I'm a TV cameraperson. Here's my "pro tips" for video chats on the web. I basically treat them like I do a live shot or an interview:
1: If you turn the brightness up on your computer screen, it makes a nice key (main face) light. Avoid bright lights or windows behind you. The computer's camera will try to expose for that, and then you look dark if not silhouetted. Make yourself slightly brighter than the background, but not so much so that it looks like you're sitting in the dark.
Monitors are generally color balanced for daylight if you pay attention to things like that (I do). The camera will auto white balance and auto iris, so it will try to find a happy medium in both cases. You may look washed out because you have a comparatively "warm" light source in the background like a strong tungsten or halogen light that the camera is trying to compensate for.
Look at the lighting on your face. Is there a strong overhead light giving you raccoon eyes, or back lighting you? If so try turning it off or brighten your monitor to balance it out. Most desks face a wall or window. The window can be a good light source, but the wall probably means you'll be backlit. I have Venetian style blinds that help to soften the sunlight. Especially on a sunny day having something soft, translucent, and white (you don't want to add color to your face's light source) can help.
Diffused white light is best. Don't shine your desk lamp in your face, bounce it off the white wall in front of you if you decide to use it. If you have colored walls, that color may reflect on to your face. Bounce it off of something white like the back side of a poster or a piece of foam core. Don't build a fire hazard!
2: If you'e using a laptop, pad, phone, or other small device, you might want to put it up one some books so that the camera is looking straight at you rather than up your nose.
3: Really look at the shot. What does the background say about you? Is there anything there you don't want people to see like a pile of dirty laundry? Try to find something a little more interesting to show behind you other than a blank wall, but a blank wall is fine too. It might actually help because there's less for the computer to compress so it could conceivably save bandwidth.
If you don't want to see something can you move it, cover it, block it, make it dark, move the camera, hide it with your body... Remember that every thing can move. Maybe moving the angle a little bit is easier than moving the object.
When my fabulous girlfriend, Nancy, had to do an web meeting from my office/storage space/cave, I used a drop cloth that made it look she had books behind her and not my shelves full of clutter.
4: If the video or audio is laggy or choppy, try turning off the camera and just using audio. Without the video signal to compress, the system has more bandwidth for the audio.
5: The closer you are to the microphone, the better the audio will be (however, if you can lick it, you're probably too close!).
Please feel free to contact any time if you have any questions or ideas for other ways to do this sort of thing!
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