What is Color Temperature?

Understanding color temperature is one of the crucial rules of architectural rendering you must learn before you can begin to break them.

So what is color temperature? In short, each light source has its own individual color, or ‘color temperature’, which varies from red to blue.

Candles, sunsets and tungsten bulbs give off light that’s close to red (hence the ‘warm’ look they give to pictures), whereas clear blue skies give off a ‘cool’ blue light. It’s fairly obvious stuff once you read it.

Color temperature is typically recorded in kelvin, the unit of absolute temperature. Cool colors like blue and white generally have color temperatures over 7000K, while warmer colors like red and orange lie around the 2000K mark.

In the infographic below we’ve illustrated the color temperature scale and show you where these popular white balance settings sit within it. We’ve also shown where some common shooting conditions, such as hazy skies and sunsets, sit within the color temperature scale and what white balance setting you might want to use to capture accurate colors in these conditions.

To view the larger version of this photography cheat sheet simply click on this infographic or drag and drop it on to your desktop to save as a reference.

 

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Bobby Parker
Hey there, thanks for visiting my online portfolio. My name is Bobby Parker and I’m a Minnesota based illustrator who specializes in photo-real architectural renderings, and I’m not afraid to turn my hand to animation if the job requires it. While growing up in Illinios I always had a childhood interest in drawing and artwork that has stayed with me throughout my career in architecture. I received my architectural education working for some of the most talented architects in Chicago. I’ve worked on a wide range of projects, and pride myself on the ability to deliver a valuable and visually-appealing end product, no matter what the scope. For me, it’s essential to achieve a balance between quality and speed. 24 years after working professionally, I am still combining the fundamentals of art with the most current industry technology, to create incredibly realistic 3D architectural renderings. I love what I do, and I hope that it shows in my portfolio. Please take a minute to visit my work page and drop me a message if you have any questions
www.bobby-parker.com
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