Adjust camera image settings for built-in Mac camera (saturation, hue, brightness, etc.)

[omccreary]

(I don't know which Zoom forum this question belongs in. I'll start here.)

I use my Mac built-in camera for Zoom. There's a persistent problem with the image quality and particularly the color balance (hue) of my own image – my face and background.

My face appears with a reddish-purple color that I can't get rid of. I've tried multiple methods – several brands of ring lights, colored cellophane on my lights, changing the room lighting, etc. – but nothing seems to work.

As far as I can tell, MacOS doesn't have any adjustments that might help. Zoom has some limited camera adjustments, but nothing that helps.

Maybe the solution is to get a third-party app that will allow me to adjust the image attributes for Zoom and any other apps that use the camera, such as Facetime.

I've searched for apps like this, but I'm not sure exactly how to describe the category of app I need. Is there a name for this sort of app? Also, many of the apps I've found say they're good for "webcams."   Is the built-in camera considered a webcam?

I'd welcome any suggestions.

[bstrelko]

Does your camera look like this in other MacOS applications (try PhotoBooth to start)? Let's see if we can narrow the issue down to Zoom.

And yes, your built-in camera is considered a webcam.

[omccreary]

bstrelko – That's a very good suggestion.  Thank you.

I did try it on Facetime and Photo Booth, and both of these have the same problem as Zoom – an unattractive red / pink cast to my face. I do have some bookshelves with cherry wood, which might contribute to the problem, but it doesn't seem like it should entirely explain it. I have no way to cover the bookshelves. 

Thanks very much. Any further suggestions?

[bstrelko]

This may be a hardware issue with the camera then. Just want to confirm - does the issue persist after a full shutdown and power up (different than just a reboot for Macs)?

[omccreary]

Thanks for your note.

Yes, the problem does persist after full power-down.

[minicooper36]

This seems to be a common issue with the webcam built into Macs. I have a relatively new iMac and I have this same issue. The color issue seems to be much worse in Zoom than other video applications. I'm pretty sure there is some sort of global Mac OS software issue related to their webcams that they haven't bothered to acknowledge or address.