Yes it is possible to partially correct ‘bad light’. Spikey light sources are more problematical but the errors often go unnoticed. I prefer to leave ‘bad’ lighting as it is and throw a bit of good light in to the mix. I’ll be discussing this in my next piece.

Fluorescent tubes have many colour temperatures and spectral responses. In the 60’s there were just warm white and cool white tubes but now there are many types. They range from specialist tubes with red spikes designed to make meat in a butchers counter look redder or ultra violet designed to highlight underwear in a disco.

Because fluorescent tubes use fluorescing gasses to make light and are not ‘black body radiators’ relying on heat energy to make light they can run cool yet emit a colour of light that correlates to a hot black body radiator. With me?

Midday sun is a lower colour temperature than deep blue sky. This is not because the sky is lit by a hotter light source but it is because of the make up of the atmosphere and the scattering of light. The shorter wavelength (blue) light is affected more than the longer (red) wavelengths. The sky appears blue until the angle of the sun is shallow and the blue light is further scattered by the increased atmosphere the sunlight travels through. This leaves just the red light and a lovely sunset.

Thanks for your interest and questions.

Damien.

This may be a stupid question, but is it possible to colour correct ‘bad light’ such as lime or sodium with say, magenta or green gels or are they just too tricky to counter?

Also; if I’ve understood correctly, fluorescent lights are actually physically hotter than than tungsten lights. So with blue sky being 10000 to 20000k, how is the mid day sun cooler at 5600k? Am I missing something?

Thanks!!!