Photography

Color temperature

Color temperature is a parameter describing the color of a visible light source by comparing it to the color of light emitted by an idealized opaque, non-reflective body, known as a black body. The temperature of the ideal emitter that matches the color most closely is defined as the color temperature of the original visible light source. The color temperature scale describes only the color of light emitted by a light source, which may actually be at a different (and often much lower) temperature. Color temperature has applications in lighting, photography, videography, publishing, manufacturing, and other fields. In practice, color temperature is most meaningful for light sources that correspond somewhat closely to the color of some black body, i.e., light in a range going from red to orange to yellow to white to bluish white. Although the concept of correlated color temperature extends the definition to any visible light, the color temperature of a green or a purple light rarely is useful information. Color temperature is conventionally expressed in kelvins, using the symbol K, which are units for absolute temperature.

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See also

• ▸Digiscoping
• ▸Indigenous response to colonialism
• ▸Daniel Nyblin

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