ACR white balance?

Noob question:

In the ACR white balance slider, why do lower numbers indicate a cooler image? Seems backwards to me, considering lower color temperatures are warmer. What am I missing?

Consider a real life example. If you're grilling on a gas grill and you turn up the cooking termperature, what color does the flame become?

PixelMagic wrote in post #14907901
Consider a real life example. If you're grilling on a gas grill and you turn up the cooking termperature, what color does the flame become?

Thus my question. "Seems backwards to me, considering lower color temperatures are warmer."

You're telling ACR the light has a warmer color, so it compensates for that, making the image cooler…

LostArk wrote in post #14907909
Thus my question. "Seems backwards to me, considering lower color temperatures are warmer."

But lower temperatures are not warmer; its just that as photographers we describe it in the reverse of how temperature exists in the real world.

See Rene's explanation; the Temperature slider compensates or allows up to set what the the white point should be. So alll you're really doing is assign a white point to colors that already exist.

Let me try and be more clear. Let's say I take a shot outside in broad daylight with a white balance of 5600k. If I wanted the image to have a blue cast, I'd change my white balance to 7000k e.g. increase the temperature. In ACR, if I want my image taken at 5600k to have a blue cast, I'd move the slider to the left, or put in a number like 3000. So is that number (3000) meaningless and arbitrary, or is there some secret to the white balance slider I'm not understanding?

See the section titled The White Balance Adjustments: http://www.peachpit.co​m …e.aspx?p=162077​9&seqNum=5

And this link too: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/in​dex.php?topic=55953.0

N.B. the poster "madmanchan" is Eric Chan, the Principal Scientist at Adobe for Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom.

PixelMagic wrote in post #14907980
See the section titled The White Balance Adjustments: http://www.peachpit.co​m …e.aspx?p=162077​9&seqNum=5

And this link too: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/in​dex.php?topic=55953.0

N.B. the poster "madmanchan" is Eric Chan, the Principal Scientist at Adobe for Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom.

Thank you, I just had an "ah-ha!" moment! Much appreciated!