My camera pictures are all washed out with a pink hue.. what's wrong?

Question

I have a Canon Digital PowerShot. Is it broken?

Answer 1

Someone was having a son-a-gram when your film was devleoped.

Answer 2

I'll bet you were shooting outdoors under mercury vapor lighting, which looks pink. Our eyes adjust for this, but your camera sensor can not. If you are lucky, your camera allows you to set a custom white balance using the light itself to control the setting. This is kind of confusing until you actually do it, so I won't walk you through it. Check in your manual under "White balance" and see if your camera can do this. Some higher-end cameras also let you set a specific color temperature, but I don't know the appropriate setting for mercury vapor lamps.