Generation of a preview window for video conferencing which is configured to output a silhouette of a user and output feedback on the user's facial position and surrounding lighting conditions. A user's image is captured with an input device and processed to create both the silhouette and indications which indicate if the user's facial position and surrounding light levels are suitable for the videoconference. The created silhouette and indications are outputted to a preview window in the user's video conferencing graphical user interface.