light, colour & photography

colour temperature

you might also be interested in this article: the dimension of colour

An article on colour space

It is a known fact that light changes colour as it gets brighter. In one sense only is this true: for black-body radiators. As a material is heated it starts to glow, at first cherry red, then orange, yellow, then "white" until finally the light appears blue (or at least bluish). This is an everyday phenomenon and accounts for the difference in the "whiteness" between ordinary tungsten lamps and the much hotter halogen-quartz lamps. It also accounts for the difference between the colour of stars: the redness of Betelgeuse, for example, compared to the blueness of Rigel, both in the constellation of Orion.

There is a separate section on colour temperature [here] as well as a discussion on the different illuminant standards and "white balance".

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