Categorizing Different Lighting
| Temperature | Source |
|---|---|
| 1,700 K | Match flame |
| 1,850 K | Candle flame, sunset/sunrise |
| 2,700–3,300 K | Incandescent lamps |
| 3,000 K | Soft White compact fluorescent lamps |
| 3,200 K | Studio lamps, photofloods, etc. |
| 3,350 K | Studio "CP" light |
| 4,100–4,150 K | Moonlight, xenon arc lamp |
| 5,000 K | Horizon daylight |
| 5,000 K | tubular fluorescent lamps or Cool White/Daylight compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) |
| 5,500–6,000 K | Vertical daylight, electronic flash |
| 6,500 K | Daylight, overcast |
| 5,500–10,500 K | LCD or CRT screen |
| 15,000–27,000 K | Clear blue poleward sky |
| These temperatures are merely characteristic; considerable variation may be present. |
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The color temperature of the electromagnetic radiation emitted from an ideal black body is defined as its surface temperature in kelvins, or alternatively in mired (micro-reciprocal kelvins). This permits the definition of a standard by which light sources are compared.
To the extent that a hot surface emits thermal radiation but is not an ideal black body radiator, the color temperature of the light is not the actual temperature of the surface. An incandescent lamp's light is thermal radiation and the bulb approximates an ideal black body radiator, so its color temperature is essentially the temperature of the filament.
Many other light sources, such as fluorescent lamps, emit light primarily by processes other than thermal radiation. This means the emitted radiation does not follow the form of a black body spectrum. These sources are assigned what is known as a correlated color temperature (CCT). CCT is the color temperature of a black body radiator which to human color perception most closely matches the light from the lamp. Because such an approximation is not required for incandescent light, the CCT for an incandescent light is simply its unadjusted temperature, derived from the comparison to a black body radiator.
Read more about this topic: Color Temperature
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—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)