Color Temperature Chart
Color temperature describes whether a light looks warm (orange) or cool (blue), measured in kelvin (K). Lower numbers are warmer; higher numbers are cooler. Drag the slider below to see how each kelvin value looks, where you find it, and when to use it.
Showing the light's own colour — what your eye sees looking at the source.
Color temperature chart (kelvin reference)
| Kelvin | Appearance | Typical source | Best used for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1500–1900K | Deep warm / amber | Candlelight, match flame | Intimate, cozy mood |
| 2000–2700K | Warm white | Sunrise/sunset, incandescent bulb | Golden-hour look, portraits |
| 2700–3200K | Soft warm | Tungsten, halogen, warm LED | Cozy interiors, film tungsten look |
| 3500–4500K | Neutral white | Fluorescent, neutral LED | Offices, mixed lighting, balance |
| 5000–5600K | Daylight / pure white | Midday sun, electronic flash | Accurate color, product & video |
| 6000–6500K | Cool white | Overcast daylight, cool LED | Crisp, clinical, tech look |
| 7000–10000K | Cool blue | Open shade, blue sky | Cold, moody, moonlight effect |
Two things people mean by "color temperature"
The same phrase covers two different questions, and mixing them up is what makes footage look wrong. The two buttons under the slider above switch between them.
The colour of the light. A tungsten lamp at 3200K genuinely glows amber; noon daylight at 5600K genuinely looks white. This is the physical colour a heated source emits, and it is what the chart above describes.
The cast in your file. Your camera decides what counts as white. Lock white balance to 5600K and light the scene at 3200K, and everything turns orange — not because the light changed, but because the camera was told to expect something bluer. Set white balance to 3200K instead and that same lamp records as neutral. That is why the reference patches go completely neutral at 5600K in camera mode, and only there.
Most colour temperature charts only answer the first question. If you are lighting a shot rather than a room, the second one is the one that costs you time in the edit.
Warm vs. cool: how to choose
Match your light's color temperature to the mood you want and to the other light in the scene. Mixing a warm 3000K lamp with cool 6000K daylight from a window creates an orange/blue color cast, so either match them or use them intentionally. For photo and video where accurate color matters, most creators work around 5000–5600K (daylight); for a warm, flattering portrait look, 2700–3500K is common.
Every kelvin value, one by one
The chart above groups temperatures into bands. Below is each value creators actually dial in, with its mired equivalent.
1800K color temperature — candle flame
556 mired
Candlelight and a struck match sit here. Deep amber, close to orange-red, with almost no blue left in it. Use it for firelight scenes and very close, intimate frames — on skin it is extremely warm unless that is exactly the effect you want.
2700K color temperature — household bulb
370 mired
The standard incandescent bulb, and what most "warm white" LEDs are tuned to. This is what a living-room lamp looks like on camera: cozy and flattering to skin. If practicals are visible in your shot, this is usually the number you are matching.
3000K color temperature — soft white
333 mired
"Soft white" bulbs and warm architectural LED. Slightly cleaner than 2700K while still reading clearly warm, which is why hospitality and retail lean on it. A safe warm setting when 2700K starts to look yellow on camera.
3200K color temperature — the tungsten standard
313 mired
Studio tungsten fixtures, and the number film and video crews standardised on for interior work. If your camera has a tungsten white balance preset, this is what it expects. Along with 5600K, it is one of the two anchors the trade actually agreed on.
3500K color temperature — between warm and neutral
286 mired
Warmth without the yellow. Common in offices and shops that want a softer feel than plain white light. Useful on set as a compromise when you have warm practicals in frame but need faces to stay closer to neutral.
4000K color temperature — cool white
250 mired
Kitchens, workspaces and most retail lighting. Reads clean and functional rather than atmospheric. On camera it is noticeably cooler than skin wants, so it tends to need warming if people are the subject.
4300K color temperature — mid-morning sun
233 mired
Late-morning and mid-afternoon daylight, and a lot of fluorescent tubing. A practical middle ground when you are mixing window light with your own fixtures and do not want to commit fully to either end.
5000K color temperature — horizon daylight
200 mired
Daylight nearer the horizon, and the D50 white point used in print and proofing. Effectively neutral, a touch warmer than photographic daylight. If you are matching to printed output rather than to a camera, this is usually the reference.
5600K color temperature — the daylight standard
179 mired
Noon sun and electronic flash. This is the reference photographers and videographers balance to, and the second of the trade's two anchors. If you are going to set one number and stop thinking about it, set this one.
6500K color temperature — overcast
154 mired
Overcast sky, and the D65 white point most monitors and phones ship with. Cool and crisp. Useful when you need to match an overcast window, or when a subject should read clinical rather than warm.
7500K color temperature — open shade
133 mired
A subject out of direct sun but still under open sky, lit mostly by the blue of the sky itself. Visibly blue on camera. More often something you correct for than something you choose deliberately.
10000K color temperature — clear blue sky
100 mired
Strongly blue. Reach for it when you want the cold cast to be obvious: moonlight looks, night interiors, the glow of a screen. Outside those cases it will fight every skin tone in the frame.
Mired: how lighting crews talk about the difference
Kelvin is not a linear scale. Going from 2700K to 3200K is a far bigger visual change than going from 9500K to 10000K, even though both are a 500K step. That is why correction filters are specified in mired (micro reciprocal degrees) rather than in kelvin.
mired = 1,000,000 ÷ kelvin
The correction you need is simply the difference between two mired values. To take a 3200K tungsten lamp up to 5600K daylight: 1,000,000 ÷ 3200 = 313, and 1,000,000 ÷ 5600 = 179, so you need a shift of about −134 mired. That is the job a full CTB (colour temperature blue) gel does — it is published at roughly −131 mired, near enough in practice. The tool above works this out for whatever value you land on.
Going the other way, CTO (colour temperature orange) warms a daylight source down toward tungsten. Both families come in full, ½, ¼ and ⅛ grades. One thing worth knowing: the exact mired shifts vary between manufacturers, and CTO and CTB are not mirror images of each other — a full CTO moves considerably further than a full CTB. Read the figure printed in the swatch book rather than assuming symmetry.
Color temperature FAQ
What is color temperature?
Color temperature describes how warm or cool a light source looks, measured in kelvin (K). Lower values (2000–3000K) look warm and orange, higher values (5500–6500K) look cool and blue, and around 5000–5600K is neutral daylight.
What color temperature is best for photography?
Most photographers work around 5000–5600K (daylight) for accurate, true-to-color results. For a warm, flattering portrait look, 2700–3500K is common. A bi-color LED light lets you set any value across that range.
What is the difference between warm and cool light?
Warm light (below about 3500K) has an orange, cozy feel and flatters skin, while cool light (above about 5000K) looks crisp, clean and clinical. Matching your light's color temperature to the rest of the scene avoids unwanted orange or blue color casts.
Which is whiter, 4000K or 6000K?
6000K. Higher kelvin means bluer, and blue-white reads as "whiter" to the eye than the slightly warm neutral of 4000K. Neither is truly white on its own — what looks white depends on what your eye, or your camera, has adapted to.
What color temperature should I use?
Match whatever light is already dominant in the frame. Shooting beside a window, set your fixture near 5600K. Shooting under household bulbs, drop to around 2700–3200K. Mixing two temperatures without meaning to is what makes footage look off, not the number itself.
Why do 3200K and 5600K come up so often?
They are the two conventions the film and photo trade standardised on: 3200K for tungsten and 5600K for daylight. Cameras, gels and fixtures are all built around those two reference points, so everything else is a deliberate step away from one of them. Household lighting guides quote 2700K and 4000K instead — different trade, different anchors.
Why bi-color lighting makes this easy
A fixed-temperature light locks you into one look. A bi-color LED lets you dial any value across the range on this chart, so you can match daylight from a window, warm up a portrait, or hold a consistent white across a whole shoot. Harlowe's bi-color LED lights tune from roughly 2700K to 6500K, covering nearly every point on this scale, so you shape color temperature to the scene instead of fighting it. If you need the ends of this chart too — candlelight at one end, deep blue sky at the other — the Max Spectra covers the full 1700K–10000K range, with CRI and TLCI both rated 96.
