I found Webcam Settings after running into some issues with the Razer Kiyo I purchased for the office (as opposed to the home office); the Kiyo, for some reason, will not autofocus correctly when plugged into my Mac, and I thought it was because it wasn’t supported on the Mac by Razer. That’s not actually the issue, but I digress.

The challenge I face in working from home is lighting in my home office, which doesn’t lack for natural light–a good thing, normally. The problem is, the light comes in hard from the southeast in the morning, and as it travels across the sky throughout the day, is never less than anything but directly shining on the right side of my body. A better situation, of course, would be to have the light in my face, and then to mediate it with shading.

Here’s the default situation, even with a desklamp shining in my face. The foreground is too dark, while the background is well light by natural light:

Webcam Settings lives in your menu bar and provides access to a number of settings. From the drop-down menu, you can switch cameras and choose from profiles (default and any you’ve saved). There are basic and advanced settings within the panel, including exposure modes, brightness, white balance, and frequency. Just being able to override the default brightness settings improved my exposure.

If you have a Mac but your webcam isn’t supported with third-party software, Webcam Settings is worth the small fee.

Update: I added a shot below from work, taken using the Razer Kiyo with the LED ring light on. At the office, I have a full complement of windows that face north, so there is plentiful natural light, which never streams directly into the room. Zero rigamarole.