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Participant
December 28, 2022
Answered

Lightroom Mobile temperature convert Kelvin to -100 and 100+

  • December 28, 2022
  • 2 replies
  • 9612 views

I'm on lightroom mobile and I wanna switch from "K' which I believe is kelvin to -100 and 100 scale instead. If not, whats -4 in kelvin scale? I've tried using google's converter and got 273, which isn't on the scale.

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Correct answer Sean McCormack

Moved to the Lightroom Ecosystem forum. 

 

The Kelvin scale measures the colour temperature, which has nothing to do with temperature in the traditional section. 

Daylight is 5500 Kelvin (though Lightroom has an internal scale which is different than camera makers), Tungsten is around 3300k. Raw files use this scale as it gives greater and more accurate control using the sensor data. The -100/+100 scale is for rendered files and will actually reduce quality on export as you're manipulating pixel data rather than sensor data. 

2 replies

Sean McCormack
Community Expert
Sean McCormackCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
December 28, 2022

Moved to the Lightroom Ecosystem forum. 

 

The Kelvin scale measures the colour temperature, which has nothing to do with temperature in the traditional section. 

Daylight is 5500 Kelvin (though Lightroom has an internal scale which is different than camera makers), Tungsten is around 3300k. Raw files use this scale as it gives greater and more accurate control using the sensor data. The -100/+100 scale is for rendered files and will actually reduce quality on export as you're manipulating pixel data rather than sensor data. 

Sean McCormack. Author of 'Essential Development 3'. Magazine Writer. Former Official Fuji X-Photographer.
TheDigitalDog
Inspiring
December 28, 2022

The numbers are all over the map, pretty much ignore them. 

Adjust visually, not numerically. 

 

CCT (Kelvin) is a range, a large range of possible colors. YMMV:

Further, every product will report differing values from the same data:

 

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"