From the course: Digital Imaging for Business Professionals

Unlock this course with a free trial

Join today to access over 22,600 courses taught by industry experts.

What is color temperature?

What is color temperature?

- Another property to pay attention to when looking at imagery is the color temperature, the coolness or warmth of the photo. Typically, when a photo is captured, the camera will measure the color temperature of the light. However, depending upon the lighting conditions or additional steps that can be applied during the editing stage, the image can be manipulated. As light gets brighter, it becomes a bit bluer. As it gets cooler, such as a candle flame, it tends to get a bit more orange or red. Now, we tend to refer to the blueness as cool and the red or orange as warm. But you can look at this from a technical point of view or just a neutral state. Additionally, as you start to think about color temperature, make sure you also pay attention to things like a color wheel, looking at a color wheel for combinations of colors that work well together. Oftentimes, people will select colors from across the color wheel, pairing blues with golds or reds with greens. Or they'll draw a triangle…

Contents