be distracting for others and embarrassing to the students involved. It is worth noting that these competing obligations are not specific to students. Many teachers also have to deal with these same concerns .

4. Right to privacy

At school, students are not required to disclose details about their personal lives to their peers, but some of this privacy is lost in video-based classrooms. To turn on video means allowing others into their home.

Many of these online platforms are not secure - as evidenced by the “ Zoombombers ” who have infiltrated classes, often disrupting instruction and sharing participants’ personal information. The information provided by students could be accessed by others and the content of the video could expose the location of the student’s home and with whom they live.

This concern is about more than just discomfort at others learning personal details. For some students, exposing this information can endanger their lives or their families . For example, 1 in 15 children are exposed to intimate partner violence each year and some may be fleeing abusive situations.

Additionally, there are an estimated 3.2 million undocumented children and young adults in the U.S., and many more children who live with undocumented relatives . Online video risks exposing this information to authorities.

With the development of sophisticated facial recognition software , these concerns are amplified, especially when branches of law enforcement may have access to this technology.

5. Financial means and other kinds of access

Requiring students to use video during class makes assumptions about the ability or students or their families to pay for the requisite technology. Approximately 1 in 5 students live below the federal poverty line and lack access to the technology needed for online classes – from computers or tablets to Wi-Fi.

While some public school districts have made efforts to distribute tablets and laptops to students, there are other financial burdens that need to be considered. At the start of the pandemic, about 14% of students did not have internet access.

Although internet service providers made efforts to increase access many households may not have the bandwidth required for video streaming.

Furthermore, more than 1.5 million students attending public schools or going to college experience homelessness in a given year. Students may not want to share information about their living situation with their classmates, but a requirement to use video may force them to do so since their peers might realize what’s going on when students have to connect to class from their cars or local establishments .

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The problems listed here are not comprehensive and do not begin to address the additional concerns for students who require classroom accommodations . This discussion has also not touched on the situations that teachers face . Many educators struggle without a way to see and engage with their students regularly and have tried to use video for this purpose.

These concerns about required video in online classes are not aimed to prevent teachers connecting with students. The goal is to ensure that students feel comfortable and safe while learning online. There are many ways to engage with students through distance learning and it may take time to find a system that works best for everyone. But, based on my research, I believe that required video should not be part of it.

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The Best Webcams for Looking Brighter and Better

If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more . Please also consider subscribing to WIRED

Best for Most People Razer Kiyo X Read more

Runner-Up Logitech C920 Pro HD Read more

Best 4K Webcam Logitech Brio 4K Read more

Beautifully Built, but Pricey Dell UltraSharp Webcam Read more

Zoom is an inevitable fixture of post-pandemic life. For all I know, you're Zooming right now as you read this. It's an unverifiable fact that any time not spent on Zoom these days is time spent on Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, WebX, or Skype (don't quote me on that). The Jetsons predicted it, but it doesn't make it any easier to start a panel of disembodied heads several times a week.

You may as well look your best by using the right webcam. Even though newer Windows laptops and MacBooks have built-in webcams with 1080p resolution, you'll make a better onscreen impression if you upgrade to a standalone model. We've been testing tons of webcams over the years in search of the best. Alternatively, there are easy ways to upgrade your video quality by using your smartphone or a professional camera (if you have one) as a webcam. Be sure to check out our Best Hubs and Docks guide if you need more ports to plug a webcam in.

Updated August 2023: We've added the Logitech Brio 300, Brio 500, Obsbot Tiny 2, and Creative Labs Live! Cam Sync 4K.

Special offer for Gear readers: Get WIRED for just $5 ($25 off) . This includes unlimited access to WIRED.com , full Gear coverage, and subscriber-only newsletters. Subscriptions help fund the work we do every day.

Best for Most People

The Kiyo X does away with the integrated ring light of the original Kiyo, but its automatic white balance and color saturation are so good, you likely won't miss it. The original Kiyo's forward-facing ring light—like all forward-facing lights—can throw harsh shadows on the person being filmed, especially without a diffuser.

Given the choice between an integrated ring light and the Kiyo X's software, I'd take the software. Video picture settings can be tweaked in the Razer Synapse app, but unlike the more expensive Kiyo Pro that requires Synapse-tweaking to look good, the Kiyo X looks great out of the box. The Kiyo X autofocuses quickly, and when it has to refocus, it tends to do so less noticeably. It shoots 1080p-resolution video at 30 frames per second or 720p resolution at 60 frames per second. Its field of vision is a slightly wide 82 degrees.

Includes built-in USB-A cable.

The C920 has been the standard for high-quality USB webcams for years. Before I switched over to the Razer Kiyo, it was my default camera for videoconferencing. You get great image quality at 1080p resolution (and 30 frames per second), and white balance performance is on par with the Razer webcam. The narrower 78-degree field of view means you may need to adjust its position so your face doesn't take up the whole frame, but the autofocus is subtle and quick. There's a comparably priced version that comes with a physical shutter for privacy.

Best 4K Webcam

The original Brio from 2017 was one of the earliest mainstream webcams to offer 4K resolution at 30 frames per second. Even as the rest of the market has introduced premium webcams to compete with it, the Brio maintains its position as my favorite 4K webcam. Logitech gave it a minor update in 2022 with updated software and a privacy shutter, but the old model is still a fine purchase that's a little cheaper . The white balance is still accurate, and my skin color always looks normal, whether I'm in a sunny room, in limited light, or using artificial light.

The autofocus is fast and subtle when refocusing, and the image is razor-sharp. Plus, you can choose from 65, 78, and a super-wide 90 degrees for your field of view, giving you lots of framing options. If you're using a Windows machine, you can set it up to work with Windows Hello for face authentication to log in. It's expensive, but this is the best quality you'll get short of using a DSLR or mirrorless camera .

Includes removable USB-C to USB-A cable.

Beautifully Built, but Pricey

The UltraSharp Webcam feels incredibly substantial and is solid enough to take with you anywhere. Everything from the webcam body to the stand to the included tripod adapter is made of brushed aluminum. The stand and tripod adapter connect to the webcam body with a magnetic post that makes for a secure mount. The privacy cap connects magnetically and stays put with a satisfyingly strong hold, but it isn't hard to remove. The inside of the cap is padded with a soft-touch fabric to keep it from scratching the lens. Even the forward-facing part of the stand is covered in soft-touch rubber to keep you from scratching the back of your laptop lid if you get a little reckless when setting up for a Zoom call.

You can adjust the viewing angle between 65, 78, and 90 degrees and record in 4K resolution at 24 or 30 frames per second, as well as in 720p or 1080p resolutions at 24, 30, or 60 frames per second. However, the picture quality of the Dell wasn't any better than the Logitech Brio 4K.

Nena Farrell

Julian Chokkattu

Best Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) Camera

It's super pricey, but this “AI-powered 4K webcam,” as its manufacturer shouts from the rooftops in its marketing, is an impressive beast. Mounted on a powered gimbal that rotates horizontally and vertically, the Insta360 Link ( 8/10, WIRED Recommends ) will follow, refocus, and zoom in and out (up to 4X zoom) automatically as you move around the screen. It'll even zoom in on presentation boards or papers you want to show off on your call.

It offers outstanding sharpness, color contrast, and white balance in the choice of recording in 24, 25, and 30 frames per second in 4K resolution. Stepping down to 1080p adds the ability to shoot at 60 frames per second. There are dual noise-canceling microphones and a screw mount on the bottom for attaching it to a tripod too. About the only thing it lacks is a physical privacy shutter, but the camera points downward when it's not in use.

Includes removable USB-C cable as well as a USB-C to USB-A adapter.

Honorable Mentions

Obsbot Tiny 2 Webcam for $329 : WIRED reviews editor Julian Chokkattu has been using Obsbot's first Tiny 4K PTZ webcam with great results for more than a year, and after switching to the new Tiny 2, he's just as satisfied. The 4K-capable picture quality looks great, and the camera does an excellent job of following his movements around. The company has also really polished its software over the year, offering up a lot of ways in which you can tweak the settings to your heart's content. It can respond to your hand gestures, but you can also buy a remote to control it, making it great for presentations and group video calls.

Razer Kiyo for $70 : The original Kiyo still offers 1080p resolution at 30 frames per second (or 720p at 60 frames per second) and built-in lighting that's controlled by turning the illuminated ring to brighten, dim, or shut it off entirely. Picture quality is good, with nice colors, and the camera quickly adjusts white balance when the room's ambient lighting changes. It autofocuses well, but you'll see it noticeably adjust as you move around the frame. The field of view is slightly wider than that of typical webcams, coming in at around 82 degrees. After a month, the hinge on my Kiyo broke, which gave me pause. But my second one is going strong, and WIRED writer Parker Hall has had no issues with his Kiyo. Still, we strongly recommending going for our top pick, the Kiyo X, which is often cheaper.

Poly Studio P5 for $49 : For a reasonable price, the Studio P5 offers 4X digital zoom and 1080p resolution at 30 frames per second and matches the crispy video quality, color balance, and low-light performance of other cameras on this list, along with a few neat tricks. Turning the front of the whole webcam physically closes a visible orange shutter over the lens and the status light changes from blue to red, so there's zero chance you'll be unaware of whether your webcam is capable of seeing you. Alongside a built-in microphone, you can free up a precious laptop port by inserting a USB-A wireless adapter into the rear of the casing and use it wirelessly. The Studio P5 pivots horizontally, but not vertically. If you want to change that angle, you have to reposition the mount itself. It's not impossible, just a wee bit unwieldy. Another downside is the speckled-white, egg-like plastic casing that reminds me of the plastic they make bathroom stalls out of.

Logitech C922x for $85 : The C922X is a capable webcam with solid specifications. It can stream 1080p video at 30 frames per second or 720p at 60 frames per second, which makes the Razer Kiyo and Kiyo X its prime competition. But it's more expensive than either and has a slightly narrower 78-degree field of vision. It's a good webcam, but you can get a comparable Kiyo X for less money.

Logitech C615 for $55 : The specs were great (for the original price)—1080p resolution at 30 frames per second with a 78-degree field of view—and the image quality is fine in anything but low light. You can also swivel the camera 360 degrees, which reviews editor Julian Chokkattu says he does when he's not using it, since there's no privacy shutter. On the downside, the microphone records in mono, not stereo, and the short cord could make it annoying to use with a desktop, though it works fine with a laptop. Try to buy it when it's under $40.

Logitech C930e for $62 : This is the business-oriented alternative to Logitech's C920 with a 90-degree field of view that's better for capturing large groups of participants than the C920's 78-degree field of view. For a single user at home, 90 degrees can be an interesting and welcome option (I liked that optional setting on the Brio). Unlike the Brio, you're locked into using 90 degrees only, which might not work for everyone.

Lights, Camera, Mic, Action!

Ever wonder why you look like a haggard extra from Goodfellas on Zoom? It's because your lighting is bad and the camera is positioned so that it's looking up your nose. Get the right camera angle and the right lighting, and find your voice with these accessories to improve your overall videoconferencing experience.

Blue Snowball Ice for $45 : Audiophiles may prefer a much fancier (and much more expensive) microphone using an XLR connection, but for the vast majority of us who aren't recording professionally or interviewing people for a podcast, this USB-A microphone will provide a significant upgrade over a laptop's built-in mic for not much money, although you may need a hub adapter if your laptop has only USB-C ports. Check out our Best USB Microphones guide for more.

Lume Cube Mini LED Panel for $70 : Webcams need lots of light to prevent grainy video. You can adjust the brightness and the color temperature to match your room's lighting. It works off of battery power or you can leave it plugged in via the USB-C cable to run for however long you want. The two quarter-inch threads mean you can use any tripod , small or large, to mount it on your desk. It also comes with a diffuser to soften the light when it illuminates your face, but a professional lighting trick is to point the light backward and bounce it off a white wall or piece of white card stock for buttery-soft lighting. If you want an even more powerful light with a longer-lasting battery, we also like Lume Cube's new Panel Pro 2.0 .

Rain Design iLevel2 Adjustable Laptop Stand for $55 : We've tried a lot of laptop stands, and although at first I brushed off the idea of needing adjustable height, I came back around to the iLevel2 after concluding that the majority of fixed-level stands were too low for me. Besides, sometimes on long calls I like to lean back, and it's nice to be able to change the height to match. The iLevel2 is built solidly, and I have little concern about its long-term durability.

Tarion Desktop Light Stand for $18 : Reviews editor Julian Chokkattu uses this Tarion stand as part of his work-from-home setup . You can use it to mount your LED panel for more control over angling the light or mount your webcam so that it's not looking up at you from under your chin, if you'd prefer not to use a laptop stand.

Lume Cube Suction Cup Mount for $31 : I recommend this as a way to attach an LED panel—with reservations. I've been using it with the Lume Cube Mini LED Panel for months, and while it's an easy, non-permanent way to place a light at face level, where it's best positioned, you have to keep the back of your laptop and the suction cup itself clean and dust-free. Otherwise, it'll tumble off and possibly dent your desk.

Don't Bother With These Webcams

Not every webcam is an upgrade over the built-in one on your laptop. These are the models I tested that ranged from merely unimpressive to ones that made me look like the subject of a second-grade art project.

Microsoft LifeCam Studio for $120 : It says it's a 1080p webcam, but there's a catch—that's only for recording video. Using it for video calls restricts you to 720p. My coworkers commented on how out-of-focus I constantly was. The white balance was so off that I looked more orange than an Oompa Loompa. And the exposure was so blown out that I never stopped looking like I was living through the last scenes of The Lighthouse . There was also a lot of lag in my movements and bad motion blur.

Logitech Brio 500 for $100 : I'm struggling to think of a reason why Logitech decided to make the Brio 500 mount via an adhesive patch on its bracket, which is not meant to be removed once placed onto a laptop or monitor. What if you want to use it on multiple computers, as many of us do, or if you swap the case on your laptop? The adjustment is wacky, too. The webcam is held onto the base via a magnet. Panning the cam downward often pulled it off the base instead of adjusting the angle, and swiveling it left or right caused it to loosen so much it wouldn't stay put. That meant I kept having to pull it off the magnetic stand, screw the mount back down, and reposition it—and then not adjust it during the rest of the Zoom. That said, the image quality of its 1080p resolution, white balance, and color contrast was quite good, if not excellent, and it came with a USB-C connection and a physical privacy shutter. The autofocus could stand to be a touch quicker. Other positives are that you can get it in black, white, or pink, which is two more colors than most webcams offer you.

Logitech Brio 300 for $60 : The image quality is lacking on this one. Even in a fairly well-lit room, my picture was grainy. It also did weird things with the white balance as it autofocused. The field of view is quite narrow at 70 degrees and non-adjustable, so the image onscreen is up in your face. You'll want to scoot back quite a bit so everybody else isn't looking up your nose. Like the Brio 500, it comes in black, white, and pink, connects via USB-C, and has a physical privacy shutter. There are better options for this price without these image quality oddities.

Razer Kiyo Pro for $100 : Although it looks similar to its cheaper, non-pro sibling, the Pro ditches the light ring and instead relies on software to compensate for low-light conditions. I resented having to download the Razer Synapse app to get a decent image out of the Kiyo Pro. Yes, fine-tuning settings is a very WIRED thing to do, but most people just want to plug their webcam in. Once you fiddle with the app settings, the picture image is sharp and beautiful. However, it has the same overly obvious autofocusing as the regular Kiyo, and it's also a little overpriced. It's not a bad pick, but again, the Logitech Brio can do 4K/30 fps, as opposed to this camera, which tops out at 1080p/60 fps.

Creative Labs Live! Sync 4K for $60 : I was skeptical about a 4K resolution webcam for this price, and my skepticism was validated in the wildly-strange white balance that turned me and everything faintly orange. It may be the only webcam that made my room look darker than it actually was. The Creative Labs app is available only for Windows, leaving Mac users out in the cold. The privacy shutter is a rubber cap you put on and take off. The bit that holds it to the webcam when it's off is flimsy enough that if you're rough or careless, you could rip it off, but it's nice that it isn't plastic, which would weaken over time. A minor issue is that the black cap blends in with the black webcam and lens, so that at quick glance it could be hard to tell whether the cap is on or off. The USB-A plug is also a downside. These days, a new webcam really ought to have a USB-C connection so as not to mandate using a hub.

Cisco Desk Camera 1080p for $125 : Not to be confused with Cisco's almost identically named Desk Camera 4K . I tried the 1080p, 8-megapixel version in a variety of natural and artificial lighting, but my fellow Gear Team members and I couldn't help but notice that no matter how I used it, the video looked overly pixelated. Unless a webcam can make me look as good pixelated as Axel from Streets of Rage , then I want smooth video that actually looks like it's 1080p. During Zooms, the Desk Camera 1080p had trouble with focusing and zooming, frequently and jarringly refocusing but never getting it quite right.

Logitech StreamCam for $101 : The StreamCam did weird things with its white balance, constantly auto-adjusting from one extreme to the other. It was a very nouveau art house vibe having everything on the screen to go from blinding, brilliant blue to toasty, volcanic orange and back. And back, and back again. It swivels left and right, but the swivel is unstable, so the StreamCam wobbles around a lot, especially if it's mounted on a laptop. On one of our many Zoom meetings, a coworker asked if I was on the deck of a boat. The only great thing about it is that it uses a USB-C cable, while most other webcams use USB-A.

Anker PowerConf C300 for $100 : It's not a bad webcam, but when I checked the price my eyes bugged out a little, Daffy Duck-style. The picture image on the Anker just didn't look as sharp. While its white balance and autofocusing were … fine, it just isn't worth the triple-digit price, not when the sharper Logitech C920 and Razer Kiyo exist.

Eric Ravenscraft

David Nield

Scott Gilbertson

Reece Rogers

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Essay on Camera

Students are often asked to write an essay on Camera in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Camera

Introduction.

A camera is a device that captures images. These images can be still photographs or moving images such as videos.

Types of Cameras

There are many types of cameras including digital, film, professional, and phone cameras. Each type has its unique features.

Uses of Cameras

Cameras are used in various fields such as journalism, filmmaking, science, and more. They also help us capture life’s precious moments.

In conclusion, cameras are an important tool in our lives. They allow us to document and share our experiences.

Also check:

• 10 Lines on Camera
• Paragraph on Camera

250 Words Essay on Camera

The camera, a ubiquitous tool in today’s digital age, has revolutionized the way we perceive and capture the world around us. It has evolved from being a simple tool for documentation to a sophisticated device for artistic expression, communication, and data analysis.

The Evolution of the Camera

The camera’s journey began with the camera obscura, a simple optical device used in the Renaissance period. The invention of the daguerreotype in the 19th century marked the beginning of photography. The 20th century witnessed rapid advancements with the introduction of the Polaroid, enabling instant photography, and the digital camera, which eliminated the need for film.

The Camera in the Digital Age

Today, cameras are integrated into smartphones, drones, and even satellites, making photography accessible to all. They serve not just as tools for capturing memories, but also for communicating ideas and emotions. The rise of social media platforms has further amplified the role of the camera in our lives.

Cameras and Artificial Intelligence

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) with cameras has opened up new avenues. AI-enabled cameras can recognize faces, detect objects, and even predict behavior, finding applications in fields like surveillance, healthcare, and autonomous vehicles.

The camera, from its humble beginnings to its current advanced state, has significantly impacted society. As technology continues to evolve, the camera’s role will continue to expand, making it a vital tool in our increasingly visual and interconnected world.

500 Words Essay on Camera

Introduction: the camera as a tool of expression and documentation.

The camera, a revolutionary invention in the world of technology, has drastically shaped the way we perceive, interpret, and document reality. It is a device that captures light in a physical medium, either on film or digitally, to produce an image. Invented in the early 19th century, the camera has evolved significantly over time, from large, cumbersome devices to compact, sophisticated gadgets that can fit into our pockets.

The camera’s journey began with the camera obscura, a device that projected an image onto a surface through a small hole. This concept was later refined and developed into the daguerreotype, the first publicly available photographic process. However, these early cameras were limited in their capabilities, requiring long exposure times and producing images that were not easily reproducible.

The introduction of the dry plate process in the 1870s, followed by the invention of roll film in the 1880s, marked a significant turning point in the camera’s evolution. These innovations made photography more accessible and portable, paving the way for the first mass-produced camera, the Kodak Brownie, in 1900.

Modern Cameras and Technological Advancements

The advent of the digital era in the late 20th century brought about another profound shift in camera technology. Digital cameras, which capture and store images electronically rather than on film, have become the standard in recent years. They offer numerous advantages over their analog predecessors, including instant image review, larger storage capacity, and the ability to manipulate images digitally.

Moreover, the integration of cameras into smartphones has democratized photography, allowing virtually anyone to capture and share images instantly. This ubiquity of cameras has had a profound impact on society, influencing everything from journalism and advertising to social media and personal communication.

The Impact of Cameras on Society

Cameras have not only revolutionized the way we capture and share images, but also how we interact with the world. They have become a tool of expression and a means of communication, enabling us to document our lives, explore our creativity, and share our perspectives with others.

In journalism, cameras have played a pivotal role in bringing distant events and issues to the forefront of public consciousness. They have also transformed advertising, with high-quality images becoming a key component of successful marketing campaigns.

On a personal level, cameras allow us to preserve memories and moments, documenting our lives in a way that was not possible before. They have also become a key tool in the rise of social media, enabling users to share their experiences and perspectives with a global audience.

Conclusion: The Camera’s Role in the Future

As technology continues to advance, cameras will undoubtedly continue to evolve, offering ever greater capabilities and possibilities. Virtual reality cameras, 360-degree cameras, and advanced drone cameras are just a few examples of the exciting developments on the horizon.

Despite these technological advancements, the essence of the camera remains the same: it is a tool that allows us to capture, interpret, and share our view of the world. As such, it will continue to play a crucial role in our society, influencing how we communicate, express ourselves, and understand the world around us.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

• Essay on Brahmagupta
• Essay on Soil Erosion
• Essay on Soil

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The 4 Best Ways To Make Any Webcam Look Better

I n our highly connected world, making sure that your webcam is putting out the best image possible should be a priority. Whether you are streaming your favorite video game or in an online work meeting, the quality of a webcam's image is easily one of the first things that someone might notice. However, you don't need to necessarily spend a bunch of money and get one of the most pricey or highly reviewed webcams in order to transmit a decent image, and there are steps that you can take to improve the quality of your webcam.

Luckily, most of these steps are easy enough, and either deal with changing settings on the camera and computer, or physically manipulating your background and lighting. This means that you don't necessarily need to go out and get one of the best webcams available, like Dell's Ultrasharp Webcam or the Elgato Facecam and Wave XLR . There are multiple factors that can change the quality of a webcam besides the webcam itself, so hopefully, after checking out these suggestions you shouldm  notice a tremendous change. In this article, you'll learn how to consider aspects of your webcam like its placements and settings, as well as the general condition of your background, with includes variables like the lighting of your room.

Make Sure Your Webcam Is Positioned Correctly

One of the most important steps in making your webcam the best it can be is one of the most practical. Where one has the webcam placed and pointed has one of the biggest impacts in the quality of the image being put out by your webcam. More often than not, most people will place a webcam somewhere near their computer, which is definitely the right instinct. However, a webcam should be placed at eye level since framing yourself in this manner provides a direct line of sight for any potential viewers. Too low and you may give yourself a double chin, but place it too high and it will give the viewer the impression of looking down on you.

Considering this, you should also make sure that your webcam is placed at a good enough distance -- typically around an arm's length or two feet. Again, much like the height of the camera, placing a webcam too far away will make you appear distant, while too close will cause you to absolutely dominate the entire frame of the webcam.

{Featured image by Peter Placzek via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY-SA 4.0 } 

Take Stock Of The Lightning In The Webcam's View

Another condition that may impact the condition of your webcam's image is one that doesn't require you to get into the actual settings of the camera yet. Lighting has a huge influence on the quality of a webcam, and more often than not, making sure you have the proper lighting is usually enough to create an immense shift. Most webcams are usually set to a default and automatic setting when it comes to dealing with the amount of light in a particular scene. Much like the placement of a camera, too much and too little light can cause some issues.

Too much light will cause a scene to become washed out, while too little will make details and the subject hard to identify. Likewise, when lighting skews too much in one direction, the webcam's auto-balance will struggle to compensate. This may cause particular issues, like a choppy image due to the camera struggling with a lack of light, or entirely washed out because there is simply too much light for the webcam to properly compensate for. In other words, make sure that you have a decent enough balance, and take stock of all of the light sources present in the vicinity of the webcam.

{Featured image by Nenad Stojkovic via Wikimedia Commons  | Cropped and scaled | CC BY 2.0 }

Avoid Bright Colors And Clutter In Your Background

Besides adjusting the placement of the webcam and the lighting, another simple and often overlooked factor is what the webcam is centered on. As lighting and camera distance can make a big impact, the background can also have a not-so-subtle effect. If you are sitting in a messy room with lots of random objects, the scene being broadcast by the webcam might overwhelm potential audience members. Likewise, color can have a tremendous influence, and one should always aim to have more neutral colors present if at all possible.

Inversely, a room that is filled with bright colors (like red) is typically considered unflattering and should be avoided if you can. A simple room, free of clutter and color, always makes for the best scene. Of course that isn't to say that one should use a webcam in a completely desolate location free of any sort of personality, but it is a variable that should be considered while utilizing a webcam from anything from business to hobbies like streaming.

Play Around With The Settings Of Your Webcam

After you have changed or manipulated physical properties like your background, lighting, and position of the camera, it is time to get into the nuts and bolts of your webcam to make sure you have the best image possible. Luckily for PC users, Windows usually has the ability to influence settings that occur internally, like brightness, resolution, frame rate, and flicker reduction which can be reached by typing in "camera" in the Windows search bar, though for more robust options you may need to seek out a third party program, like YouCam or Webcamoid . In addition, some cameras also have their own programs, like Canon's EOS Webcam software . With these programs, there are far more options to play around with.

Besides brightness, these applications allow you to also change and alter settings like contrast, the saturation of colors, the appearance of mid-range tones, sharpness, white balance, exposure, and other factors that may create vast improvements in your webcam's picture. Though there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to changing these settings, the best advice is to simply play around with them and see what kind of results you get. Skewing one setting too far in one direction may have unintended consequences, but a little experience should have noticeable outcomes that hopefully make correcting any issues easier to deal with. With these tips and suggestions in mind, getting the most out of your webcam will take a little work outside and inside of the computer, but with a little effort and experimentation, your webcam will be optimized and put your best foot forward.

Read this next: The Best Earbuds Of 2022

Webcam Test

Testing area.

• Detecting your media devices. Please wait...
• Waiting for your permission...
• Starting your webcam. Please wait...
• Detecting the maximum supported resolution. Please wait...
• For more information visit the following pages:
• Changing the camera will reset the current process. Do you want to continue?
• An unexpected error occurred. Reload the page and try again.
• Could not find any media devices. It is very likely that your browser does not allow access to these devices. Try to reload this page or open it using another browser. Just remember that to start your webcam you need to allow our website to use it.
• Could not find a web camera, however there are other media devices (like speakers or microphones). Most likely, this means that your webcam is not working properly or your browser cannot access it.
• Your browser does not support features for accessing media devices. Please upgrade your browser or install another one.
• You did not allow the browser to use the web camera. Reload the page and try again.
• Apparently, your webcam is being used or blocked by another application. To start your webcam, you must temporarily close that application.
• It looks like your browser is blocking access to webcam identifiers. Because of this, it’s impossible to detect and manage all available webcams.
• Waiting time for your permission has expired. Reload the page and try again.
• Cannot stream video. The cause may be a defective camera or that it is currently being used by another application.
• The video track is paused.
• Cannot detect any active stream of media content.
• Your webcam does not output any video tracks.
• Your browser does not support features for accessing video tracks.
• Video track not available due to technical issue.
• Your webcam suddenly stopped transmitting video track.
• For unknown reasons, the video track is disabled.
• Click here to allow access to webcam identifiers
• Click here to try forcibly start the camera
• Testing your webcam. Please wait...
• A web camera was detected. Press “Test my cam” to check the functionality and supported properties of your camera.
• Several web cameras were detected. To check the functionality and supported properties of your camera, select it from the list below and press “Test my cam”. Please note that in order to obtain more accurate results it is recommended to keep enabled only one webcam.
• Testing was completed successfully. The results are displayed in the “Webcam Information” table. Please read the following tips and do not forget to leave a review about your webcam.
• Testing was completed successfully. The results are displayed in the “Webcam Information” table. Please do not forget to leave a review about your webcam.
• It seems your webcam shows a one-color filling. This may be due to a malfunction or third-party application that “mutes” the video stream.
• Your webcam uses too few colors. Perhaps this is due to poor visibility or bad quality webcam.
• Your webcam operates in grayscale mode. Some devices may use this mode to conserve battery power.
• The room is too dark. Turn on the light or make sure that the webcam’s LED lights shine brightly.
• The image is too bright. If you are in the operating room, it’s all right. Otherwise, try to adjust the light in the room.
• Invalid aspect ratio (at least the image is too wide). Perhaps this is a technical defect or a software error.
• Invalid aspect ratio (at least the image is too narrow). Perhaps this is a technical defect or a software error.
• Unforgivable low resolution. Check your webcam settings and select a higher resolution.
• It seems your web camera streams video as a static image. Either the webcam hangs, or as a video source, it uses regular image.
• Our test detected a low frame rate (FPS). If you have a high-quality webcam, make sure that your system is not overloaded, and then repeat the test again.
• During testing, there were errors due to which it is impossible to determine some parameters of your web camera. Reload the page and try again.
• QQVGA (160x120)
• QCIF (176x144)
• QCIF (192x144)
• HQVGA (240x160)
• QVGA (320x240)
• Video CD NTSC (352x240)
• Video CD PAL (352x288)
• xCIF (384x288)
• 360p (480x360)
• nHD (640x360)
• VGA (640x480)
• SD (704x480)
• DVD NTSC (720x480)
• WGA (800x480)
• SVGA (800x600)
• DVCPRO HD (960x720)
• XGA (1024x768)
• HD (1280x720)
• WXGA (1280x800)
• SXGA− (1280x960)
• SXGA (1280x1024)
• UXGA (1600x1200)
• FHD (1920x1080)
• QXGA (2048x1536)
• QSXGA (2560x2048)
• QUXGA (3200x2400)
• DCI 4K (4096x2160)
• HXGA (4096x3072)
• UW5K (5120x2160)
• 5K (5120x2880)
• WHXGA (5120x3200)
• HSXGA (5120x4096)
• WHSXGA (6400x4096)
• HUXGA (6400x4800)
• 8K UHD (7680x4320)
• WHUXGA (7680x4800)
• UW10K (10240x4320)

Webcam Information

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Check out how good your web camera is! Leave a review about your camera and find out the place in the rating of the best cameras.

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About WebcamTests.com

This site provides a free tool to test your webcam online and check if it is working properly. In other words, you can test it directly from your browser without the need to install third-party software. Despite such an easy way, you can start testing your webcam “in one click” on different devices, including laptops, smartphones, TVs, tablets and others. Regardless of the device and the operating system, as a result of testing, you will not only know if your webcam is working, but also find out a lot of useful information about it (i.e, webcam name, resolution, frame rate, number of colors, image quality and many other specifications). In addition, if the testing tool detects any problems with your web camera, you will receive some hints on how to fix them. After completing the webcam testing, among other things, you can take photos with your webcam and download them. Also you can view it in fullscreen and rate your webcam.

Why do you need to test the camera?

• You purchased or connected a new webcam and want to check if it works properly (the webcam viewer will display the image in real time).
• You have doubts about the parameters of a newly purchased webcam and you want to test your webcam and its features (because not all sellers are honest).
• You have several cameras and you want to compare them to find out which one is better (the better the camera, the higher the “Quality Rating”).
• Want to find out if your camera has built-in microphone or built-in speaker (be aware, this feature is a little buggy).
• Want to know how many frames per second (FPS) renders your webcam (low FPS causes video lags).
• Want to know how many colors contains a photo taken with your webcam (more colors mean higher image quality).
• Want to know the resolution of your web camera (high-quality webcams have high resolution and can provide HD video calls).
• Check the quality of your webcam compared to other webcams (for this you need to leave a review about your webcam).

How to test your webcam?

Testing your webcam with our online tool is very easy: just wait until the web cameras are detected and press the “Test my cam” button. If you do not see this button and don’t receive any notifications, most likely an error occurred with your browser. To help you, please email us at info@webcamtests.com

How your webcam is tested?

• First of all, it determines if the browser supports features for accessing media devices. If so, it displays a list of detected web cameras and necessary controls.
• When you press the “Test my cam” button, the browser will ask permission to launch the web camera on this site.
• After granting access, the camera will be launched and you will see the video in the webcam viewer.
• Now it’s time to determine the maximum resolution of the web camera (among other things, it will allow to calculate the number of megapixels and detect supported video standard).
• Next, it would determine the image quality (including number of colours, brightness, saturation).
• After some measurements, the number of frames per second (FPS) is determined.
• Among the latest tests, approximate video conferencing bandwidth is calculated.
• Finally are displayed the testing results, hints and additional controls (i.e, take snapshots, enable fullscreen, stop webcam, update data).

Why do you need to leave a review?

Once testing is complete, you can leave a review about your webcam. This is not required, but we encourage you to do so in order to help other people to purchase a good webcam and get around the bad ones. In addition, after publishing your review, you will see how good is your compared camera to others.

What are the system requirements for running the online webcam test?

To test your camera, all you need is a modern browser (unfortunately, Internet Explorer does not belong to them) that supports features for accessing media devices. As you noticed, this webcam testing tool does not require any additional software like Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight or browser add-ons.

Below are listed the operating systems and the minimum versions of supported browsers:

• Firefox 56.0
• Chrome 35.0
• Samsung Browser 2.1
• Opera Mobile 37.0
• Yandex Browser 18.1
• Android WebView 4.0
• Vivo Browser 8.2
• Android 4.0
• Chrome 45.0
• Firefox 48.0
• Firefox 75.0
• Firefox 26.0
• Chrome 37.0
• Chromium 65.0
• Chrome 49.0
• Safari 11.1
• Firefox 44.0
• Chromium 37.0
• Chrome 50.0
• Firefox 36.0
• Yandex Browser 17.1
• Waterfox 56.2
• UC Browser 6.0
• Opera Neon 1.0
• Elements Browser 1.1
• Coc Coc Browser 81.0
• Maxthon 5.0
• Firefox 29.0
• Chrome 33.0
• Yandex Browser 16.6
• Sogou Explorer 2.0
• UC Browser 5.5
• Coc Coc Browser 49.0
• IceDragon 65.0
• Chrome 51.0
• Firefox 69.0
• Firefox 30.0
• Avast SafeZone 1.48
• Waterfox 56.3
• Edge Mobile 14.0
• Chrome 39.0
• Yandex Browser 17.4
• Firefox 38.0
• Safari 11.0
• Chrome 87.0
• Safari 13.0
• Chrome 63.0
• Firefox 63.0

If your operating system or browser is not listed here, this does not mean that it is not supported. It just has not been tested yet. Therefore, feel free to check yourself.

• All operations necessary for testing are performed in the browser, and all data is stored only in the user’s device memory.
• We do not save technical information until the user posts his review.
• If the user does not publish the review, all data from device memory is destroyed when the page is closed.
• Reviews are public and contain only technical information about the tested cameras.
• We do not in any way store photos taken by users with their webcams.

The test results depend on various factors, which is why it is impossible to guarantee an error-free testing algorithm. Nevertheless, we will always improve our testing tool and fix any errors found. If you find any errors or you have any suggestions, please contact us at info@webcamtests.com

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Guest Essay

Jamie Raskin: How to Force Justices Alito and Thomas to Recuse Themselves in the Jan. 6 Cases

By Jamie Raskin

Mr. Raskin represents Maryland’s Eighth Congressional District in the House of Representatives. He taught constitutional law for more than 25 years and was the lead prosecutor in the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump.

Many people have gloomily accepted the conventional wisdom that because there is no binding Supreme Court ethics code, there is no way to force Associate Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas to recuse themselves from the Jan. 6 cases that are before the court.

Justices Alito and Thomas are probably making the same assumption.

But all of them are wrong.

It seems unfathomable that the two justices could get away with deciding for themselves whether they can be impartial in ruling on cases affecting Donald Trump’s liability for crimes he is accused of committing on Jan. 6. Justice Thomas’s wife, Ginni Thomas, was deeply involved in the Jan. 6 “stop the steal” movement. Above the Virginia home of Justice Alito and his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, flew an upside-down American flag — a strong political statement among the people who stormed the Capitol. Above the Alitos’ beach home in New Jersey flew another flag that has been adopted by groups opposed to President Biden.

Justices Alito and Thomas face a groundswell of appeals beseeching them not to participate in Trump v. United States , the case that will decide whether Mr. Trump enjoys absolute immunity from criminal prosecution, and Fischer v. United States , which will decide whether Jan. 6 insurrectionists — and Mr. Trump — can be charged under a statute that criminalizes “corruptly” obstructing an official proceeding. (Justice Alito said on Wednesday that he would not recuse himself from Jan. 6-related cases.)

Everyone assumes that nothing can be done about the recusal situation because the highest court in the land has the lowest ethical standards — no binding ethics code or process outside of personal reflection. Each justice decides for him- or herself whether he or she can be impartial.

Of course, Justices Alito and Thomas could choose to recuse themselves — wouldn’t that be nice? But begging them to do the right thing misses a far more effective course of action.

The U.S. Department of Justice — including the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, an appointed U.S. special counsel and the solicitor general, all of whom were involved in different ways in the criminal prosecutions underlying these cases and are opposing Mr. Trump’s constitutional and statutory claims — can petition the other seven justices to require Justices Alito and Thomas to recuse themselves not as a matter of grace but as a matter of law.

The Justice Department and Attorney General Merrick Garland can invoke two powerful textual authorities for this motion: the Constitution of the United States, specifically the due process clause, and the federal statute mandating judicial disqualification for questionable impartiality, 28 U.S.C. Section 455. The Constitution has come into play in several recent Supreme Court decisions striking down rulings by stubborn judges in lower courts whose political impartiality has been reasonably questioned but who threw caution to the wind to hear a case anyway. This statute requires potentially biased judges throughout the federal system to recuse themselves at the start of the process to avoid judicial unfairness and embarrassing controversies and reversals.

The constitutional and statutory standards apply to Supreme Court justices. The Constitution, and the federal laws under it, is the “ supreme law of the land ,” and the recusal statute explicitly treats Supreme Court justices as it does other judges: “Any justice, judge or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” The only justices in the federal judiciary are the ones on the Supreme Court.

This recusal statute, if triggered, is not a friendly suggestion. It is Congress’s command, binding on the justices, just as the due process clause is. The Supreme Court cannot disregard this law just because it directly affects one or two of its justices. Ignoring it would trespass on the constitutional separation of powers because the justices would essentially be saying that they have the power to override a congressional command.

When the arguments are properly before the court, Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh and Sonia Sotomayor will have both a constitutional obligation and a statutory obligation to enforce recusal standards.

Indeed, there is even a compelling argument based on case law that Chief Justice Roberts and the other unaffected justices should raise the matter of recusal on their own, or sua sponte. Numerous circuit courts have agreed with the Eighth Circuit that this is the right course of action when members of an appellate court are aware of “ overt acts ” of a judge reflecting personal bias. Cases like this stand for the idea that appellate jurists who see something should say something instead of placing all the burden on parties in a case who would have to risk angering a judge by bringing up the awkward matter of potential bias and favoritism on the bench.

But even if no member of the court raises the issue of recusal, the urgent need to deal with it persists. Once it is raised, the court would almost surely have to find that the due process clause and Section 455 compel Justices Alito and Thomas to recuse themselves. To arrive at that substantive conclusion, the justices need only read their court’s own recusal decisions.

In one key 5-to-3 Supreme Court case from 2016, Williams v. Pennsylvania, Justice Anthony Kennedy explained why judicial bias is a defect of constitutional magnitude and offered specific objective standards for identifying it. Significantly, Justices Alito and Thomas dissented from the majority’s ruling.

The case concerned the bias of the chief justice of Pennsylvania, who had been involved as a prosecutor on the state’s side in an appellate death penalty case that was before him. Justice Kennedy found that the judge’s refusal to recuse himself when asked to do so violated due process. Justice Kennedy’s authoritative opinion on recusal illuminates three critical aspects of the current controversy.

First, Justice Kennedy found that the standard for recusal must be objective because it is impossible to rely on the affected judge’s introspection and subjective interpretations. The court’s objective standard requires recusal when the likelihood of bias on the part of the judge “is too high to be constitutionally tolerable,” citing an earlier case. “This objective risk of bias,” according to Justice Kennedy, “is reflected in the due process maxim that ‘no man can be a judge in his own case.’” A judge or justice can be convinced of his or her own impartiality but also completely missing what other people are seeing.

Second, the Williams majority endorsed the American Bar Association’s Model Code of Judicial Conduct as an appropriate articulation of the Madisonian standard that “no man can be a judge in his own cause.” Model Code Rule 2.11 on judicial disqualification says that a judge “shall disqualify himself or herself in any proceeding in which the judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” This includes, illustratively, cases in which the judge “has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party,” a married judge knows that “the judge’s spouse” is “a person who has more than a de minimis interest that could be substantially affected by the proceeding” or the judge “has made a public statement, other than in a court proceeding, judicial decision or opinion, that commits or appears to commit the judge to reach a particular result.” These model code illustrations ring a lot of bells at this moment.

Third and most important, Justice Kennedy found for the court that the failure of an objectively biased judge to recuse him- or herself is not “harmless error” just because the biased judge’s vote is not apparently determinative in the vote of a panel of judges. A biased judge contaminates the proceeding not just by the casting and tabulation of his or her own vote but by participating in the body’s collective deliberations and affecting, even subtly, other judges’ perceptions of the case.

Justice Kennedy was emphatic on this point : “It does not matter whether the disqualified judge’s vote was necessary to the disposition of the case. The fact that the interested judge’s vote was not dispositive may mean only that the judge was successful in persuading most members of the court to accept his or her position — an outcome that does not lessen the unfairness to the affected party.”

Courts generally have found that any reasonable doubts about a judge’s partiality must be resolved in favor of recusal. A judge “shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” While recognizing that the “challenged judge enjoys a margin of discretion,” the courts have repeatedly held that “doubts ordinarily ought to be resolved in favor of recusal.” After all, the reputation of the whole tribunal and public confidence in the judiciary are both on the line.

Judge David Tatel of the D.C. Circuit emphasized this fundamental principle in 2019 when his court issued a writ of mandamus to force recusal of a military judge who blithely ignored at least the appearance of a glaring conflict of interest. He stated : “Impartial adjudicators are the cornerstone of any system of justice worthy of the label. And because ‘deference to the judgments and rulings of courts depends upon public confidence in the integrity and independence of judges,’ jurists must avoid even the appearance of partiality.” He reminded us that to perform its high function in the best way, as Justice Felix Frankfurter stated, “justice must satisfy the appearance of justice.”

The Supreme Court has been especially disposed to favor recusal when partisan politics appear to be a prejudicial factor even when the judge’s impartiality has not been questioned. In Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co. , from 2009, the court held that a state supreme court justice was constitutionally disqualified from a case in which the president of a corporation appearing before him had helped to get him elected by spending $3 million promoting his campaign. The court, through Justice Kennedy, asked whether, quoting a 1975 decision, “under a realistic appraisal of psychological tendencies and human weakness,” the judge’s obvious political alignment with a party in a case “poses such a risk of actual bias or prejudgment that the practice must be forbidden if the guarantee of due process is to be adequately implemented.”

The federal statute on disqualification, Section 455(b) , also makes recusal analysis directly applicable to bias imputed to a spouse’s interest in the case. Ms. Thomas and Mrs. Alito (who, according to Justice Alito, is the one who put up the inverted flag outside their home) meet this standard. A judge must recuse him- or herself when a spouse “is known by the judge to have an interest in a case that could be substantially affected by the outcome of the proceeding.”

At his Senate confirmation hearing, Chief Justice Roberts assured America that “judges are like umpires.”

But professional baseball would never allow an umpire to continue to officiate the World Series after learning that the pennant of one of the two teams competing was flying in the front yard of the umpire’s home. Nor would an umpire be allowed to call balls and strikes in a World Series game after the umpire’s wife tried to get the official score of a prior game in the series overthrown and canceled out to benefit the losing team. If judges are like umpires, then they should be treated like umpires, not team owners, fans or players.

Justice Barrett has said she wants to convince people “that this court is not comprised of a bunch of partisan hacks.” Justice Alito himself declared the importance of judicial objectivity in his opinion for the majority in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overruling Roe v. Wade — a bit of self-praise that now rings especially hollow.

But the Constitution and Congress’s recusal statute provide the objective framework of analysis and remedy for cases of judicial bias that are apparent to the world, even if they may be invisible to the judges involved. This is not really optional for the justices.

I look forward to seeing seven members of the court act to defend the reputation and integrity of the institution.

Jamie Raskin, a Democrat, represents Maryland’s Eighth Congressional District in the House of Representatives. He taught constitutional law for more than 25 years and was the lead prosecutor in the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump.

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