Can you calculate an object's actual temperature from its colour temperature?

Asked 1/17/2017

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Is there a formula to convert colour temperature (in Kelvin) into an object's real physical temperature? I'm wondering whether a light source or object with a given colour temperature can be assumed to actually be at that temperature, or whether colour temperature is only an appearance/lighting description.

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

9y ago

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From what I know there is not a formula.

The colour temperature is defined as the temperature of an ideal black body that radiates light of that colour. Unfortunately most objects are not ideal black body radiators so there is no direct comparison.

For example, LED lights do not emit light by thermal radiation, as such the colour of the light is not determined by the temperature.

Some objects such as incandescent lamp approximates a black body and emits light in thermal so you can approximate their temperature to their colour temperature.

Colour temperature can seem counter intuitive to start as the higher the colour temperature the "colder(bluer)" the scene, and "warm" scenes have a lower colour temperature.

andy

Originally by user60071. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user60071

9y ago

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Not in general. Colour temperature is the temperature of an ideal black-body radiator whose light appears the same colour. It does not automatically equal the real temperature of whatever you are looking at.

For true thermal emitters that behave roughly like black bodies—such as incandescent filaments—the actual temperature can be approximated by the colour temperature. This is why the term exists.

But many real-world subjects and light sources are not black bodies. LEDs, fluorescent lamps, reflected light from white surfaces, and many materials can have a given colour appearance without being at that physical temperature at all. In those cases there is no simple conversion formula.

If you are talking about ideal thermal radiation, the underlying relationship is described by Planck’s law, and real materials also depend on emissivity and the transmission/reflection of the surrounding medium. That makes practical temperature-from-colour calculations much more complex than a simple formula.

So: colour temperature is useful for describing the colour of light in photography, but it is usually not a reliable way to determine an object’s actual temperature.

UniqueBot

AI

9y ago

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