Security Camera Placement: A Complete Guide for Homeowners

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Smart Security6 min readJanuary 10, 2026

By Vision Core Technologies

Where you place your security cameras matters more than which cameras you buy. The most expensive camera in the wrong location is less effective than a mid-range camera positioned with intention. Here is what our installation team has learned from hundreds of projects.

Start With Entry Points

The front door is the most common point of entry for both welcome visitors and unwelcome ones. A camera with a clear view of your front entrance — capturing faces at eye level, not the tops of heads — is your single most valuable placement.

Cover the Perimeter

Side gates, back doors, and garage entries are the next priority. Burglars rarely use the front door. Position cameras high enough to avoid tampering but angled down enough to capture identifiable details within 20 feet.

Driveway and Street Approach

A camera that captures vehicles and license plates approaching your property provides context that doorbell cameras miss. Wide-angle lenses work well here, but keep the field of view focused — a camera that sees everything often captures nothing useful.

Interior Camera Considerations

Interior cameras are a personal choice. Some families want coverage of common areas like living rooms and playrooms. Others find interior cameras intrusive. If you do install them, hallways and stairwells are strategic chokepoints that cover movement through the home without monitoring private spaces.

Lighting and Common Mistakes

Lighting is critical. The best footage comes from cameras with supplemental lighting. Avoid common mistakes: pointing cameras directly at windows (glare washes out footage), placing cameras too high (you get bird-eye views with no facial detail), and ignoring network infrastructure (wireless cameras over weak Wi-Fi produce unreliable footage).

The Professional Difference

Professional placement accounts for all of these factors. We survey your property, identify vulnerability points, plan camera angles with actual field-of-view simulations, and ensure your network can handle the data load. The result is a system that captures what matters, when it matters.

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