Talking-head course set-ups on a budget

By Alastair Greener, presenter of Present Yourself in a Minute · Updated 5 November 2026

Most course videos are lost on sound and light long before anyone judges the content. The good news is that the fixes are cheap and quick. This guide works through the four things that matter most, in the order you should check them, and ends with a test you can run tonight.

Be heard first

Viewers will put up with a plain picture long before they put up with poor sound. Use an external microphone placed near your mouth, not the built-in microphone on the laptop, which picks up the room as much as you. Choose the quietest room in the house, switch off notifications, and close the window if there is traffic. Before you record, soundcheck with a short test and listen on headphones. For the detail on distance and angle, see mic technique for podcasts.

Light your face, not the wall

Put the main light in front of you, slightly above the lens, or to one side. Do not put the light behind you, or you will film as a silhouette. A single soft lamp, with a sheet of paper or a diffuser between it and your face, is enough for a course. Check the picture on the screen from the seat you will record in, not from a standing position.

Choose a plain background

Put a plain wall a few feet behind you, and sit far enough forward that the wall is not right behind your head. Check what is behind you before you start, because a plant or a poster will draw the eye away from the lesson. Avoid stripes and small checks, which can shimmer on camera, and avoid a pure white wall, which can make the camera struggle with exposure. Virtual and blurred backgrounds are a poor choice for a course, because they glitch around the edges of your head.

Put the lens at eye level

Raise the laptop or the camera on books or a box, so that the lens sits at your eye level. Look into the lens when you are talking to the viewer, and not at the screen or at your notes. Leave a little space above your head in the frame, and frame from the top of the chest up. If you are watching a shot back and your head is cut off, you have framed too high.

A budget set-up, step by step

1. Pick the quietest room. A room with soft furnishings is easier to record in than a bare one.
2. Put a plain wall a few feet behind you, and check what else is in the frame.
3. Place the soft light in front of you, above the lens or to one side.
4. Raise the camera or laptop to eye level, and frame from the top of the chest up.
5. Add the external microphone, and soundcheck with headphones on.
6. Record 60 seconds of you talking to the viewer. Watch it back with the sound on, and change one thing at a time.

Common mistakes

• Sitting with a window or a bright lamp behind you.
• Relying on the laptop microphone.
• Reading from the screen, so your eyes drift off the lens.
• Setting the camera too low, which makes the frame look up at the chin.
• Recording a whole lesson before you have checked a test.

If you would rather not build this at home, the Podcast Studio at the barn has three 4K cameras, studio microphones and a teleprompter, so the same set-up is in one room. For more on whether one camera or three is right for a course, see one camera or three? video podcast set-ups. For the course itself, planning a video course: modules, length and retention and audio course production: what we learnt making The Phoenix Formula cover the next steps.

Related guides

• Planning a video course: modules, length, retention
• Audio course production: what we learnt making The Phoenix Formula
• All guides and tools

The picture at the top of this page is an illustration, not a photograph of a client or a real job.