# Why Do I Look Washed Out on Zoom? Colours That Work on Camera

> On a video call you usually look washed out because of the light and the camera, not your face: light from above or behind, the cool glow of the screen, and a webcam that sets brightness and colour on its own. Your top comes second. Face a soft light, raise the camera to eye level, turn the screen down, then wear a solid, mid-tone colour from your own palette.

Source: https://colour-sense.com/en/guides/why-do-i-look-washed-out-on-zoom (ColourSense, Updated 2026-10-12)

If you look grey, flat or tired on a video call but fine in the mirror, the light and the camera are usually to blame before your clothes are. Light from above or behind you, the cold glow of a screen and a small webcam that decides brightness and colour by itself all work against your skin. The colour of your top comes second, though it matters more on camera than in the room.

## Why a video call drains your face

It happens on Zoom, on Teams and on any other call, for two reasons: what lights your face, and what the camera does with it.

**The light comes from the wrong place.** Ceiling lights shine straight down and put shadows under the eyes, the brows and the nose, the quickest way to look tired. A window or a lamp behind you is worse: the camera sees a bright background with a darker face in front of it.

**The camera adjusts itself.** Many webcams set the brightness for the picture as a whole. A bright window, a white wall or a white shirt can lead it to darken everything, your face included, so the skin comes out grey; a large dark area can lead it to brighten everything, and the face looks pale and flat. The camera also guesses the colour of the light and corrects for it. Under mixed light, daylight from one side and a yellow bulb from the other, it can guess wrong, and skin turns grey, bluish or orange.

**The screen lights you too.** In a dim room, a bright blue-white screen at arm's length can be the strongest light on your face, and it makes most skin look colder and paler than it is.

**The picture is squeezed.** Call video is compressed so that it travels quickly, and fine detail and gentle changes of colour are simplified. Subtle colour, such as the warmth in the cheeks and lips, is easily smoothed away, more so in low light.

## Fix the light and the camera first

Roughly in order of impact:

1. **Face the light.** Sit facing a window, or slightly to one side of it, out of direct sun. Daylight from the front is soft and fills in the shadows that ceiling lights leave. In the evening, a shaded lamp behind your screen, a little above eye level, does a similar job; a bare bulb is harsher, so point it at a pale wall in front of you instead.
2. **Take the light out from behind you.** Do not sit with your back to a window. If you cannot move, draw the curtain behind you and put your lamp in front.
3. **Raise the camera to eye level.** A laptop on a desk looks up at you, from under the chin and into the ceiling lights. Stack a few books under it until the lens is level with your eyes, and sit about an arm's length away.
4. **Turn the screen down.** Lower the brightness. A large white page open beside the call lights your face like a cold lamp.
5. **Check the camera's own settings.** In the video settings of your call app or your computer, look for brightness, exposure, white balance or a low-light adjustment. Where you can, switch the automatic setting off and fix them once, in the light you actually use, so the picture does not shift every time you move. Many built-in webcams offer little here. A smoothing or touch-up filter can make skin look waxy and flat; try a call without it.

The first two steps often matter most. Record a few seconds before and after, and compare.

## Clothes on camera: what a webcam handles badly

Once the light is right, the camera still reacts to some clothes in ways your eye does not.

**Pure white.** A small camera records a narrower range between dark and light than your eye sees. A large area of optical white is often the brightest thing in the frame, so the camera may darken the whole picture to hold it, and your skin turns greyer; or the white loses its detail and glows under your chin. A soft white, ivory or cream, or white only as a collar under a jacket, avoids both. [Wardrobe Neutrals by Season](https://colour-sense.com/en/guides/wardrobe-neutrals-by-season) shows which white belongs to which colouring.

**Pure black.** The reverse can happen: the camera brightens everything to see into the black, the face comes out pale, and the black becomes a flat block with your head above it. Charcoal, ink navy, espresso or a deep colour usually keeps more detail. [Why do I look tired in black?](https://colour-sense.com/en/guides/why-do-i-look-tired-in-black) explains who wears black well away from the camera.

**Fine stripes and small checks.** Narrow pinstripes, tight checks, herringbone and small houndstooth can shimmer or ripple on screen. The effect is called moiré: the fine lines of the pattern clash with the camera's own fine grid. Larger patterns and soft textures are safer.

What usually works is a solid colour at medium depth, near your face. It gives the camera nothing extreme to correct for and nothing to shimmer, so people see your face before your clothes. Mind the wall behind you too: if your top, your skin and the background are of a similar lightness, the picture blurs into one tone.

## Which colours work on camera for your colouring

Which mid-tones work depends on your colouring. A camera does not change the rules of colour, it exaggerates them: a colour that only just works on you in daylight tends to tip over on screen, and one that suits you holds up. The mechanism, warmth, depth and clarity, is set out in [why some colours wash you out](https://colour-sense.com/en/guides/why-do-i-look-washed-out), and [warm or cool undertone](https://colour-sense.com/en/guides/warm-or-cool-undertone) explains how to tell which way you lean.

**Warm and clear: the Springs.** Coral or salmon, warm turquoise or aqua, a clear leaf green, with ivory or cream instead of white. A [Light Spring](https://colour-sense.com/en/color-types/spring/light-spring) stays light but picks the colours with some life in them, light coral or light aqua rather than cream, so the top does not merge with fair skin on screen. A [Bright Spring](https://colour-sense.com/en/color-types/spring/bright-spring) can take hot coral and turquoise, with deep navy as the dark.

**Cool and soft: the Summers.** A clear mid-blue, periwinkle, rose, raspberry or soft teal, with soft navy or slate as the darker layer and soft white instead of optical white. A Light Summer picks periwinkle, sweet-pea pink or soft aqua over the palest lilac, for the same reason. A [Soft Summer](https://colour-sense.com/en/color-types/summer/soft-summer) wears smoky blue, dusty rose and heather, taken from the middle of the palette rather than the palest end, so the top stands apart from the skin.

**Warm and deeper: the Autumns.** Rust, terracotta, olive, warm teal and petrol blue, with dark chocolate or espresso as the dark and cream or oatmeal instead of white. A Soft Autumn wears the muted versions, such as dusty coral, moss and camel, with coffee brown as its dark. A [Deep Autumn](https://colour-sense.com/en/color-types/autumn/deep-autumn) goes further, to forest green and mahogany.

**Cool and clear: the Winters.** Clear jewel colours: sapphire, emerald, deep teal, a cool red, and magenta or icy turquoise for a [Bright Winter](https://colour-sense.com/en/color-types/winter/bright-winter). Winters wear black and white well in life. On camera, ink navy or charcoal often holds detail better than a block of black, and a white or bright collar near the face keeps the picture from going flat.

## Before a video interview

Run through this the day before, and again ten minutes before the call:

- Record a short test in the same room, at the same time of day, in the clothes you plan to wear, and watch it full size rather than in the small preview.
- Face your window or lamp, with nothing bright behind you.
- Raise the camera to eye level and sit about an arm's length away.
- Turn the screen brightness down and close any large white pages.
- Wear a solid, mid-tone top from your own palette. Keep white and black as layers, not as a block at the collar.
- Leave fine stripes and small checks for another day.
- Choose a plain background of a different lightness from your top.
- If you wear make-up, a lip and cheek colour from your own range, a touch stronger than usual, gives back some of what the picture removes.

## Where to go next

If you are not sure which colours are yours, the [free colour test](https://colour-sense.com/en/color-test) is the natural next step: eight questions about your natural colouring, with no e-mail and no photo, after which it suggests which of the four seasons is yours. [How to Find Your Colour Season at Home](https://colour-sense.com/en/guides/find-your-color-season) shows how to compare colours by a window. If you would rather not judge your own face, the [personal colour analysis](https://colour-sense.com/en/color-analysis) works from a few questions and one to three photos taken in natural light by a window, not under a lamp, and names your season and subtype.

## Questions and answers

### Why do I look washed out on Teams?

For the same reasons as on any video call: the light and the webcam come first. Ceiling light from above, a window behind you, a bright screen close to your face and a small camera that sets its own brightness and colour can all leave skin looking grey or flat. Face a window or a soft lamp, raise the camera to eye level, and wear a solid, mid-tone colour that suits you.

### What colour looks best on Zoom calls?

No single colour looks best on everyone. What works on camera is a solid colour at medium depth from your own palette, worn near the face: a clear mid-blue, a soft teal, a rose, a rust or a jewel green, depending on your colouring. It gives the camera nothing extreme to correct for and frames your face without competing with it.

### What are the best colours for a video interview?

A calm, solid colour from your own palette, at medium depth or a little deeper: soft navy, a mid-blue, teal, a deep green or a warm rust, whichever belongs to your colouring. Avoid a large block of stark white or black at the collar, fine stripes and small checks. Then make a short test recording in the same room the day before.

### What colours look good on camera?

Solid colours in the middle of the light-to-dark range usually film most evenly, because a small camera handles extremes badly: pure white can lose its detail and darken the face, and pure black can make the face look pale. Within that range, the colours that suit you in daylight also suit you on camera. A camera mostly exaggerates a colour that already works against you.