7 Worst Places to Install Security Cameras & Pro Placement Tips

The Gift of Real Security: Avoiding the 7 Worst Places to Install a New Camera

It is a scenario that plays out in neighborhoods across the country every holiday season. You unwrap a sleek, high-tech home security system, feel a sudden surge of preparedness, and immediately bolt those cameras to the most convenient spots you can find. But here is the irony: without a bit of strategic thinking, that expensive tech can actually assist the very intruders you are trying to deter.

Bad camera placement does more than just miss the action; it can provide a roadmap for someone looking to bypass your defenses. As you set up your own system or help a friend install a gift, you need to think less like a decorator and more like a strategist. Forget the marketing jargon on the box. Real security is about visibility, accessibility, and outsmarting the person who does not want to be seen. Consider this your pro-level manual for turning a gadget into a genuine shield.

The Low-Hanging Fruit: The Front Door Trap

The front door is the most common entry point for both guests and intruders, making it the most obvious place for a camera. However, many DIYers mount their cameras at eye level right next to the door. This is a significant security flaw. At that height, a camera is easily reached, covered with a piece of tape, or simply yanked off the wall.

The Pro-Level Fix: Reach for the High Ground

You should mount your primary entry cameras at least eight to ten feet above the ground. This keeps them out of reach of a quick grab while still providing a clear view of faces. If you are gifting a doorbell camera, look for models like the Ring Battery Doorbell Pro. It features Head-to-Toe video and a 1536p HD resolution, which allows you to see packages on the ground and faces clearly, even when mounted slightly higher than a traditional doorbell. By positioning your gear just out of arm’s reach, you force an intruder to work much harder to disable your "eyes."

The Blinded Backyard: Fighting the Sun

We often think of backyards as private sanctuaries, but they are frequently the most vulnerable spots for break-ins. The mistake here is pointing a camera toward a wide-open space without considering the arc of the sun. If your camera faces east or west, the morning or evening glare can wash out the image entirely, leaving you with useless, white-out footage at the exact moments someone might be using the shadows to move.

The Pro-Level Fix: Prioritize High Dynamic Range

When choosing a camera for a sun-drenched backyard, High Dynamic Range (HDR) is your best friend. The Google Nest Cam (Battery) is a standout here; its HDR performance is specifically designed to balance bright highlights and deep shadows, ensuring you can see the person in the hoodie even if the sun is directly behind them. Beyond the tech, angle your cameras slightly downward and away from the direct path of the sun to minimize lens flare.

The Window Reflection Fail

It seems like a clever hack: place a camera inside the house, looking out a window. It stays dry, stays powered, and is safe from theft. However, this creates a major technical failure at night. Most security cameras use infrared (IR) light to see in the dark. When that IR light hits glass, it reflects right back into the lens, creating a blinding white blur on your screen and making the footage completely unreadable.

The Pro-Level Fix: Weatherproof Outdoor Units

If you want to see what is happening outside, the camera must be outside. For a gift that offers true versatility, the Arlo Pro 5 is a top-tier choice. It is fully weatherproof and features a powerful integrated spotlight. Instead of relying on IR light through a window, the Arlo Pro 5 uses its spotlight to provide color night vision, giving you much better detail—like the color of a getaway car or a suspect's jacket—that black-and-white footage simply cannot capture.

The One-Camera Corner Illusion

Many people believe that tucking a single camera into a corner will cover an entire room or a large driveway. In reality, every camera has a fixed field of view, and corners are notorious for creating "dead zones" directly underneath the lens or along the adjacent walls. If an intruder knows where your one camera is, they can easily find the path that stays out of its sightline.

The Pro-Level Fix: Overlapping Fields of View

Reliable security comes from overlap. You want the view of one camera to be monitored by the view of another. For those on a budget, you do not need to spend a fortune to achieve this. The Wyze Cam v4 is an incredibly capable and affordable option that allows you to buy three or four units for the price of one flagship model. Use these smaller units to fill in the gaps and cover side entries or basement windows, ensuring there is no "dark path" into your home.

The Driveway Silhouette

A camera at the end of a long driveway is great for notification, but if it is placed too high or too far away, all you will see is a grainy silhouette of a car. To be truly useful for law enforcement, a driveway camera needs to capture two things: a license plate and a clear look at the driver’s face through the windshield.

The Pro-Level Fix: The Head-On Approach

Position your driveway camera at a lower, more direct angle toward where vehicles park. Aim for a head-on view rather than a side profile. This increases the chances of capturing the driver as they exit the vehicle or look toward the house. If the camera is a gift for someone with a large property, suggest they mount it on a post closer to the driveway entrance rather than on the distant eaves of the house.

The Unreachable Tower

In an effort to keep cameras safe from tampering, some people mount them so high that they require a specialized ladder just to reach them. If a camera is too hard to get to, it will never be cleaned. Spiders love to build webs over warm camera lenses, and dust can quickly degrade your image quality. A camera that you cannot maintain is a camera that will eventually fail you.

The Pro-Level Fix: The Maintenance Sweet Spot

Find a height that is out of reach for a person standing on the ground, but accessible with a standard step stool or a short ladder. This ensures you can easily wipe the lens or swap out a battery. If you are helping a friend set up their system, make sure the camera is mounted in a spot where they feel comfortable performing basic maintenance every few months.

The Gift of Privacy: The Setup is Just as Important as the Spot

When you give someone a security camera, you are also giving them a piece of digital property that needs to be defended. A camera that is poorly secured online is a much greater risk than no camera at all. This is the most critical "placement" of all: placing your data behind a wall of security.

Every modern security system, whether it is from Ring, Nest, or Arlo, offers Two-Factor Authentication (2FA). This should be considered a non-negotiable part of the installation process. When setting up a new gift, take five minutes to ensure the recipient has enabled 2FA and is using a strong, unique password. Truly effective security starts with making sure you are the only one with the keys to the digital front door.

Smarter Placement for a Safer Home

Investing in home security is one of the best things you can do for your peace of mind, but the tech is only as good as the strategy behind it. Whether you are installing a high-end Arlo system or a fleet of budget-friendly Wyze cams, success comes down to thinking critically about your home’s unique vulnerabilities.

Walk around your property. Think about where the shadows fall, where the sun hits, and where an intruder would feel most "invisible." By avoiding these seven common placement traps and focusing on specific, capable hardware, you ensure that your security system is doing exactly what it was meant to do: protecting what matters most. Now, go grab that ladder and make sure your cameras are actually working for you.