Why Do Blue Eyes Look Brown In Photos?
2. Blue eyes aren’t actually blue – Blue eye color is determined by melanin, and melanin is actually brown by nature. The color of our eyes depends on how much melanin is present in the iris. Brown eyes have the highest amount of melanin in the iris, and blue eyes have the least.
Why do blue eyes sometimes look brown?
Some eyes change color in different lighting — here’s why – Since blue eyes get their color from the light that’s coming in and being reflected back out, they really can appear as different colors depending on the lighting conditions. Green and hazel eyes are a mixture of pigment color and color from scattered light, so they can also look different in different lighting conditions.
How do you make blue eyes show up in pictures?
Apply the lightest color on the entire eyelid and to the edge of the brow. Then select a deeper shade for the crease and dust a highlighter just beneath the brow.5. Line them just right: Blue eyes really pop with a brown liner as opposed to black, which helps keep your overall look natural.
Why do my eyes look so dark in photos?
The Healthy Journal – Gluten, Dairy, Sugar Free Recipes, Interviews and Health Articles Sometimes when taking a photograph, your subjects eyes can end up looking too shadowed, possibly because there wasn’t enough reflective surface bouncing light back on his or her face, Or, perhaps the overall image wasn’t exposed well enough, which can make their eyes even darker! |
Can blue eyes have brown in them?
Can two parents with blue eyes have a child with brown eyes? Yes, blue-eyed parents can definitely have a child with brown eyes. Or green or hazel eyes for that matter. If you stayed awake during high school biology, you might find this answer surprising.
We were all taught that parents with blue eyes have kids with blue eyes. Every time. This has to do with the fact that blue eyes are supposed to be recessive to brown eyes. This means that if a parent has a brown eye gene, then that parent will have brown eyes. Which makes it impossible for two blue-eyed parents to have a brown-eyed child – they don’t have a brown eye gene to pass on! In fact, this is the model we used for our eye color calculator.* And that we talk about extensively here at Ask a Geneticist.
Blue-eyed parents can have kids with brown eyes. (Image via Shutterstock) Now we aren’t being dishonest or trying to hide anything by presenting this model. It works great most of the time. But as with anything genetic, there are always exceptions. For example, DNA can and does change between generations.
- So if a change happened that turned a blue eye color gene into a brown one, then blue-eyed parents could have a brown-eyed child.
- As you might guess, this sort of thing is pretty rare.
- Too rare to explain all the exceptions we see with eye color.
- So something else must be going on.
- That something is most likely other genes involved in eye color that we don’t know about.
Eye color used to be presented as a fairly simple trait. A big part of the model was the idea that we had an eye color gene that came in two varieties – brown and blue. Geneticists represented the brown version as “B” and the blue version as “b”. The model also said that blue (b) was recessive to brown (B).
- This matters because it is an explanation for how brown-eyed parents can have a blue-eyed child.
- See, we have two copies of each of our genes – one from each biological parent.
- This means there are three possible combinations for this eye color gene: BB, Bb, and bb.
- BB is of course brown and in this model, bb would be blue.
Since blue is recessive to brown, Bb people have brown eyes. But they can pass a “b” down to their kids, who might end up with blue eyes. Now eye color is obviously more complicated than this. This model doesn’t explain green eyes for example. Scientists added a second gene to try to explain green eyes but we don’t need to go into that here ( to learn more about the two-gene model).
| Genes | What it Means |
| BB | Brown eyes |
| B b | Brown eyes |
| bb | Not brown eyes |
Again, bb people should not be able to pass on brown eyes to their kids. But we know they can. Which means that this model is incomplete (or wrong). The results I just put into the previous table are theoretical and based on the model I talked about. Here are some actual results I adapted from ‘s website:
| Genes | What it Means in Europeans |
| BB |
|
| B b |
|
| bb |
|
As you can see, the original model holds up pretty well for BB and bb people. Most BB people have brown eyes and most bb people don’t. But the model clearly doesn’t explain the following:
- 1% of bb people have brown eyes
- 1% of BB people have blue eyes (and 14% have green)
- 44% of Bb people do not have brown eyes
The biggest disconnect is with Bb people. Only 56% have brown eyes. If this holds up, I am not sure we can even call blue and green recessive to brown. Whatever the reason, these data give some clues about how two blue-eyed parents might have a brown-eyed child.
- For example, imagine two parents are Bb and have blue eyes.
- They each pass a B down to one of their children.
- That child will be BB and most likely have brown eyes.
- This example uses known data to show how blue-eyed parents might have a child with brown eyes.
- But it doesn’t explain why a Bb person has blue eyes in the first place.
To do this, we need to guess what other genes may be doing. And how they might be affecting the original eye color gene. Going into detail about these possibilities would need more space than I have here! And in the end, the truth is that eye color is a complex trait that we don’t fully understand yet.
Do photos show how you really look?
You can blame the mirror for not liking the way you look in pictures – 
Rido/Shutterstock You know what you look like because you have often seen yourself in the mirror. But then why do some like how they look in the mirror but not in pictures? This is the mere exposure effect, which was conceptualized by Robert Zajonc, a psychologist, in 1968 (via Psychology Today ).
When we see our reflections in the mirror, it is reversed, and we are used to seeing ourselves as the reversed version of ourselves. And the more you see yourself a certain way, the more attractive you find yourself. However, pictures show your image the way you really look. When you look at yourself in pictures, it’s a slightly different version of yourself than you are used to seeing.
Psychology Today added that not everyone prefers their mirror image over their actual image because some like how they look in photographs. Of course, if your face were perfectly symmetrical, this wouldn’t be an issue, but we’re all human. Wired calls the image you see in the mirror your “preferred self-image,” and when the camera flips it, you tend to notice the asymmetry of your face more since you are not used to seeing yourself that way.
Do you look different in pictures than in real life?
The camera lens is not the human eye – Camera sensors absorb light through complex lenses that process the world very differently from the human eye. That results in all sorts of weird idiosyncrasies. It’s called lens distortion and it can render your nose, eyes, hips, head, chest, thighs and all the rest of it marginally bigger, smaller, wider or narrower than they really are.
Why do my eyes glow gold in pictures?
Treating Coat’s Disease – The good news is that Coat’s Disease is very manageable with simple solutions such as, However, it must always be taken seriously. Prognosis can differ from one patient to another, as well as the stage of diagnosis and response to treatment procedures applied.
- Parents should immediately consult with a trusted pediatric ophthalmologist for proper diagnosis and treatment.
- Treatment options for this eye condition includes laser surgery and cryotherapy among others.
- While a cure for Coat’s Disease has yet to be found, certain procedures, when done early, can prevent some of its serious effects like loss of vision.
If you suspect that you or a loved one is at risk for Coat’s Disease, see our doctors at Eye and Vision Care right away. Give us a call at (703) 961-9119 or fill out our to schedule a consultation with one of our eye care specialists. We serve patients in Fairfax, as well as other surrounding areas in VA.
Can blue eyes turn brown in adults?
The Claim: Eye Color Can Change as We Age (Published 2005) Really?
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THE CLAIM – Eye color can change as we age. THE FACTS – It can bend light, bring the world into focus, and next to the human brain may be our most complicated organ. But for many people the most intriguing feature of the human eye is simply its color. Can it really change for no apparent reason? In most people, the answer is no.
Eye color fully matures in infancy and remains the same for life. But in a small percentage of adults, eye color can naturally become either noticeably darker or lighter with age. What determines eye color is the pigment melanin. Eyes that have a lot of it in the connective tissue at the front of the iris, called the stroma, are darker, while those that have less tend to be lighter.
The levels of melanin generally remain the same throughout life, but a few things can change them permanently. The first is a handful of ocular diseases like pigmentary glaucoma. Another is a condition called heterochromia, or multicolored eyes, which affects about 1 percent of the population and is often caused by traumatic injuries.
An example of this can be seen in the rock star David Bowie, who attributes his contrasting eye colors, hazel and light blue, to a blow to the face as a child. The third cause appears to be genetics. A study in 1997, for example, looked at thousands of twins and found that 10 percent to 15 percent of the subjects had gradual changes in eye color throughout adolescence and adulthood, which occurred at nearly identical rates in identical twins.
THE BOTTOM LINE – Eyes can change color in some people because of genetics or injury. ANAHAD O’CONNOR Really? [email protected] : The Claim: Eye Color Can Change as We Age (Published 2005)