On Nov 18, 2020, at 5:06 PM, Jane McGary via pbs <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote: > And meanwhile, can somebody tell me what the trick is with light so that one's face looks normal instead of blue? Web cams are set up for auto white balance. That means they look at the entire scene and try to adjust it to what the computer thinks is normal. As incandescent, florescent, LEDs, and natural light all have different color temperatures, the computer tries to adjust the image so that it looks correct. Our eyes do this automatically without us even thinking about it, but cameras have to be told or figure it out someway. The camera assumes that everything in the image will average to a gray. But if your room has a severe color cast due to the color of the walls, or light coming in through sheer colored curtains, it can be thrown off. Picking a white or other neutral wall for your background is the easiest way to help the camera determine the right color temperature. As others have suggested, light your face from the front, preferably with the same type of lighting (incandescent, etc.) as the main room lighting. If you have a large monitor like I do, just the light from the monitor can really bias the lighting on your face, depending on your desktop image. Of course all of this is useless if you have a crappy web cam. Matt Knowles Aesthetic Design & Photography http://www.aestheticdesign.com/ 707-786-4643 _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>