From the course: The Elements of Effective Photographs

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Sunrise and sunset: The Kelvin scale

Sunrise and sunset: The Kelvin scale

From the course: The Elements of Effective Photographs

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Sunrise and sunset: The Kelvin scale

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- We all know that beautiful use of color can make or break a photograph. In the next few movies we'll take a look at how to do that. Let's start by talking about the color of light and white balance. Simply put, this means that the whites in your photographs are white. They don't have a color cast of blue or orange or green. Your eye naturally ignores these color shifts, but not your camera. You have to tell it what is white. The color of light changes all the time. The time of day makes a big difference, but also the time of year, weather conditions, and smog levels. The Kelvin scale measures the temperature of light. The lower the number, say around 2,400, the warmer the light. The higher, the colder the light. To show this Luke Demming shot this nifty series of well over 1,000 images taken from six in the morning until eight at night. All of the photographs were taken at 5,500 Kelvin, which is considered the…

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