Hey all, question about color temperature.

Hi, i wanted to know what does the color temprature do on a DSLR, i know you can set in it in some thousands, i also saw a beautiful photo with really cool colors with color temperature set at 10000 kelvin i think, what does that mean, can not wait finally recieve 30d on friday i think, thank you

heres a good def
http://en.wikipedia.or​g/wiki/Color_temperatu​re
http://www.ted.photogr​apher.org.uk/photoscie​nce_colour.htm

In technical terms, color temperature describes the color of light that would be emitted by a theoretical black body heated to that particular temperature, measured on the Kelvin scale.

In practical terms, colors look most normal to us when viewed in light that measures 5500–5600°K, like good old sunlight. If the color temperature shifts lower, like at sunset or sunrise, things tend to look warmer or more orange. A shift above that...as in open shade with a bright blue sky...things look cooler or more blue.

Our brains can make up for modest changes in color temperature so colors still look pretty normal if we're out and about under that light. But take a picture of something at sunset with a camera adjusted to normal sunlight and it's going to look quite orange...probably a lot more so than you remember it looking in person.

This is where White Balance comes in. You can set your camera to Automatic White Balance (AWB) and it'll try to estimate the color temperature of the scene and adjust for it so that colors look pretty much normal in the final print. There are also other ways to adjust the white balance, such as modes for shade, cloudy days, etc. On some cameras, you can also directly enter a color temperature. You can even shift the WB for creative purposes...like creating the very cool blue look you mentioned. To begin with, though, I suggest setting it to AWB while you get the hang of your new 30D.

etaf wrote:
heres a good def
http://en.wikipedia.or​g/wiki/Color_temperatu​re
http://www.ted.photogr​apher.org.uk/photoscie​nce_colour.htm

Well, hell...why didn't I think of that?

Thank you Peters and etaf, very helpful, i definetely have a better understanding, great forum

Well, it is really most useful when combined with the Custom White Balance feature.