What is the ideal colour temperature for product photography?

Lighting for Product Photography

The keys to the ideal lighting for product photography are diffusion and light colour.

Diffusion

Harsh lighting can cause shadows, glare, reflections and hotspots.

Direct light gives a harsh shadow	Diffused light inside a light tent gives a very soft shadow

The EZcube® is the ideal way to diffuse the light. Although it is possible to illuminate the EZcube® using sunlight, the availability of sunlight tends to be unreliable so a professional lighting solution is the best approach. A good balance of lighting is achieved by illuminating the EZcube® from two opposing sides, although please note that no single light position will work for every item or every situation and many and varied results and effects can be achieved by adjusting the angle and position of the lights.

We recommend using Perfect Daylight 5000K Compact Fluorescent Bulbs because they:

Light Colour

The colour of light (correctly known as the "colour temperature") is measured in units of Kelvin (K). The range of the Kelvin (K) scale for visible light is 1500K to 9000K. The lower the number the warmer or more yellow the light and the higher the number the cooler or more white and/or blue the light. The human eye is not able to see all of the colour in the range of colour temperature.

The ideal colour temperature for product photography is 5000K as this provides the best colour balance and representation without the need for filters or software editing. This ensures correct colour rendering and balance such that the colour of the image closely resembles the colour of the original item. This is very important if you are selling items online as your customers need to be sure that your image accurately reflects the genuine colour of the item.

Mixing Light Colours

It is important to be sure that you do not mix light colours - all the light sources that you use at one time need to be the same colour temperature. No camera, no matter how good or expensive, can cope with more than one colour of light at the same time. All the light sources that you use together should be the same colour temperature. Remember that UK Daylight is 5000K so it is safe to use our 5000K lighting with natural daylight from a nearby window (for more about this see below)

Daylight Balanced Lighting

There is a lot of confusion about "daylight" or "daylight balanced" lighting. Lighting described as “daylight” can be anything between about 4700K and about 6500K but not all of this range is suitable for specialist product photography. The range of suitable lighting is very much smaller, in the region of 5000K to 5500K maximum.

Our lighting is 5000K because this most accurately reflects true natural daylight of the kind that will be coming in your window. As mentioned above, it is important always use lighting products that all match in their Kelvin value and this applies to window light just as much as to any artificial light you might use. Unless you want to work in the dark (at night or with blackout blinds) then the artificial lighting you use should be the same colour as your natural window light. Natural window light can actually be used to advantage providing that your artificial lighting is the same colour.

The colour temperature of “natural daylight” (the daylight coming in your window) depends on where you are on the planet since the colour temperature of “natural daylight” varies with latitude. The colour temperature of “natural daylight” on an average day in the UK and Europe (Northern Hemisphere) is 5000K. Colour temperature of 5400K only occurs at noon on a very sunny day (very rare in the UK) and so lighting of 5400K is inappropriate at any other time or under any other circumstances. Lighting of a colour temperature above 5400K is suitable only for Central Latitudes. The diagram below illustrates this well.

It is clear from this explanation that for perfect colour representation, so that the colour of an image appears identical to the way the object would appear under normal UK daylight conditions to someone who was viewing the object (and not an image of the object), 5000K will give the perfect match. Therefore, lighting of 5000K will give the very best images without problems or corrections.

Why we use 5000K and not 5400K or 5600K or 6000K?

The choice of which Daylight Colour Temperature does confuse a lot of people. 5400K is the average northern hemisphere average temperature AT NOON. This means that natural light in the UK is 5400K ONLY at noon. This is fine if you only want to work at 12:00 noon and not the rest of the day! 5000K is the average northern hemisphere temperature measured throughout the day. So at noon it will be a little higher and early and late it will be a little lower, but with 5000K you are never very far away from the natural light levels at any time of day. Early and late you will be much further away from natural levels with 5400K and at 5600K you will be even further away. Average colour temperature will peak at noon, so to be closest to the daylight temperature all day you need to be quite a bit below 5600K. 6000K, another popular daylight colour temperature, is the average equatorial temperature. This is ideal if you are at the equator, but not very helpful if you are in the UK or Europe!

The bulbs supplied by most companies are “off the shelf”, whatever is available. Our TrumpetTop, Sparkler and Diamond Dazzler Bulbs are all custom made to our own specifications, both in terms of the unique shape to maximise the distribution and spread of light and for the ideal colour temperature. Since we are able to exactly specify what we want for perfect product photography we are able to specify the most ideal colour temperature for all our lighting equipment. The reason that most suppliers use 5400K or 5600K or even 6000K is these are the colour temperatures that are readily available off the shelf, where 5000K is not. Then, of course, their job is to persuade you that what they can easily buy in is what is best!

If you want perfect daylight 5000K, you have to have it specially made and most suppliers will not do this. 5000K is the perfect white natural daylight for all product photography. No other colour temperature will give such perfect results.

Why spend hours editing the images when you can take them right in the first place!

The comparison below illustrates the colour and light spread of TableTop Studio TrumpetTop Bulbs

40w Loop Bulb	30w TrumpetTop Bulb	25w Spiral Bulb
2700k Yellow	5000k Pure White Light Notice the Spread of Light Outwards - Utilising the shape of the Reflector to intensify and direct the light	6400k Blue Light
Unsuitable for product photography	Ideal for Product Photography	Unsuitable for product photography