What To Wear On Camera

It’s the first question most people ask themselves – or ask us – when they’re about to appear on camera. “What should I wear?!”

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In this video and article, we share some of our tips for what you should wear, or avoid, if it’s your turn to appear in front of the camera lens. The good news is that there isn’t much to worry about. But if you want to go the extra mile, these tips will set you in the right direction!

1. Tight patterns – Avoid

Tight patterns are terrible for the camera. A lot of cameras can’t distinguish them, and it can cause a horrible effect called moire. If possible, please wear block colours, or keep to large, spread out patterns.

2. Jangly jewellery – Avoid

Please avoid jewellery that makes a noise when you move. We’re talking big, jangly necklaces, earrings and rings.
If you’re wearing jewellery on camera and it starts making a noise, it will definitely get picked up by the microphone, which could be distracting and uncomfortable for the person watching the video later on.

And if you’re wearing a lapel mic, your jewellery could even brush against the microphone. This will distort the audio, ruining an otherwise good take.

Additionally, large shiny jewellery can be reflective and can pick up our lights, throwing out unwanted glare. Not great!

3. Reflective clothing – Avoid

Speaking of unwanted reflections, try to avoid wearing anything particularly reflective, such as sequins or reflective materials. Like shiny jewellery, it can reflect light in unpleasant ways.

4. Glasses – Depends

Glasses can be a source of difficulty when filming because the lenses can reflect our lights. However, many glasses nowadays come with anti-reflective coatings, so they’re not always an issue.

Often, we can adjust our lights to reduce glare and reflections on your glasses. But sometimes, if there are large windows in the filming location, or other light sources we can’t control, it might not be possible to eliminate the glare completely.

The other thing to bear in mind with glasses is that, when delivering a piece to camera, you might need to read from a teleprompter or cue cards. So if you need glasses to read, you’ll need to wear them during the recording no matter what.

The main thing to bear in mind is whether you normally wear glasses, and if that’s how people recognise you. If you normally wear glasses, don’t change your appearance preemptively. Let us see how you look first, and we can always try to mitigate any issues once the camera is pointed in your direction!

On the other hand, if you only wear glasses to read, and you’re using a teleprompter, consider bringing contact lenses that day instead.

5. Pockets – Wear

Quite often, if you’re being interviewed, you’ll need to wear a lapel microphone. This microphone comes with a wireless transmitter which can be placed in a pocket or clipped onto a belt.

If you can, make sure you wear a jacket or trousers with pockets so that you have somewhere to store the microphone during your time on camera. Or, wear a belt. Otherwise, you might need to hold the microphone transmitter in your hand!

6. Manage your hair

It’s not clothing, but it’s important to consider how you wear your hair. If you have long hair, you might want to bring something to tie it up or clip it back with to keep it off your face. Often, on camera, tying your hair back a little does look better.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, if you don’t have much hair and you feel self-conscious about it, you might want to get hold of some anti-shine makeup at a local beauty shop to reduce the reflection of our lights on your head.

7. Don’t wear green in front of a green screen

Finally, don’t wear green in front of a green screen. We’ve seen this one before. It produces very entertaining results, but nobody wants to be a floating head in a serious, professional video.

If you’re appearing in front of a green screen, don’t wear green.

In fact, this applies to all backdrops. If you can, try to wear something that’s a different colour to the background. For example, wear a black shirt against a white backdrop, or a white shirt against a black backdrop. This will create contrast that will help you stand out from the background.

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So there you have it. Those are a few of our tips about what to wear on camera, and what not to wear on camera. We hope your next shoot goes smoothly!