Color temperature is a very important photographic concept that can be difficult to understand—depending upon who is doing the explaining. Booray Perry is an instructor who specializes in quick tutorials that simplify so-called “complicated” considerations, and that’s exactly what he does in the quick video below.

In simple terms, color temperature involves a numerical way to describe the warmth or coolness of light that affects all colors in the spectrum. It can make a significant difference in the look of all types of photos and can be adjusted in the camera or during the editing process.

In this six-minute episode Perry demystifies the process so you can give photos a variety of different the moods, simply by adjusting color temperature to suite the task. This is the first of a two-part series—with the next installment explaining White Balance settings and how they interact with today’s topic.

The notion of color temperature was broached many years ago by William Thomson, who Perry humorously refers to as “Lord Kelvin” or “K-Diddy.” Thomson wasn’t specifically concerned with photography when he came up with the idea of defining the color of light by burning carbon—observing how carbon turned from red to white hot, and then to blue as the heating process progressed.

Thomsen then quantified the varying colors of burning carbon in terms of degrees Kelvin, a measurement that’s still used today. So candlelight has a value of 2000 Kelvin, while according to this measurement scheme daylight is described as 5,500 Kelvin.

In terms of what you see through the viewfinder and how color temperature affects your photos, Perry says it’s important to understand that “the human mind tends to make most forms of light appear white to us.” And that has serious ramifications for the White Balance settings you choose if you want to capture images that accurately capture a scene (or change the look to make it appear warmer or cooler).

One example would be if you photograph a landscape under cool tones of dawn, but want it to look like a Golden Hour shot (or vice versa). After watching the video you’ll understand how color temperature works, and be well prepared for the next episode that adds White Balance settings into the mix so you’ll know exactly what to do.

The next time you’re flummoxed by an important photographic term, pay a visit to Perry’s YouTube channel where you’re likely to find a simple explanation.

And be sure to check out another of his tutorial we posted in the past, explaining how to use EV-Compensation for nailing exposure in the camera.

Over the past several weeks we’ve been bringing you helpful tutorials from an amazing free Lightroom Masterclass presented by the PHLOG Photography YouTube channel. Today is Part 6 in the series, and covers all the basics of Color Grading using split Toning.

German landscape photographer Christian Mohrle is one of our favorite image-editing instructors, and he says the technique you’ll learn below in barely seven minutes is, “Lightroom’s coolest feature.” In simple terms, this method is employed for adding color to highlights, midtones, or shadows in an image.

Mohrle says this tool may not seem very powerful upon first glance, “but it’s best way to create unique and cinematic looks.” As you’ll see, applying different color tones to various portions of a photo enables you to imbue an image with harmonic color themes.

You can follow along and make the recommended adjustments as they’re explained by downloading the demonstration image using the link in the description beneath the video.  The lesson begins with a quick discussion of how Lightroom’s Color Grading panel works.

Mohrle prefers to tackle the highlight adjustments first when editing Golden Hour photos like the one you see here. After opening the panel you’ll see a large Color Wheel and a prominent Luminance slider. There are additional settings for more precise results that Lightroom hides by default. These options are revealed by clicking on an arrow beneath the Color Wheel.

One of the newly visible tools is a Hue/Saturation slider that provides maximum control over the color you want to modify. Mohrle demonstrates how easy it to warm up the highlights in his image for a realistic Golden Hour look—when used in combination with the adjustments that follow.

Mohrle takes an equally straightforward approach for Color Grading midtones and shadows. He follows this up with some important tips on blending and balance to get the image just right. All that’s left are a few global adjustments and the transformation is complete.

Mohrle’s popular YouTube channel is full of outdoor photography shooting and editing tips, so be sure to pay a visit when you have time.

We also recommend watching the tutorial we posted recently from another accomplished pro, explaining why says, “Luminar Neo is better than Lightroom.”