Today I took some shots and I came back with very unexpected results. I've posted samples to show what I saw. No editing here (except on on the face of course)

I was inside, and the light was fluorescent.

I have a Nikon D5000 with a 40mm f/2.8 lens,

UV filter attached.

Settings were:

Aperture priority
ISO 3200
WB Auto
Standard shooting mode (not burst)
AF-A focus mode
Single point AF area
Matrix metering
No flash

The shots were taken in quick succession, focusing once and then quickly firing off 3 or 4 shots.

My thought is that it had something to do with fluorescent lighting, rapid shooting while not in burst mode, and the camera's inability to meter correctly. Of course, that's just my feeling. I could not recreate this effect at home (I think because of the incandescent lighting) I want to go back to this space and recreate them again, but I cant' get back there for a week.

Any thoughts on what happened? I've never seen this happen before, even though I've shot in this space many times in the last. Granted, I don't remember specifically the prior circumstances and settings. These were shocking enough to me to make me think something had gone wrong with my camera.

Tungsten lighting can cause some pretty weird colour effects!

What a great question and beautifully illustrated by your images!

Ok this is a bit lengthy but stick with me.

You're intuition about the color having to do with the mix of Tungsten and Florescent lighting is correct! Here's what's happening in your photos. The main difference between these sources is the process of how atoms are excited to create light. In an incandescent light source, such as an ordinary light bulb or gas lamp, atoms are excited by heat. As you probably know, Tungsten light is made by heating a small metal filament until it glows. This produces a continuous light source that is yellowish or orange in color. Florescent light on the other hand, is made by passing a spark through a gas which ( the color depending on the specific gas) makes the gas light up or "fluorese" ( popular Florescent tubes usually emit greeninsh light). Because this light is created by the repeated sparking and glowing, sparking and glowing, the light actually flickers ( too fast for our eyes to detect) When the shutter speed on your camera is set rather high it can actually create an image in the time between the florescent light flickering on and off.

This is why the greenish cast in the background comes and goes.

Hope this helped!

Doug

Thanks Doug... I thought I was on the right track with this... glad to know it's not my camera!

It wasn't my question, but that was fascinating. I'm really glad it was put in terms I could understand.

I know this has been answered, extremely well, but thought I would add that your camera should have some White Balance options for you to play with, alternatively you can get a shot set up, take a picture of the white (or closet thing to it) and get your camera to work it out for you. Your manual should be able to explain how to do this.