She opened the built-in Camera app on her laptop, propped it against a stack of books to angle it downward, and placed a single coaster under the webcam’s lens. The result was terrible—grainy, dark, and flat.

Now came the real magic: . She used the computer’s screen to see a live view of the coaster, adjusted the focus with a keyboard shortcut, and triggered the shutter without touching the camera. No shake. Perfect exposure.

She took twenty shots, tweaked the lighting by simply changing the screen color (white for bright, gray for moody), and instantly reviewed each image on the large display.

Within an hour, she had professional-grade product photos. The next day, her coasters sold out.

The moral? “Take a photo on your computer” doesn’t mean using the tiny built-in lens. It means using the computer as a —all at once. Sometimes the best camera accessory is the screen you already own.