How To Prevent Glare on Your Glasses During Video Calls

If you conduct meetings online and wear glasses, you might be struggling to avoid the reflection of your screen and lighting in your lenses. A friend of mine is experiencing this problem and asked me to find her a better pair of anti-reflective reading glasses to wear during her video calls. Turns out, this was not as straightforward as I expected. Here’s what I learned about how to prevent glare on your glasses during video calls.

Eye contact is an important part of how we communicate. People want to see your eyes during an online meeting, not reflections. That glare can be distracting to those you’re speaking with.

Anti-glare and anti-reflective coatings do help reduce glare on your glasses…for you. They help you see more clearly, but they do not reduce reflections. The only way to prevent reflections is by adjusting your screen and lighting.

In This Post

• Glare & Anti-Glare/Anti-Reflective Coatings
  • How Glare Happens
  • Anti-Glare Coating
  • Anti-Reflective Coating
  • Polarized Lenses
• How To Prevent Reflections on Your Glasses During Video Calls
  • Adjust Your Screen
  • Get The Lighting Right

Glare & Anti-Glare/Anti-Reflective Coatings

How Glare Happens

Glare happens when light hits a horizontal surface, like the lenses of your eyeglasses, causing the reflecting light beams to scatter horizontally. If you wear glasses to drive at night or see your computer screen, the incoming light would create a glare or reflection on your lenses without an anti-glare or anti-reflective coating. The resulting glare would make it difficult for you to see clearly – think of the halo of headlights when you drive at night – and nearly impossible for other people to see your eyes.

Anti-Glare Coating

An anti-glare (AG) coating diffuses, or breaks up, rays of light coming in the front of your lenses.

Anti-Reflective Coating

An anti-reflective (AR) coating prevents glare on both the front and back of your lenses. The waves of light that find their way to the back, or inside, of your lenses are called transitional rays. This “back-glare” can cause quirky colors or shapes in your line of vision.

AR also helps alleviate digital eye strain, fatigue and headaches from too much screen time. Another benefit is that the coating makes your lenses virtually invisible so everyone can see your beautiful eyes.

Polarized Lenses

Both AG and AR coatings perform better at preventing glare in regular and dim light settings than in bright sunlight, which is why they’re popular on prescription glasses and not sunglasses. That’s where polarization comes in.

Polarized lenses are treated with a special chemical in a vertical pattern to filter out horizontal light, much in the way horizontal window blinds do.

But polarized lenses are not recommended for computer work because of the way they filter light, making screens fuzzy and difficult to view.

How To Prevent Reflections on Your Glasses During Video Calls

To prevent your screen and lighting from reflecting on your lenses during video calls, adjust them using some simple physics.

You don’t see the reflection in your line of vision thanks to the anti-glare or anti-reflective coating on your lenses. But the people looking at you see the reflection instead of your eyes.

The solution to preventing reflections on your glasses lies with the angle of incidence. That means adjusting your screen and moving lighting outside the angles. Here are the recommendations on how to adjust your screen and lighting to eliminate glare on your glasses.

Adjust Your Screen

Your screen is a source of light whether you make video calls on your desktop, laptop, smartphone, or tablet. Many people use their screens as an extra source of light, but it can be a challenge for those who wear glasses.

How to adjust your screen to prevent it from reflecting in your glasses:

1. Position your screen at eye level. You may need a fixed or height-adjustable stand (laptops and tablets) or riser (computer monitors and laptops). I did some research and found several well-reviewed options for both, below.
2. Move the screen back so it’s an arm’s distance away. If you’re working on a laptop, you should be able to reach the keyboard with your fingertips.
3. Adjust the screen so it is tilted slightly downward. This will move the light from your screen out of the angle of reflection since it is no longer pointed straight at your lenses.
   • Note: Whatever part of you is closest to the camera will appear larger. If you lean back in your chair during online calls, your body will look bigger than your head. To keep your head in proportion with your body, put a pillow behind your back so you lean slightly forward. This will give you the most flattering appearance.
4. Turn down the brightness on your screen. But not so much that you can’t see who you’re talking to.

See how you look in your camera or webcam and tweak the height, angle and brightness until the screen no longer reflects on your lenses. Make sure your face is well-lit without any shadows. Jump down to Get The Lighting Right to learn more about moving your light sources outside the angle of incidence.

Laptop & Tablet Stands

The following height-adjustable stands accommodate a wide range of laptops and tablets. Choose an appropriate riser based on your height and the height of your chair, desk and screen size. Some lift high enough for you to stand while you work or make video calls.

Computer Monitor & Laptop Risers

Depending on your height and the size of your screen, a fixed-height stand might raise your screen enough to prevent a reflection on your lenses. Or, you may need an adjustable height standing desk converter, which is more customizable. I have one and love it. Once you decide, you won’t have trouble finding a size, style and color that works for you and your workplace.

The following risers come in an array of sizes (widths noted) and colors.

Get The Lighting Right

To prevent glare on your glasses, you need to get the lighting right. That means repositioning your light sources and reconsidering what type of light you’re using. It might be time to change your bulbs and/or light sources. Ring (halo) lights are not great for people with glasses.

People who wear glasses generally need a two or three-point lighting setup to prevent reflections because your light sources must be positioned outside the angle of incidence, as shown above. This will ensure you are well-lit without glare on your glasses or shadows on your face (ahem, eyeglass frames). I’ve provided a few well-reviewed adjustable height light options for you below.

Light Positioning

• Begin by positioning two light sources, one on either side of your screen, so your face is evenly lit. It should look similar to the two-point lighting setup pictured above.
• Adjust the height of the lights to just above your eye line. This may mean putting a lamp on a stack of books or using height-adjustable lighting, like the examples above.
• Then move the lights outward until they are outside the angle of incidence. That is, move the light on the left of your screen to the left and the light on the right of your screen to the right, see my illustrations below. Check how you look in your camera or webcam. Continue to move the lighting outward until there are no reflections on your glasses.
  • If you use a window as a light source, consider moving your chair or desk. Or, cover the lower part of the window by temporarily leaning or taping cardboard or poster board to the window. Start along the bottom half of the window and work your way up until the reflection is gone from your lenses. You can figure out a more permanent solution at a later date.

• If needed, be sure to fill any shadows behind you with a backlight. See the three-point lighting setup above.

Adjustable Height Lights

Type of Light

Use soft lighting to reduce hard shadows. An added benefit (for us older folk) is it also diminishes the appearance of wrinkles. Opt for cooler bulbs such as LED, daylight or white light. Avoid tungsten bulbs that give off a yellow or golden hue on your face. Cool light will make your skin tone look more natural.

Ways to soften existing lighting:

• Move your light source away from you.
• Use softbox lights.
• Create your own lightbox effect. Put a white shade on a lamp. Hang a white curtain or sheet in front of a window to soften and diffuse the light.
• Bounce bright light off a white or light-colored wall or ceiling. Keep in mind that if you’re using a yellow wall, you may get a yellow or warm hue. So, check how you look on your monitor before jumping on a video call.
  • If you don’t have a light-colored wall, hang a white sheet and bounce the light off the sheet.

Background

Just for good measure, keep your background clean and simple during video calls so it’s not distracting.

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By the way, did you know that Zoom has a “touch up my appearance” button in settings? Turn that baby on!

For more tips on looking better online and my top three softbox light recommendations, see my post Look Better Online.

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Hope these tips help prevent screen glare in your glasses.

All items in stock as of this writing.