Recording a screen presentation with webcam feed alongside the content
Recording a presentation with both the screen content and your own camera feed — the format most commonly associated with online courses, training recordings, and recorded webinars — introduces specific multi-source capture challenges that recording either one independently doesn’t have. Getting this setup right before a long recording session saves significant rework afterward.
The two fundamentally different approaches
There are two genuinely different approaches to this type of recording, and they produce different results for different use cases.
The first is a screen recording with a webcam overlay — your presentation content fills most of the frame, with your camera feed as a picture-in-picture element in one corner. This is the format most viewers expect for software demonstrations, walkthroughs, and technical training. The screen content is primary; your face provides context and trust.
The second is a camera recording with screen content as a secondary element — you’re the primary subject, and the screen content appears alongside or behind you, usually via a virtual background or a side panel. This format works better for lecture-style content where your presence and expression are the main communication channel, and the screen content is reference material.
Deciding which approach fits your content before setting up your recording avoids discovering midway through a session that you’ve optimized for the wrong format.
The technical setup for screen-primary recordings
For presentations where the screen content is primary, OBS is the most capable free tool — it supports multiple sources (display capture and webcam) positioned and sized precisely in a single scene. Camtasia handles this natively with a simpler setup but less fine-grained control. Loom supports this format as one of its core use cases with a very fast setup path.
The specific challenge in this setup is sizing and positioning the webcam overlay so it doesn’t obscure important screen content. Many presenters default to a corner placement, but the better approach is considering which corners of your specific presentation content are consistently free of important elements — a corner with a slide number or logo is a better overlay position than a corner where your key content appears.
Managing presenter notes without showing them
One practical challenge in presentation recording is accessing your own notes — which are visible in Presenter View on tools like PowerPoint and Keynote — without those notes appearing in the recording. The standard solution is using a multi-monitor setup where Presenter View displays on your non-recorded monitor and the recording captures only the audience-facing display. This ties directly into the second monitor as reference guide — the principle is the same, applied specifically to presentation software.
On a single-monitor setup, the alternatives are: use printed notes positioned below the camera (so your eye line looks roughly at the camera), use a teleprompter app, or memorize the key points rather than relying on on-screen notes. Reading from notes positioned below and to the side of your monitor creates obvious eye-line breaks that are visible in the recording and reduce the sense of direct address.
Audio routing in a presentation recording
Presentation recordings often have at least two audio sources — your microphone and potentially the audio from slides (videos, embedded audio). Routing these correctly matters more than in a single-source recording. As covered in our separate audio tracks guide, keeping microphone and system audio on separate tracks gives you the flexibility to balance them independently in editing — which matters specifically when embedded slide audio is louder or quieter than your narration.
The test slide approach before recording for real
Before recording any substantial presentation, running through the first two or three slides in the actual recording setup — not a preview, but a real short recording — confirms that the webcam overlay is positioned correctly, the audio routing is producing both sources at appropriate levels, and the screen content looks the way you intend rather than the way the preview suggested.
The cost of this test is a few minutes. The cost of discovering in post-production that your webcam was cut off, your audio was muted, or your overlay covered a critical slide element for an hour-long recording is substantially higher.
Frequently asked questions
What’s the best setup for recording a presentation with both screen and webcam?
OBS for maximum flexibility (free, supports precise multi-source layouts), Camtasia for a simpler integrated approach, or Loom for the fastest setup if you don’t need post-production editing. Choose based on how much control you need versus how quickly you need to be recording.
How do I access presenter notes without showing them in the recording?
Use a two-monitor setup where Presenter View appears on the non-recorded monitor, or position printed notes below the camera where they don’t affect eye contact with the lens.
Related reading: OBS vs Bandicam: which one actually fits you · Using a second monitor as a reference while recording · Recording separate audio tracks in a screen recording