Why Do My Photos Look Orange? 3 Easy Ways to Fix It
Have you ever taken an adorable photo of your kid inside, looked at the back of your camera and thought… why do my photos look orange?! 😆
If your indoor photos have a weird yellow or orange color cast, there’s a good chance the problem has something to do with your lighting and white balance. The good news? You don’t have to be a color expert to fix it. In the video below, I’m walking you through three easy places you can fix overly warm photos: in your environment, in your camera, or afterward in Lightroom.
1. Watch for mixed lighting
Different light sources can have very different color temperatures. If cool daylight is coming through your window while a warm lamp or overhead light is also hitting your subject, your camera has to deal with both colors at once. Sometimes the easiest solution is literally to turn off the dang light. 😆 In the video, I’ll show you exactly what happens when I photograph the same scene with warm artificial light and daylight together, then remove the artificial light.
2. Check your camera’s white balance
Your camera uses white balance to compensate for the color of the light around you.
If your white balance doesn’t match your lighting situation, your photo might look much warmer or cooler than the scene looked to your eyes.
I’ll show you how changing one white balance setting in camera can get you much closer to accurate color before you ever start editing.
3. Fix the color temperature in Lightroom
Already took the photo? Don’t delete it! 😂 You can also correct an overly warm photo afterward using the Temperature slider in Lightroom. I’ll show you how I make a simple adjustment to cool down the image and get the colors looking more natural.
Watch the full tutorial below to see all three fixes in action.
The biggest thing I want you to take away from this is that you have options. You can change the light, change what your camera is doing, or correct the color afterward. And the more you understand why your camera is giving you a weird result, the easier it becomes to fix it without guessing at random settings.