Elgato Camera Hub Webcam Settings Guide
Camera Hub is software from Elgato that primarily controls the settings of the Elgato Facecam. In this article, I’ll explain how each of the settings work, demonstrate my own optimized settings, and show how the settings translate to and interact with the settings in OBS.
Camera Hub Settings
Camera Hub window.
Zoom/FOV
This slider digitally zooms in your image. This causes a decrease in quality unlike optical zoom.
Contrast
Increasing the contrast makes the darkest colors of an image appear more black and the lightest colors brighter or more white. By default this is set to 3, but I prefer to lower it to 0.
By doing this, not only do dark objects not appear completely black, but this brightens up all the shadows without risking overexposure like when increasing the ISO or shutter speed.
Saturation
Saturation changes the intensity of color. This is set to 55 by default where I think it’s best. Decreasing the saturation washes out the colors to be grey, but increasing it makes the colors artificially too warm and vibrant.
Sharpness
Adjusting the sharpness will alter the detail in the shot, but this does not come without a cost. A sharpness too high creates a fake outline around objects. Sharpness too low makes everything too soft and blurry. The default value of 2 is where I keep it.
Exposure
Exposure is the most complicated but also most important setting to adjust in any webcam.
Automatic exposure
When set to automatic, the webcam will attempt to adjust the shutter speed to accomodate the available light. I’ll explain shutter speed in the next section. If the image is still to bright or too dark, you can move the compensation slider to adjust the image further.
Metering can be set to “average” or “center weighted”. Average will try to expose for the overall brightness of the frame. Center weighted mostly tries to expose for what’s in the middle of the frame.
For real control over your video, it’s best to turn off automatic exposure and use manual settings here. The manual settings are split into shutter speed and ISO.
Shutter Speed
Using the Facecam on a fast shutter speed.
Facecam on a slower shutter speed.
Shutter speed is how long the webcam will take in light before producing each frame. This is measured in fractions of a second - so for example 1/200.
In a DSLR camera, when you’re taking pictures, normally there is a hole that lets in light called the aperture. This hole stays closed until the shutter button is pressed. When pressed it opens for however long the shutter speed is set to.
So a shutter speed of 1/200 would mean the aperture opens to let in light for 1/200ths of a second before closing again. The larger the denominator, the faster the shutter speed and the less time there is for light to come in.
Shutter speed on a DSLR camera (1/200 next to the M).
When taking video, things are a bit different. It would not be practical for the shutter to open and close rapidly while filming an entire video. Instead shutter speed for video is done digitally. The camera accepts light for a certain period of time, but this is all done internally.
Having a slower shutter speed of say, 1/64 will mean that the device can let in far more light than a speed of 1/250. This will make the image much brighter. The downside is the slower the shutter speed, the more susceptile the camera will be to motion blur. In addition, a shutter speed slower than the actual frame rate of the device will decrease the perceived frame rate of the final video.
For example, if you were recording a 60 frames per second video that would mean 1 frame every 60 seconds or 1/60. A shutter speed of 1/30th of a second would mean the camera is taking in light for twice as long as it is required to maintain 60 FPS so your video will end up being 30 FPS in reality (and have a ton of motion blur).
So what should you set your shutter speed to? The simple answer is as slow as possible to make the image as bright as you can without decreasing the frame rate or causing too much motion blur. With my studio lights on I prefer to keep the shutter speed at about 1/250.
ISO
ISO is a camera’s sensitivity to light. This works in tandem with shutter speed. Shutter speed determines how much light is let in, but ISO will determine how much that light can affect the overall brightness of the video. The higher the ISO, the brighter the image, but it will also increase the grain or noise in the image. That’s that TV static-looking effect.
Noise Reduction
Noise reduction on.
Noise reduction off.
If there’s too much grain in the image, the noise reduction filter will decrease it at the cost of making the image look softer - similar to if you decreased the sharpness slider.
The best way to manage noise is to have as low an ISO value as possible and letting the brightness of the image be managed by the shutter speed as much as possible. I rarely go over 200 ISO and I always keep noise reduction off.
White Balance
The concept of white balance is simple. It determines how blue or amber the image will be. It is listed in Kelvin. The scale actually goes the opposite direction, but the idea is the same. A lower value makes the color “cooler” and the higher makes it “warmer”.
In reality, this is the trickiest setting to get right with the Elgato Facecam. Automatic white balance will attempt to adjust for the temperature of the light in the shot. If you aren’t satisfied with auto white balance, you can move the slider manually.
However, as of this writing, you can never get manual white balance anywhere close to what auto can get. There are shades of yellow that just aren’t accessible to the user. This means, you’ll have to deal with some extra blue, green, or amber in the shot without being able to get things right in the middle.
Cool white balance.
Automatic white balance.
Warm white balance.
This is the one slider where there’s not really a correct way to adjust it - just slide it to whatever colors you’re most comfortable with (or the least uncomfortable with).
Anti Flicker
At the very bottom is anti-flicker. This can be set to 50 Hz or 60 Hz to counteract flickering of LED lights in your video by changing the shutter speed. However, this has no effect when using manual exposure controls.
Optimal Settings summary
For the best looking video I recommend the following basic settings and then tweaking the rest to your liking:
Keep the shutter speed as slow as possible while having the least amount of motion blur and still having 60 FPS. 1/250 is a good starting point with studio lighting.
Decrease the ISO as low as possible while retaining brightness.
Keep noise reduction off.
Manually set the white balance to where your skin tone is acceptable or set it to automatic if you don’t want as much green in the picture.
OBS Interaction
Using Camera Hub in conjunction with OBS.
The preview window in Camera hub can be turned off by clicking the slider in the lower right. This is required to utilize it in OBS or other software. However, you can still use Camera Hub to alter the controls. By clicking the arrow in the upper left of Camera Hub, you can hide the now blank preview window and position the window where it’s most convenient.
For the most part, you can control all of Camera Hub’s settings in OBS, but there are some differences. Mainly the labeling and numbers will be different.
Shutter speed translates to “exposure” in OBS. ISO is brightness (for most webcams this is gain). Also, unlike most webcams, setting auto exposure will not link the shutter speed and ISO. Meaning, you will still have to adjust the brightness slider manually.
Using optimized settings in video conferencing software
Once you’ve applied all your settings, you can press “save” in the upper left and the settings will save to your device. You can then use Facecam in other software like Zoom.
Alternatively, if you’re using OBS, you can click “Start Virtual Camera” under the start recording button and then add OBS-Camera in Zoom.
