Photography - Led lights and me

Recently I have been finding out about photography and photo editing.  I purchased my Nikon camera approximately 5 months ago and still have alot to learn about how best to use it.  So far,  I have found that I can take pictures with incredible detail from a long distance away,  and discovered that the quality of the photos are great the majority of the time. However,  I have noticed that I am unable to capture a good quality photograph when in certain conditions,  such as bright sunlight or while using LED lighting.  Now,  before I get too ahead of myself and blame it on the camera,  it is quite possible that it is my fault not using the correct settings.  I will need to explore this further.
I decided to expand the use of LED lights throughout my work and wondered how much of an effect,  lighting had on the appearance of a person or object. As I am still in my early stages of learning about photography,  I decided to try a few different techniques for a starting point and to use to compare my progress along the way.
The first idea I had,  was to take basic pictures of myself with different colored lighting.  The reason for this was to explore colour and tonal value.  I found it interesting to see how much the feel of an image can change by using different colours. I used my Nikon camera to take these pictures and was very disappointed with the outcome,  I am unable to upload any of these images at the moment,  but the colour of the LED light took over the majority of the photo.  My face had no definition with the over exaggerated colour and the images were very blurry.  Feeling slightly disheartened after setting everything up,i decided to try using my Sony Xperia smart phone.  Well,  what a difference! The camera captured the different light perfectly and as a starting point,  I feel there is enough information from the images to expand on to create interesting photos.
When comparing the images, it is easy to see how different lighting can change the appearance and feel of the image. Next I will try wearing a black or white vest with a plain background and see if there is difference with the result.