The human brain is a wonderful thing. Amongst all of its other clever tricks, it can automatically compensate for wide-ranging color temperatures of different light sources (within reason), so a sheet of white paper always looks white, whether it’s being illuminated by the noon-day sun or a light bulb in your living room. However, your Nikon camera isn’t quite as clever, and might need a little help along the way.
Scientifically, color temperature is measured on a Kelvin scale. It can feel a little counter-intuitive, as ‘warmer’ color temperatures actually have a lower Kelvin value. For example, candlelight is around 1000-2000K, the golden warmth of sunrise or sunset under a clear sky is around 3000-4000K, overhead sunlight is about 5000-6500K, a cloudy sky will give you about 8000K and a heavily overcast sky or shade will be as much as 10,000K. Things get even more difficult to predict with artificial lighting, which can have a range of hues and intensities, depending on whether they’re tungsten, fluorescent, LED or other types of lighting.
