etzee

Do I have to show my face on camera?

No. What you do have to show, and how sellers who prefer not to run shows that work.

The Metzee team15 Oct 20262 min read

No. Nothing requires your face to be in the frame.

What has to be in the frame is the item. That is what people are buying, and it is what the camera should be pointed at.

The setup that works without you in it

Phone on a stand, pointed down at a table. Your hands come into frame holding the item, turning it, showing the label or the weave or the hallmark. You talk over the top.

This is not a compromise. For jewellery, cards, coins, fabric detail and anything small it is better than a seller-facing camera, because the item fills the screen instead of sharing it with a face.

What you cannot avoid

Your voice, realistically. A silent show does not sell — the explaining is most of what a live auction is for, and a room with nobody talking leaves.

If speaking on camera is the problem rather than appearing, that is worth practising rather than avoiding. Start a rehearsal sells nothing and nobody watches it.

The control you have mid-show

Cam off puts up Camera is off — for stepping away, fetching the next item, dealing with something off screen.

Audio keeps running. That is the one to remember: the camera being off does not mean the microphone is off, and a room has heard more than one seller say something they thought was private.

What a face does buy you

Honesty about the trade-off: sellers who are on camera tend to build repeat buyers faster, because people come back to a person. A hands-only show is competing purely on the items.

Some ways to get part of the benefit without being on camera:

  • Your voice doing the work — naming flaws, saying what you like about a piece, answering chat by name.
  • A face on your store page rather than in the show, if you are comfortable with a photo.
  • Your hands and your workspace. A show filmed over a cluttered workbench in a real shop carries a lot of the same signal.

If the reason is privacy

Entirely reasonable and fairly common. Your store name is separate from your personal name, your personal name can be changed, and buyers get your address only if you offer pickup. A store can be a real business without being a person on screen. Changing your display name.

More: what to say on camera, camera and light, how to go live.

← All posts

There is a show on right now.

Nothing to install — it runs in this browser.

Find a showCreate an account