Overview of Color Temperature and WB Settings

With a wide array of preset White Balance settings on the Nikon D90, I find myself spoilt with choices to carve the light spectrum reaching my subject. In most instances, the Automatic mode seems just fine. But in my quest to hone in on color accuracy, I begin to trust my eye judgment in setting the Kelvin temperature scale instead.

Often color temperature is measured as "MIRED Value" which stands for MIcroREciprocal Degree. This can be calculated as 1,000,000 / Color Temperature

source      Color Temp (K)  MIRED Value
Candlelight   1,930          518
75 Watt      2,800          357
100 Watt      2,900          345
200 Watt      3,000          333
Sunrise/set   3,100          323
Tungsten      3,200          312
Photolamp     3,400          294
Dawn/dusk     3,600          278
predawn/dusk  4,000          250
"Daylight"    4,500          222
fluorescent
Carbon arc    5,200          192
Daylight      5,500          182
Camera flash  6,000          167
Overcast sky  7,000          143
Hazy sky     10,000          100
sunless blue 11,000           91
sky
clear sky in 20,000           50
mountains

Try your next shoot with the above guide and you'll be surprise our human metering can bring out surprisingly refreshing difference!