Why does skin look orange in photos taken near sunset, but normal after sunset?
Asked 5/27/2019
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When I shoot photos or video around sunset with default settings on an iPhone 8 or Sony DSC-WX350, skin tones can look very orange if the subject is facing away from the sun. If I shoot later, after sunset, skin looks much more neutral. Why does this happen? Is it caused by the color of sunset light, auto white balance, or both?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
7y ago
2 Answers
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Yes, there is a form of spectrum distortion:
At sunset the light from the sun has to pass through more atmosphere, which scatters the light, but this scattering effect is strong the higher the wavelength of light, therefore the blue end of the spectrum is scattered a lot more than the red, therefore the red end of the spectrum remains stronger at sunset and sunrise, giving direct sunlight a much stronger red/orange tint.
Your camera is either balancing with the sky and shadows that are less affected by this, leaving the orange highlights, or isn't applying any whitebalance correction at all, maybe even detecting the often valued 'golden hour' light and choosing not to compensate.
Originally by user85038. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user85038
7y ago
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Yes—this is normal and is mainly caused by the color of the light at sunset, plus how auto white balance reacts.
Near sunset, sunlight passes through much more atmosphere. Shorter blue wavelengths are scattered more, so the direct light that reaches your subject is relatively richer in red/orange tones. That’s why “golden hour” light looks warm.
Your eyes partly compensate for this through color adaptation, so the scene may not look as orange to you as it does to the camera. The camera’s auto white balance may also be fooled by the scene. If it balances from the sky or shadow areas instead of the subject, it can leave the sunlit skin looking even warmer.
After sunset, the light on both the background and subject is more uniformly cool, so auto white balance can neutralize it more effectively, making skin look more normal.
So it’s not a camera defect or unusual spectrum distortion—it’s expected sunset lighting behavior combined with automatic white balance decisions.
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