Technocrat Tuesday: Colour Temperature

Firstly, a Happy new year to all my fellow photobloggers, and all watchers out there.

Now back to one of my technical boring classes ... today on light... and light temperature

Light Temperature is something that is sometimes over looked in photography, but is very important to know about as it can change a look and feel of an image. Temperature is measured in Kelvins, and can be useful in different applications.


For a full and boring guide can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_temperature .

Most camera have an "Auto White Balance" to make sure the whites come out white. Its pretty reliable, but sometimes needs correcting. If you've got a Posh Digital SLR or a High end Camera, you can normally adjust the white spot. If you haven't, there is software to help you post-processing.

But lets at some examples...

the first image is the original, in the middle is software "correct" and on the right is "preferred"

Why Preferred? Software can do wondrous things. It can also balls things up spectacularly. Preferred is how i like the image to look in my eyes. Your opinions may vary with mileage.

Landscape shot late evening

First shot is straight out of the camera RAW, unprocessed. Notice the lack of detail.

The second photo is the same image, with the colour balance and temperature changed. Notice the sky has changed radicly, but pixelation has occured.

The third one is my preferred image, and is a slight adjustment of the colour temp from the original RAW.

In short, Colour temperature is something that shouldn't be dismissed out of hand, and can be used very creatively when processing your images. It can be overused like any tool... so use it with care, and I'm sure you'll get great results.

(All examples were processed using Adobe LightRoom Beta 4.1)