Dark face during Teams call

[Ted_MUC]

Hi Community,
Depending on time of the day and the corresponding lighting situation in my office, my face is frequently shown very dark.
a) How can I access the camera properties menu during (!) a call. Note: I know the properties menu, but it is not accessible during a call.
b) Any current smartphone recognizes a face in a video stream and brightens the picture so the face is lit properly. I'd like to suggest that Teams should have the same functionality.
Best
Ted_MUC
  

[#2]

A few suggestions, get closer to the camera, so that the intensity of the background doesn't overwhelm the gain if the camera.
Use a front light to keep your face illuminated. You'll find thousands of these things on Amazon, as most every blogger, tik-tok or whatever content creator uses one.

[#3]

@Ed Woodrick Thank you for the suggestions. Unfortunately I cannot move the camera closer. I've thought about zoom. Again: The zoom settings aren't available during the call. I already have installed indirect lighting, but this cannot compete with the bright daylight in the background, and direct light is too bright for my eyes. Btw: Making a selfie from the camera's location with my smartphone results in a perfectly lit image.

[#4]

Then use your smartphone.

[#5]

@Ed Woodrick

This was not a particularly helpful suggestion.

Yes, there are ways to compensate for MS Teams providing terrible camera auto-adjustments. That does not address the chief issue: MS Teams provides terrible camera auto-adjustments. Same position seated, same lighting, same everything, but open Skype or Slack or a myriad of competitors instead of Teams, and the lighting is just fine. Teams is the problem here. 

[#6]

@smohyee I'm hoping that MS one day will improve brightness control.

@Ed Woodrick I actually tried using the smartphone when I learned that I can transfer calls from phone (Teams app) to PC vice versa and even use it parallel. Unfortunately, due to the design of the integration I cannot only use the camera of the smartphone and keep all the rest on the big screen.

[#7]

Hey Ted,

I would suggest getting yourself a better camera, but that seems like the obvious response.
However, using our Poly cameras will enable you to access Poly Lens Desktop while on a call, and change backlight compensation and other settings on the fly.

If you just want to keep using whatever camera it is your using, the easiest way to access the camera settings is by opening the camera app and hitting the gear icon on the top left.
(Note that you may need to video-mute for the camera app to access the feed and perform the settings changes)

[#8]

@VincentDal I already use a decent external camera. The latter sounds like a good tip. Thank you!

[#9 · Accepted solution]

@Ted_MUC Lots of new controls for camera available in Teams Public Preview, probably come to GA in about a month.

[#10]

@Steven Collier That's great news. Thank you!

[#11]

The update has actually arrived and it works well. :)