How to turn your Mac screen into a ring light during video calls
Learn how to use the new Edge Light feature in macOS Tahoe 26 that adds a simple but functional ring light around the display to improve your video call quality in low light conditions.
Unlike the iPhone’s front camera, the built-in webcam on MacBook isn’t of very high quality. And things take a turn for the worse if you’re in a poorly lit room.
To help address this problem, macOS 26.2 adds a handy Edge Light feature that transforms the computer display into a decently bright light source.
Mac uses its Neural Engine to work accurately as a ring light by analyzing your face, distance from the camera, and your face position. The Image Signal Processor (ISP), which handles camera and image-processing tasks, kicks in for this feature as well and adjusts the virtual ring light brightness to suit your ambient lighting.
Requirements
Hardware: Edge Light works on Mac with Apple silicon chip (M1, M2, M3, M4, M5). Intel Macs are not supported. Automatic Edge Lighting (more on it later) works only on Macs from 2024 and later.
Software: Your Mac must be on macOS 26.2 or later.
Apps: Edge Light is available with FaceTime, Photo Booth, and most other third-party video calling apps.
Camera: Edge Light works with the built-in MacBook and iMac camera, as well as Apple Studio Display camera, third-party webcams, and Continuity Camera connected to an Apple silicon Mac.
Use Edge Light to improve video calls on Mac
- Open FaceTime, Photo Booth, or another video calling app on your Mac.
- Click the video call icon (video menu) from the top menu bar.
- Click Edge Light to activate it.
You’ll now see a ring light all around the computer display. If you take the pointer over a particular part of the Edge Light, that portion will phase out so you can see what’s on the screen, behind the light.
Follow the same steps to turn it off.
Customize Edge Light
Click the arrow (>) next to Edge Light in the video menu and do the following:
- Drag the top slider to increase or decrease the thickness of the ring light. A thicker ring light means more light.
- Adjust the temperature slider to make the light more yellow or white/blue.
Automatic Edge Light
If you have a Mac from 2024 or later, Edge Light will activate automatically when you’re in a low-light environment. If you don’t want that, click the arrow next to Edge Light in the video menu and select ‘Manually.’
To see your Mac’s launch year, click the Apple icon in the top menu bar and select About This Mac.
If you use multiple virtual desktop spaces
Edge Light stays active even if you switch to a different desktop space and leave the ongoing FaceTime video call window on its original space.
However, if you just open an app like Photo Booth and switch to a different desktop space, the Edge Light disappears after a few seconds.
If you have an unsupported Mac…
Here are a couple of options if you have an Intel Mac or one that’s not updated to macOS 26.2.
Use a white background
Open Safari, enter about:blank in the address bar, and hit the return/enter key to open an empty white screen. Then, crank the screen brightness to maximum, and place the FaceTime window over the Safari window.
You can also substitute Safari with a plain white image in the Photos app.
Use LightBuddy
The other option is to use the LightBuddy app ($5) to turn your Mac’s display into a light source for improved video calls. Unlike the built-in Edge Light feature that only works on the primary display, you can configure LightBuddy to work on all connected monitors or just one.
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Source link: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2025/12/22/use-edge-light-mac/
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