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More on color temperature — Adorama TV

More on color temperature — Adorama TV

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Behind The Scenes

In this Behind The Scenes video Mark explains why adding a blue gel to a tungsten light warms it up instead of cooling it off. Mark gives a very brief explanation of warm and cool colors.


Color theory, which is demonstrated in this video, can be hard to get, and sometimes you've gotta go old-school to fully explain it. That why Mark Wallace pulls out a marker and a white board in this video.

And now, on with the show!

More on color temperature — Adorama TV

 

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6 readers rated this article. Average rating: 5.0 stars
 
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Balancing for fluorescent lighting

For Steve in Austin, the reason you make your flash green is to match the fluorescent lighting. Then you can cancel out the greenish cast in your camera by adjusting its white balance. If you left your flash alone, it would be too bluish and you'd have two colors lighting your scene. Then your camera couldn't correct for both, and you'd be left with a mess.

by in Boston on

0 of 0 people found this comment helpful
 
Good Colors are hard to come by.

When using a flash or fill light, This is one of the hardest topic to explain to people, because they don't notice the difference between foreground and background color temperature. They figure it's the camera's fault.

by in Ozone Park, NY on

0 of 0 people found this comment helpful
 
More on Color temp

Thanks for this followup video but I am confused about balancing fluorescent lighting. I think I read that to balance its' green cast you use a green gel on the flash. Why green when the color cast of fluorescent light is green?

by in Austin, Tx. on

0 of 0 people found this comment helpful
 
Color temperature defined

I agree with Mike of Boston, "keep "warm" and "cool" colors solely for the artistic sense of the word". The color of light is strictly an artistic or psychological term. Light has NO temperature. The 'temperature' referred to is the temperature of the blackbody emitting the light. If I may quote from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_temperature): "Higher color temperatures (5,000 K or more) are called cool colors (blueish white); lower color temperatures (2,700–3,000 K) are called warm colors (yellowish white through red)."

by in Cleveland on

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Mike in Boston is spot on

Mark in his video is trying to use the same terminology for two different concepts regarding color temperature. One concept is more about the psychological "feel" of the color of light. The other is about the scientific concept of the physical temperature and corresponding color of light. Mike in Boston is right. Use different terminology for the two concepts - it's less confusing.

by in Duncan, SC on

4 of 4 people found this comment helpful
 
Better terminology?

Wouldn't it be less confusing to keep "warm" and "cool" colors solely for the artistic sense of the word? Then warm would always mean more reddish, and cool would always mean more bluish. When referring to color temperature in Kelvin, I always hear people refer to that as "raising" or "lowering" the color temperature, not "warming" or "cooling" the color temperature. Thus 3200K would be a "warm" light, but a "low" color temperature (in K). 6800K would be a "cool" light, and a "high" color temperature. Trying to mix the scientific usage of the word "warm" to refer to a higher number of degrees K is just confusing, and this is the first I've heard of anyone trying to do it. I'd recommend just avoiding the confusing by using different terminology.

by in Boston on

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