Camera tricks in macOS Sonoma
Apple has made some significant advancements in this area
Every Mac model (except the Mac mini and the Mac Pro) has a built-in FaceTime camera, and even ‘headless’ Macs benefit from a 12MP Ultra Wide camera if you pair them with an Apple Studio Display. In macOS Sonoma, Apple has paid attention to the camera with a range of new and improved features.
1 Studio Light
If you have an Apple silicon Mac, you can use the Studio Light feature directly from your Mac’s FaceTime camera. This increases the lighting on your face, and dims the background. In a video chat app, click the Video button – the white video camera on a green background, found in the menu bar. In the menu, click Studio Light to turn the effect on and off. Click on the right-facing chevron to the right of Studio Light to open a slider that lets you increase and decrease the effect.
2 Portrait, for background blur
Also found in this menu is the Portrait option. Again, this can be activated and deactivated by clicking it – the icon to its left turns green when it’s on – and the chevron once again opens and closes a slider that sets the strength of the effect. Portrait mode blurs the background, while keeping your face and body sharp. It’s ideal when you need to video chat but your room is untidy.
3 Centre Stage
With a recent Apple silicon Mac and either a built-in camera or an iPhone 12 or later, connected to your Mac using Continuity Camera, you can enjoy the new features offered by Centre Stage. Again, click the green-and-white Video button while using the FaceTime camera. Is there a Centre Stage option at the top of the menu? If not, try connecting your iPhone and using it as an external camera. To do that, open the Video menu again, only this time go to the Camera section and select your iPhone. The Centre Stage option should now appear in the Video menu. Again, you can switch the feature on or off by clicking on it; a green icon next to Centre Stage means it’s on. Switch it off and the icon turns grey.
Click the chevron next to Centre Stage for two options. The Main option gives you a regular Centre Stage view, while Ultra Wide allows more of the area around you to be seen. Either way, if you move around, Centre Stage works to keep you in the centre of the frame.
4 Presenter overlay – large option
This is a video conferencing feature that lets you share a screen with those you’re chatting to, but also have yourself in the video. It’s no longer the case that you have to choose between sharing your screen and your video feed. Now you can do both.
The Large Overlay option places your screen between you and the background. To use it, you must be in a video call. Unfortunately, unlike most of the new and existing video chat features described here, you can’t simply open an app and practise using Presenter Overlay with no audience watching. First, click the Video button, the white video camera on a green background that appears in your menu bar when you have a video chat application open. In the Presenter Overlay section, click Large. Now click the Screen Share button, the one that looks like a person silhouetted in front of a screen.
To share a window, drag the pointer on to it and click on the message Share This Window that appears. Alternatively, click App in the Video menu, move to the app window you want to share and then click Share All [App] Windows. On an Apple silicon Mac, you can click Add Window in the Video menu to share another window alongside that or those you’re already sharing. Click the ‘–’ button on the left of the window’s preview to stop sharing it.
To share your entire screen, in the Video menu click on Screen, move the pointer to the screen in question then click on Share This Screen.
To change which window you’re sharing, in the shared window preview click Change Shared Window and then move the pointer to the window you want to share instead. When a ‘Share This Window’ message appears, click it.
5 Presenter overlay – small option
The Small Presenter Overlay option is operated in the same way as the Large one, but click Small instead of Large in the Presenter Overlay section. Now, instead of placing the shared screen between you and the background against which you’re being filmed, the screen being shared fills the whole of the video feed, with your face appearing in a bubble that sits on top of it. If it’s covering something important, you can drag this bubble around the screen and drop it somewhere else.
6 Share window
Screen Sharing has had a boost in Sonoma. There’s now a Screen Sharing application available. You can find it in the Applications > Utilities folder. Recent connections are listed in the Connections window, so if the one you want is listed there, click on it to reconnect. If not, click the ‘+’ sign to start a new connection and enter the Apple ID of the person you want to connect to in the Screen Sharing window that appears. When they accept, you can observe or control their Mac’s screen on your own Mac, depending on the level of access they have given you – for more, see the tutorial in MF397.