Avoiding Camera Blind Spots: Fixing Gaps in Your Coverage

A camera that “covers the whole yard” usually doesn’t. There are corners, angles, and dead zones where someone can walk, stand, or work without ever being recorded. Those are blind spots, and intruders look for them on purpose.

Before adjusting anything, read the Security Camera Placement Guide so you understand basic height and angle rules, and the High-Risk Entry Point Analysis so you know which areas matter most.

1. What a Camera Blind Spot Actually Is

A blind spot is any area where someone can:

• Approach an entry point, or
• Move between major areas of your property

without being clearly visible on any camera. That includes:

• Areas directly under or beside the camera.
• Corners of the yard beyond the field of view.
• Paths behind vehicles, sheds, or landscaping.
• Side yards and narrow passages between structures.

Your goal isn’t “perfect coverage.” It’s eliminating the obvious hiding places and approach routes.

2. Do a Coverage Walk With Your Phone

The fastest way to find blind spots is to walk your property while watching live camera feeds.

How to Do It

• Open your camera app with all relevant views visible.
• Walk every approach path an intruder might use: sidewalks, side yards, driveway, back fence line.
• Stop in corners, behind vehicles, near sheds, and under eaves.
• Watch for spots where you disappear or become just a partial silhouette.

Anywhere you can stand comfortably for 10–20 seconds without a clear shot of your face is a problem.

3. Fix “Too High” and “Too Low” Mounting Problems

Mounting height is one of the main causes of blind spots.

When Cameras Are Too High

• You see the tops of heads instead of faces.
• Areas directly under the camera are invisible.
• Porches and entryways become dead zones.

Drop the mounting height to around 8–10 feet and angle downward. This tradeoff reduces tampering risk but still gives you useful ID shots.

When Cameras Are Too Low

• Intruders can reach up and move or damage the camera.
• Long-range coverage suffers.
• Vehicles and fences may block half the frame.

Fixing height alone often eliminates several blind spots immediately.

4. Use Overlapping Fields of View

One camera can’t do everything. Instead of trying to stretch a single view, set up overlapping coverage so one camera’s blind spot is covered by another.

Basic Overlap Rules

• Front and driveway cameras should both see part of the approach path.
• Backyard and side-yard cameras should overlap at corners.
• Garage-side and back-door cameras should share some common ground.

Think like this: Anywhere a person can stand should be seen by at least one camera, and ideally two.

5. Remove or Work Around Physical Obstructions

Cars, shrubs, fences, posts, columns, and décor create hidden pockets your cameras can’t see.

Common Obstruction Problems

• Parked vehicles blocking driveway camera views.
• Tall bushes in front of windows or walkways.
• Porch columns creating “shadow zones” on the stoop.
• Sheds or outbuildings hiding side access paths.

If you can’t remove the obstruction, adjust the camera angle or add a second camera to cover the hidden space. For more on protecting structures like sheds, see Securing Shed and Outbuilding Doors.

6. Don’t Aim Only at Doors—Cover the Approach

Pointing a camera straight at a door usually creates a blind spot on the approach path. You get a nice view of the door but almost no time to see someone arriving.

Better Strategy

• Angle the camera to see the walkway or yard leading to the door.
• Let the door sit off-center in the frame.
• Use a second camera (or a doorbell cam) for close-up coverage if needed.

The combination of approach coverage plus entry coverage removes most practical blind spots near doors.

7. Watch for Night-Only Blind Spots

Some blind spots only show up at night. IR hot spots, glare, and deep shadows can hide entire areas.

Night Checks

• Repeat your coverage walk after dark.
• Look for areas that turn into black voids on the screen.
• Check for glare from lights, windows, or reflective surfaces.

For deeper night tuning, pair this with Night Vision Performance Basics and Motion Detection Settings.

8. Side Yards and Narrow Passages

Side yards, walkways between the house and a fence, and passages between structures are prime blind spots. They’re narrow, dark, and often ignored in initial camera setups.

How to Cover Them

• Use a dedicated side-yard camera aimed along the length of the path.
• Mount 8–10 feet high on the house side, angled along the fence line.
• Overlap coverage with front or back cameras at each end of the path.
• Add motion lighting so movement is obvious at night.

9. Re-Evaluate After Layout Changes

Every time you add a shed, park a different vehicle, plant tall shrubs, or build a deck, you change your camera coverage.

• Re-run the coverage walk after major exterior changes.
• Check both daytime and nighttime performance.
• Adjust angles or add a camera if new blind spots appear.

Blind spots are created by how your property is actually used, not how it looked on installation day.

10. The Goal: No Easy Place to Hide

You will never get a flawless, movie-style security grid at a normal house. You don’t need one. You just need to close the obvious gaps—places where someone can approach, work, or wait without being recorded.

Walk the perimeter, find where your cameras fail, and fix those failures one by one. Once you’ve eliminated the easy blind spots, your cameras finally do what they’re supposed to do: make it hard to move around your property without being seen.