So you’ve bought a camera or two, and now you’re wondering what to do next? Getting the right camera is important, of course, but perhaps even more important is finding a good place to put it. Even the best camera in the world won’t do anything for you if it’s placed in the wrong spot.

Visible vs hidden

The eternal debate: should your cameras be visible to the street, to act as a deterrent, or hidden, so that intruders can’t try to hide from them?

My answer? Both! Visible ones can be very effective as a deterrent, because who would want to rob a house with a bunch of cameras when there’s dozens of other camera-less houses nearby? But visible cameras have their downsides too, namely that thieves can simply try to avoid them, or aim their face away from them, or even just steal or destroy them. For this last reason, I recommend using fairly cheap cameras (or even broken ones!) as visible deterrents. I wouldn’t recommend fake ones though, since depending on the brand, they might be too obviously fake.

As for your hidden cameras, these should be your higher-quality ones. Ideally, they should be able to see everything you want recorded, without relying on the visible ones. That way, even if a visible one is broken or stolen, you still have a fully functional camera system.

Best places for security cameras

When deciding where to place cameras, consider your goals. Do you want to be notified if a dangerous person enters the premises? Do you want a good photo of the perp’s face that you can give to the cops? Or perhaps their car description and license plate, if they happened to park out front? Do you want a camera inside so you can check on things while you’re away? Or just see what any burglars happened to do while they ransacked your home?

Assuming you want all of the above, here’s where I personally recommend placing cameras, in order from most important to least:

• Front door. This lets you see visitors, know when packages are delivered, catch package thieves, etc. Some cameras even allow 2-way audio communication (particularly doorbell cameras, but some others allow this too), allowing you to “answer the door” from anywhere (even if you’re not home). This can be a boon, as burglars will sometimes ring the doorbell to see if anyone’s home before breaking in. They won’t know whether you’re at work, on vacation, or just too lazy to get off the couch.
  • For the front door in particular, you will want at least one camera that is obviously visible, preferably from far away. This will deter would-be burglars and package thieves.
• Driveway and/or street, especially if that’s where you park your car; you’ll be able to catch car prowlers and maybe get another angle at someone walking up to your house. Thieves may also drive up in their own car, and having a camera watching means you can potentially report the vehicle’s description to the police.
  • I recommend keeping a visible one here to deter car prowlers. Alternatively, you could consider keeping a hidden one near the street if you want to try and catch a license plate (a thief might park farther away if they know you have a camera), but most cameras can’t actually read license plates very well, if at all. More on this later.
• Back door(s) and/or yard, to give you a heads-up before someone actually breaks in. Particularly useful if your camera provides movement/person notifications. Preferably, all possible entry points to your house are covered (including windows). If you have valuables in your yard, e.g. in a shed, you may also want a camera there.
• Optionally, common areas, to check on your house while you’re gone (for peace of mind), check on pets/children, or get additional footage of any burglars.
  • If installing a camera indoors or any place otherwise considered “private”, you should be especially concerned about the privacy and security properties of both the camera and the company that makes it (as well as whatever device(s) you use to access the footage).

It’s not necessary to put cameras in individual rooms (e.g. bedrooms) if you just want to make sure you can get some footage of a burglar; your outdoor and/or common area cameras will catch them just fine. Though if you have an alarm system, you may wish to put motion detectors in rooms with valuables so that if a burglar breaks in through that room, they won’t have much time to ransack it (since the alarm will be going off—learn more about alarm system setup in the Alarm systems section (LINK)). Though if you want to be able to know exactly where a burglar is at all times during a break-in, you could consider having cameras in each room still; again, you just need to balance it against privacy concerns.

You may also wish to have multiple cameras covering important areas (preferably with different angles and at least partial overlaps) just in case any single camera fails (it happens all the time) or one can’t quite capture all the detail you want. Ideally, some of these cameras will be visible (as deterrents), while others remain hidden so that a thief doesn’t simply avoid, destroy, or steal them (with the latter two being especially problematic if video is stored on the camera itself; you’ll lose both the camera and all of the footage).

Catching license plates

As mentioned earlier, most cameras are terrible at reading license plates, particularly at night. If you want to be able to catch the license plates of automobiling thieves, then you’ll need cameras that are specifically made to read them. You’ll also generally need to install them as close to the cars as possible, e.g. in your driveway or next to the street (aiming parallel to traffic, preferably one in each direction). This will let them read the plates of passing cars (though note that in some jurisdictions, your cameras can only cover your own property and not the street—check your local laws).

The cameras can be hard to hide if they’re so close to the street, and are likely to be stolen since they’re so accessible, but you can always try to get creative and hide them inside of a mailbox or something! And speaking of hiding…

Tips for hiding a camera

• Put it either above or below (but not at) eye-level.
• Get a smaller camera.
• If the camera has a light, disable it or cover it up with tape or something.
• If the camera is a bright color or otherwise stands out from its surroundings, consider painting it or covering it in tape, paper, etc.
• Hide it within an object or within a collection of objects. Make sure as little as possible is visible. Example hiding places:
  • In a pile of junk
  • On a shelf surrounded by similar-looking objects
  • Behind a one-way mirror
  • In a bush/tree (though you may need to trim leaves occasionally)

Tips for placing outdoor cameras

Outdoor cameras have all sorts of extra issues to deal with compared to indoor cameras. Here are some of the the things you’ll want to consider:

• Will they be protected from the elements where they are located? Under the eaves is a solid choice, but if that’s not an option, you’ll likely have to get a weatherproof camera or housing. Make sure you consider wind, water, ice, snow, dust, sunlight, extreme temperatures, and even pests (insects, rodents, birds, etc.).
  • If you place them just inside a window (e.g. on the windowsill), they will be protected from the elements, and they won’t be as easy to quickly steal/destroy; any criminal would have to get through the window first. Power outlets are also easier to come by on the inside of the house. However, reflections of the interior can set off false positive motion alarms and obscure outside activity (especially at night, when your inside lights are on). If your camera has infrared lights on it (for night vision), these may also reflect against the glass and completely prevent the camera from seeing outside at night.
• If they require a physical power/data connection, will you just be stringing it along the side of your house at ground-level, where someone could easily unplug or snip the cable without being seen by the camera? Is there a way you can wire it directly through the wall, or under the eaves of your house, or even just up higher?
• If they use battery power, how long do the batteries last? Would it make more sense to run a power cable or use solar power?
• If they use solar power, will they get enough sunlight where they are, both in winter (with less daylight) and summer (with tree leaves blocking sunlight)? Will their batteries last through the whole night, even if they are repeatedly activated by wind or something?
  • Most decent cameras would drain batteries way too quickly if they recorded constantly; ones designed to run off of batteries may enter a low-power state and then only record when “activated” by movement (or some other trigger). Is this an acceptable tradeoff for you?
• If they connect to your wi-fi, do they get good signal where they are? Consider adjusting your router’s position/antennas or the camera’s position to get a better signal, or installing an antenna on the camera. Remember that the fewer walls, appliances, etc. between the router and camera, the better. You may need to consider a better router, a wi-fi range extender device, or just having a home network that consists of multiple wireless routers (called a “mesh” router system). Also note that 2.4GHz wifi usually works better than 5GHz through walls and over longer ranges, but often gets more interference from other wireless devices—in fact, running a microwave oven can temporarily slow down or break nearby 2.4GHz wifi connections.

Conclusion

As you can see, placing cameras perfectly can be nearly as complicated as buying them. But again, don’t worry! It doesn’t actually have to be perfect! It’s pretty easy to find spots that are “good enough”, and then from there you can just make minor tweaks as needed if you discover issues. Really, you can make it as easy or as complex as you want. It doesn’t hurt to just try out something basic and go from there!

The Home Security Series

• Home Security 101: Where do I even start?
• Home Security 102: Basic physical security
• Home Security 103: Basic security habits
• Security Cameras 101: Where to start
• Security Cameras 102: Basic buying guide
• Security Cameras 103: Camera placement