Let’s first convert an image to black and white in Lightroom Classic CC and see what happens when we begin to adjust the color temperature. Now that we’ve got that out of the way it’s time to experiment. This means it is imperative that you do not shoot in a dedicated monochromatic mode. We need the color information from the image file to exploit the impact of color temperature on luminance values after the black and white conversion. The remainder of this article assumes that you are shooting in RAW format or at the very least in color JPEG. How color temperature affects black and white photos Luckily, we don’t have to worry about any of that.įor our purposes, we are just concerned with how the cool or warm the colors are within the image regardless of actual numeric Kelvin temperature. Thereby, making the photo perceptibly warmer.
#Color temperature conversion chart software
This means that if a photo is “cool” out of the camera, we will tell the software to “warm it up” by increasing the Kelvin value to bring the white balance closer to the original scene. From what I’ve gathered, this inversion is due to the approach that white balance adjustments in digital photography are based on “compensation” rather than direct cooling or warming of colors. In short, the color temperature sliders in most photo editors are in fact reversed from the true Kelvin scale. You paid excellent attention in science class! “Adam…but wait! Most image processing software shows lower Kelvin color temperatures as blue and warmer colors as red!” More blue or “cool” colors have a higher Kelvin number, and more red or “warmer” colors have a lower Kelvin number. When we talk about color temperature, we are referring to the hue-based Kelvin scale (there’s a temperature-based one too) which measures the hue of color and thus relates to white balance which is the theoretical absence of color cast within an image.
![color temperature conversion chart color temperature conversion chart](https://www.printabledocs.net/wp-content/uploads/Resistor-conversion-650x837.jpg)
Let’s get started! A quick refresher on color temperature
![color temperature conversion chart color temperature conversion chart](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/0b/a6/1f/0ba61f6049345571379de5d3d6f7726d.jpg)
I also intend to make at least one black and white related pun before the end. We’ll look at how we can leverage this constantly neglected aspect of digital black and white photography so that we have many more opportunities to make even more impressive monochromatic images. In this article, we’re going to take a cruise aimed at getting a little closer to understanding how much of a role color temperature plays in our digital black and white conversions. I know, the operative word here is COLOR and black and white photos…you know…don’t really have a lot of color. Usually, this is done via the HSL (BW) Panel in Lightroom or other processing software.īut there is one ingredient of the black and white pie that gets constantly overlooked during the average photographers (let’s pretend) black and white conversion process color temperature.
![color temperature conversion chart color temperature conversion chart](https://i2.wp.com/digital-photography-school.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Fall-Colors-Digital-Photography-School-Adam-Welch-Autumn-7.jpg)
You see, advanced black and white conversions take advantage of the different luminance values present in our RAW files so that we can individually manipulate those values after we have converted the color image to black and white. The ability to first shoot in color and then convert the image to black and white offers photographers a way to express themselves in ways that reach beyond the influence of color. Digital photography has opened up enormous possibilities for black and white photography.