Hair color looks different

Hello everyone!

This is my first post, so I am kind of nervous about wording something wrong. I recently purchased a Nikon D3200. I am reading the manual, purchased a book, watched videos, etc. So, I am still learning and trying to grasp terminology, etc.

I noticed in a couple of photos that I took indoors and maybe outdoors, my daughter and mother's brown hair looked a lot lighter, kind of gold. My husband and I noticed the camera seemed to capture a lot of the yellows, orange and reds in the picture, if that makes sense. The camera settings varied as I was experimenting getting to know the camera. There were definitely some photos where I did not use flash, and the hair color still looked different.

Is the hair color change due to possible over exposure? Or are there color settings I should fix? I am trying to find a copy of the picture to upload, but I am wondering if they were deleted since I can't find them.

Thanks for your input.

**Update** I added photos on 2nd page!

Welcome to nikonites! I still haven't learn the terminology, of half the stuff yet! Lol

Sorry I can't help you cause I'm new to.
Just wan't to
Welcome you to Nikonites.com.
Someone will be along shortly who will
​have answers to your questions

Also at this forum its like family
nothing to be nervous about.
Like the saying goes.
There are no dumb questions.

Thanks everyone for the welcome! I feel kind of silly posting the question now because I don't have an example to show or what settings I used. I've taken some good shots since then.

The only stupid question is a question you don't ask..
so don't worry someone will help for sure..

two aspects to your issue-

if you shooting with your subject in front of the sun (or other light source), the hair tends to get overexposed and that could be the cause of your golden colors.

secondly, it's always good to play around & mess up your settings cos that's the only way you'll learn
but you should now learn to 'reset' your camera settings so it'll go back to factory settings.
and you can go back to trying & making more mistakes till you are confident of what's going on

good luck

Welcome, if you ever have an issue like that again save the photo and show us there are some smart people in amongst this lot.

Welcome Mama...Could be a white balance problem or over exposure...Take some more and post them up...

2 things jump out at me. Firstly, photos taken indoors with the house lights on will all have an orange-yellow tone to them. Sodium lights cast off this color and it would require adjustments in your white balance. But the issue I suspect the problem lies is your monitor. It is entirely possible that your monitor is misleading you as to the colors the camera is producing. Compare the look of the photos on the camera's LCD monitor relative to your computer monitor. If this is the case you will need to calibrate your monitor and typically most computers have a color management system that will allow you to make these changes.

See mama told you this is a good place to be. great people here.
Can't say that enough.

I found a photo. Now let me figure out how to upload it here.

Click on reply button. Then click on the square that looks like a photo frame it will say insert image. then upload it to your post.

I deleted most of the photos, but there were photos of my daughter several feet away away as well as up close where the results turned out the same. There were also photos of my mom indoors and her hair looked red gold, but her hair is brown.

In the first photo (excuse her pose!), her hair color looks lighter and we are in doors. Flash fired, ISO 800, 38 MM, f 5, 1/130




The second photo, is one of my "best" photos taken so far. I would say her hair color is accurate in this photo.


After analyzing, I'm wondering if it was due to the flash?

Ah ha!! It's the indoor lighting that is casting the color.

Dave, so I would need to change the white balance in the camera? Use manual mode? Thanks for your help!

I would adjust the white balance on the computer. But the problem with the color cast by indoor lights is that it's nearly impossible to completely remove. You can get most of it right but I've not yet found a way to completely get it out.

Is the hair color change due to possible over exposure? Or are there color settings I should fix?

Click to expand...

My hair color changes with each self portrait . . . ANYTHING but gray makes me happy

You have some great advice here and I can't think of anything else to add except welcome to the forum!

Is your White Balance set to Auto? Check your White Balance settings perhaps. Press the 'i' button on bottom left and check from there.

•

Hello "mamaduchess",

White balance is a parameter that is easy to control from the camera as a first step!

Your first picture:
…am I right to assume that there are two light sources in that scene?
I see a daylight source from the windows in the background and a flash on your
daughter. Your flash (or mine), and that is the horror of it, always gives you the
same colour temperature. A feature that is nice when one produces documents but
light has changing moods… not your flash!

As in this first picture, the whole discomfort comes from the two moods that are
somewhat conflicting. Your eye sees the colour moods and can not associate them as
natural.

The opposite for the second picture:
Technically, the colours are shifted. In a way, since there is only one light source, that
is more pleasing because the mood of the light is, throughout the scene, constant and
thus looking more natural.

As mentioned before, it is very difficult, but not impossible, to tweak colour shifts on a
same scene.

So, you took the first photo during daytime with a flash and obtained that result. Had the
picture been taken, say in the evening, the room would have a warmer mood then the
subject. Again, with the same discomfort.

Have a good day…

I have found when doing portraits and other more critical pictures (ie when I am not doing the Blue A***** Fly Dance) using a 18% grey card on the first shot is a great help.
Then in processing (Lightroom in my case) I can set the white balance from the picture of the card. It workes great apart from the following caveats'
I keep loosing the cards...
I keep forgetting the cards...
I bought a fancy thing to do the same, it is hanging on a tree in a Nature reserve...
So as long as you have your grey card it makes life so much easier.
Have fun and welcome.