I've used OBS Studio for years, mainly as a way to record my screen in briefing calls or to record gameplay. But it's incredibly powerful open-source software that allows you to set up a virtual camera that you then use in video call apps like Zoom, Google Meet, or even Discord.

While its virtual camera tool is pretty cool on its own, you can add additional plugins to expand its functionality. Here are three plugins I use that help me manage my webcam...

3 DroidCam

Use your phone as a webcam

While I usually use a dedicated webcam for my video calls, I have been playing around with the DroidCam plugin in OBS to try out using one of my extra smartphones as a webcam. I was already familiar with using DroidCam with my laptop, since many of the review devices I have lying around offer better quality than my old laptop's webcam. But I didn't realize that you could also use the app on your computer through OBS until recently. When you use the OBS plugin, you also don't need to set up DroidCam Desktop separately.

Once you have DroidCam installed on your smartphone and the plugin installed in OBS, you can set DroidCam as your source for your OBS Virtual Camera. However, the main drawback is that if you're using the free version, there will be a watermark on your virtual camera output, while the free smartphone app includes the occasional ad. You also don't get 4K resolution with the OBS plugin unless you have paid for a license through a one-time purchase or subscription.

But since I have extra phones lying around with great cameras, I'm considering getting the Pro license to unlock all of the features, since this would be less costly than upgrading my 1080p webcam. If that's not an option for you, you can also opt to watch an ad in the app to unlock HD video and remove the watermark for one hour.

2 PTZ Controls

A simple, but useful plugin

One problem I have with using my webcam is that the wide field of view means that a lot more of my background is included than I would like. While Windows lets me adjust the zoom in my camera settings, it doesn't allow me to adjust the tilt of the view. Meanwhile, while some apps are great at automatically framing the subject of the video, others use the default view of my camera. You can use OBS to reframe your webcam when you configure the video source, but you would need to go into these settings repeatedly if you want to zoom in and out.

That's where PTZ Controls for OBS comes in. It allows me to zoom in on my camera view, as well as tilt and pan the view to get the framing right. I can then use this adjusted view for my OBS Virtual Camera. Since PTZ gives you access to controls for your camera view through a dock, you can adjust the view while your camera is running. You can also choose to lock this dock into your main OBS window or use it as a floating set of controls.

The benefit of having floating controls is that you can then adjust the pan and tilt on a second screen, or while you have another window open on your PC. While I really enjoy the functionality of the plugin, I do find that it can lag a bit when it comes to adjusting the view. It also has different focus tools; however, I don't really use these.

1 OBS Detect

Object tracking for free

OBS Detect is by far one of the coolest free plugins for OBS Studio. For context, my colleague Joao has a face-tracking webcam that I always envy when it comes to weekly video calls. But then I realized I can enable face-tracking for free by using an OBS plugin.

An important thing to note is that OBS Detect is no longer actively maintained, one of the drawbacks to using open-source software. But I use it because it is a uniquely fun tool for managing your webcam. Just be sure to disable the Preview detection boxes option before you enter a meeting, otherwise you'll see object borders in your video output.

While I use it to keep the camera focused on my face even when I move, you can also use it to detect objects and apply a mask (such as a blur or color block). You can also set it to track different types of objects, including pets, which could be a fun use of the tool.

Using OBS to improve your webcam

While I only recently discovered OBS Studio's abilities to improve my webcam features, the tools I've tried give me hope that I will find even more gems out there. This saves me from having to shell out for a new webcam for now.

I'm hoping to discover even more OBS plugins that allow me to put my webcam to good use. There are plenty of built-in tools to explore, especially since I've mostly been using the software for simple functions up until now.