Daylight

Approximate Correlated Color Temperature for Various Light Sources

Source	Degrees Kelvin

Artiﬁcial Light

Match Flame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1700

Candle Flame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1850

40-Watt Incandescent Tungsten Lamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2650

75-Watt Incandescent Tungsten Lamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2820

100-Watt Incandescent Tungsten Lamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2865

500-Watt Incandescent Tungsten Lamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2960

200-Watt Incandescent Tungsten Lamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2980

1000-Watt Incandescent Tungsten Lamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2990

3200-Degree Kelvin Tungsten Lamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3200

Molarc “Brute” with Yellow Flame Carbons &

YF-101 Filter (approx.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3350

“C.P.” (Color Photography) Studio Tungsten Lamp . . . . . . . . . . . . 3350

Photoﬂood and Reﬂector Flood Lamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3400

Daylight Blue Photoﬂood Lamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4800

White Flame Carbon Arc Lamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5000

High-Intensity Sun Arc Lamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5500

Xenon Arc Lamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6420

Sunlight: Sunrise or Sunset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2000

Sunlight: One Hour After Sunrise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3500

Sunlight: Early Morning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4300

Sunlight: Late Afternoon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4300 Average Summer Sunlight at Noon (Washington, D.C.) . . . . . . . . . 5400 Direct Mid-Summer Sunlight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5800 Overcast Sky. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6000 Average Summer Sunlight (plus blue skylight). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6500 Light Summer Shade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7100 Average Summer Shade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8000 Summer Skylight Will Vary from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9500 to 30,000

NOTE: Sunlight is the light of the sun only. Daylight is a combination of sunlight plus skylight. The values given are approximate because many factors affect color temperature. OUTDOORS: the sun angle, and the conditions of the sky– clouds, haze, dust particles –raise or lower the color temperature. INDOORS: lamp age (and blackening), voltage, type of reﬂectors and diffusers affect tungsten bulbs –all of these can inﬂuence the actual color temperature of the light. Usually a change of 1 volt equals 10 degrees Kelvin. But this is true only within a limited voltage range and does not always apply to “booster voltage” operation, since certain bulbs will not exceed a certain color temperature regardless of the increase in voltage.