Why video doorbells capture faces clearly by day but wash them out at night

A doorbell that records clear faces at noon often produces featureless white blobs at 9 pm, even though the hardware is unchanged. The core problem is that its infrared LEDs sit in a ring close to the lens, so nearby faces receive far more light than objects farther away, and a single exposure setting ends up overexposing the face. Infrared also bounces off nearby surfaces like porch ceilings, pillars, and glass, which can fog or smear the image, and owners often mistake this for poor night vision. Night mode switches to black and white, removing colour cues that people rely on to identify who is at the door. Some units preserve colour by using a visible white LED, but that light can alert visitors and annoy neighbours.