Every light you are likely to point a camera at, with its approximate colour temperature and the camera setting that matches it. Treat these as starting points - real sources vary widely, and the chart cannot tell you anything about tint.
The full chart
| Kelvin | Source | Looks | Camera setting |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1700K | Match flame | Deep amber | Rarely balanced; shoot it as a warm accent |
| 1800K | Candle flame | Deep amber | 1800-2000K if you want candle to read white |
| 2000K | High-pressure sodium street light | Amber, heavy green tint | Often better left uncorrected |
| 2200K | Vintage / Edison filament bulb | Warm amber | 2200K |
| 2500K | Dimmed incandescent | Golden orange | Meter it; dimming shifts it |
| 2700K | “Soft white” household LED or bulb | Warm yellow | 2700K |
| 2800K | Standard incandescent | Warm yellow | 2800K |
| 3000K | “Warm white” bulb | Warm neutral | 3000K |
| 3200K | Studio tungsten / halogen | Yellow-orange | 3200K - the tungsten anchor |
| 3500K | Warm fluorescent | Pale yellow | 3500K, plus magenta tint |
| 4000K | “Cool white” / office fluorescent | Pale neutral | 4000K, plus magenta tint |
| 4300K | Sunrise, one hour after | Warm neutral | Meter; changes fast |
| 4500K | Cool fluorescent, moonlight | Near-neutral | 4500K, plus magenta tint |
| 5000K | Horizon daylight, “daylight” bulbs | Slightly warm white | 5000K |
| 5500K | Midday sun, camera flash, daylight LED | Neutral white | 5500K - the daylight anchor |
| 5600K | HMI, cinema daylight standard | Neutral white | 5600K |
| 6000K | Bright overcast | Slightly blue | 6000K |
| 6500K | Cloudy daylight, monitor white point (D65) | Cool blue | 6500K |
| 7000K | Heavy overcast | Blue | 7000K |
| 7500K | Open shade on a sunny day | Blue | 7500K |
| 8000K | Deep shade, blue hour | Strong blue | 8000K, or leave blue on purpose |
| 10000K+ | North sky, clear blue sky | Very strong blue | Rarely corrected fully |
By category
Household and practical lighting
| Marked on the box | Kelvin | Typical room |
|---|---|---|
| Soft white | 2700K | Living rooms, bedrooms |
| Warm white | 3000K | Kitchens, bathrooms |
| Cool white / neutral | 4000K | Offices, garages |
| Daylight | 5000K | Workshops, retail |
| Cool daylight | 6500K | Clinical spaces, grow lights |
If you are dressing a set, buy every practical in a room at the same Kelvin. Mismatched bulbs in one frame is the most common reason a shot will not grade cleanly, and it costs nothing to avoid at the shop.
Film and video lighting
| Fixture | Kelvin | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Tungsten fresnel | 3200K | Drops as it dims |
| HMI | 5600K | Can shift 400K in its first minutes - meter it hot |
| Daylight LED panel | 5600K | Check tint; cheap panels skew green |
| Bi-colour LED | 2700-6500K | Set it to the practicals, not to a round number |
| Kino Flo tube | 3200K or 5500K | Sold in both, clearly labelled |
| Studio strobe | 5500K | Tuned to D55 so it matches sun |
Daylight through the day
| Time | Kelvin | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-dawn / blue hour | 8000-10000K | Correcting it fully removes why you got up |
| Sunrise | 2000-3000K | Shifts roughly 200K every five minutes |
| Mid-morning | 4500-5500K | Settling toward the reference |
| Midday, clear | 5500K | The anchor |
| Overcast, any hour | 6000-7000K | Flat and cool |
| Open shade | 7000-7500K | Lit by sky, not sun - much cooler than it looks |
| Golden hour | 3200-4500K, falling | Re-meter every few minutes |
| Sunset | 2000-3000K | As above, faster |
What a chart cannot tell you
Two things, and both matter more than people expect.
Real sources deviate from nominal. Two bulbs from the same box can differ by 200K. A tungsten lamp on a dimmer drops several hundred Kelvin between full and half. An HMI shifts as it warms. A bounce off a cream ceiling adds a few hundred Kelvin of warmth, off a wooden floor closer to a thousand. The chart says what the source is meant to be, not what it is doing in your room.
A chart says nothing about tint. Colour temperature is one axis. The magenta/green axis is the other, and it is the one that makes a fluorescent-lit interview look ill. You can set 4000K exactly right on an office tube and the footage will still be green, because green is not a Kelvin problem.
That is the whole argument for metering rather than looking things up: you get the number this light is actually producing, and you get the tint alongside it.
Using the chart properly
- Estimate from the chart to get in the right neighbourhood.
- Meter to confirm - KEV reports Kelvin and tint through the iPhone camera in real time.
- Enter both in the camera’s manual white balance.
- Verify on a grey card before you commit the setup.
The chart is for when you have no meter and need a defensible starting point. It is not a substitute for the number the room is actually producing.