Color Temperature in Photography: The Ultimate Guide
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- 20 Feb 2023
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Color temperature is an essential part of all photographs, and though most beginners don’t realize it, color casts – and the photographer’s response to those casts – can dramatically alter each image.
By understanding how these color casts affect your photos, you’ll be able to create beautiful images that feature natural, neutral colors or even (if it’s what you’re after) boldly colored hues. On the other hand, if you fail to consider color casts when photographing and editing, your images may look subtly off or even downright strange.
In this article, I explain all the basics of color temperature in photography so you can keep your images looking as authentic as possible, and I share several methods for counteracting unwanted color casts!
What Is Color Temperature?
All lights, even lights that are considered “white,” lie along a color spectrum. This spectrum spans from yellow to blue – with yellow lights referred to as “warm,” and blue lights referred to as “cold.” Most lights have a color cast of some sort, which puts them in the yellowish or bluish part of the spectrum.
Our eyes are very good at recognizing when light has a color cast. So we often don’t notice that a color cast is present, given how quickly and accurately our eyes compensate.
But there are times when untrained observers do note color shifts – such as when looking at an orange candle flame, when seeing a red sunset, or when seeing a very cold blue flame.
These are simply extreme examples of color casts. But even if you don’t see a color cast instantly, it’s probably still there; sunny days produce cold light, tungsten lights produce warm light, and cloudy light is somewhere in between.
Now, photographers refer to the color of light in terms of color temperature. We use a scale in Kelvin; you’ll talk about very cold lights in terms of 7000 Kelvin and beyond, and you’ll talk about very warm lights in terms of 3200 Kelvin and below.
Now, there’s an obvious point of confusion here: Low Kelvin values refer to “warm” colors and high Kelvin values refer to “cold” colors. What’s that about?
Honestly, it’s not important – what matters is that you remember what color temperature is and that lower Kelvin values mean warm while higher Kelvin values mean cold. Read More…
