a6k Loc: Detroit & Sanibel

My Spyder5Pro and some of the software that's built into some of my computers all want to set the color temperature at 6500 degrees Kelvin. I haven't found any one perfect answer but most of the answers I see on the internet say that daylight is around 5500 K.

My monitor on which I am writing this is showing "white" as around 6300 K and was recently calibrated with the Spyder5Pro. I am using my iPhone's app to measure the color temp and I don't know how accurate that is. It is reporting 5300 K out my window on a slightly cloudy day.

So the question is simply: why are monitors set to around 6500 K when daylight is typically around 5500?

Bill Munny Loc: Aurora, Colorado

When you say "monitors", you are implying that all monitors are set the same. Mine is set at 5300, and then I let the SpyderPro 5 work it's magic. Don't assume all monitors are calibrated like yours. Set yours at what works best for you. Good luck with future calibrations.

Bill

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Daylight can vary from ~5600K (noon) to 7,000k (overcast sky) to 10,000K (blue north sky)

steveg48

6500 deg K is average midday light in western Europe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminant_D65

a6k Loc: Detroit & Sanibel

https://www.eizo.be/knowledge/monitor-expertise/color-temperature-on-an-lcd-monitor/
"Most photographers shooting pictures with digital SLR cameras might set their white balance to 5000-5500 K. Since daylight has a color temperature of 5000-5500 K, setting the white balance to this figure makes it possible to capture photos with color reproduction close to that perceived by the eye."
(emphasis added)

TomV Loc: Annapolis, Maryland

I set my Dell IPC technology monitor to 5000K and when calibrated with my ColorMunki it works with my Pixma Pro 100.

GENorkus Loc: Washington Twp, Michigan

Isn't that a personal "taste"?

Many/most people just print out what they have and call it good. Many photographers go a step further and modify a picture and call it good.

I still use other companies but have basically setteled on one print company. They and several others have a calibrated standard they maintain.

Others Ugly members will hate what I'm about to say... I did use a calibrator on my monitor at one time but now don't.

To remedy any color "problem", I just pull out a blank white sheet of print paper that my print company gave me and do a personal calibration to match the paper that my image will end up on. (With an IPS monitor, that's not really that often either.)

Technical wise, I know it's not keeping-up-with-the-Jone's but so far things have turned out very well and for several of the other good print services that I've checked too. (Not all of them mind you.)

a6k Loc: Detroit & Sanibel

I really do enjoy UHH but I have to agree with the critics who point out how often the replies are off-point. Most of the above is off-point. I don't really want to know how anyone is calibrating or not calibrating his or her monitor. Opinions are not what I seek. I asked a question that I thought was simple and was prefaced with sufficient data. If there is an answer I expect it to be grounded in technology, not opinion nor the opinion that color management is just personal preference.

GENorkus Loc: Washington Twp, Michigan

Sorry if my response is not what you requested. btw: From the factory setting, my monitor came at 5000 to 5400-ish.

Many monitors WERE set higher because older technology lighting, (for monitors), had a warmer output. To compensate for it they made it slightly cooler.

Correct what I said. I just found an article that said; "The U.S. broadcasting standard (NTSC) calls for a color temperature standard of 6500 K. The international standard for digital high-definition television (ITU-R BT.709) also specifies a color temperature of 6500 K. When watching video on a PC, users should set the LCD monitor's color temperature between 6500 K and 9300 K."

a6k Loc: Detroit & Sanibel

I'm not picking on GENorkus - or don't mean to. The issue of 6500 being very common in display calibration is being debated far more than it should. My Windows computer has a similar starting point for its Dell monitor. I already showed that Eizo sees 6500 as the starting point.

The question remains. Why is color film set for about 5500, daylight in our part of the world is usually said to be around 5500 but our monitors like to start at 6500?

GENorkus Loc: Washington Twp, Michigan

I found an article that stated "the U.S. broadcasting standard (NTSC) calls for a color temperature standard of 6500 K. The international standard for digital high-definition television (ITU-R BT.709) also specifies a color temperature of 6500 K. When watching video on a PC, users should set the LCD monitor's color temperature between 6500 K and 9300 K."

That probably is why the makers do it that way. As for the reason WHY it is that way...?

Also, "Television pictures actually have a pronounced blue cast. However, most people appear to be accustomed to television and often perceive PC screens as having a reddish cast."

Look about 1/2 way down this article:

http://www.eizoglobal.com/library/basics/color_temperature_on_an_LCD_monitor/

Strange that several articles state most monitors come at 9,300 kelvin. (Mine sure didn't. I'm now guessing they had been calibrated from the dealer I used to go through.)

GENorkus Loc: Washington Twp, Michigan

Try here also:

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/symbiartic/how-to-calibrate-your-monitor/

Interesting throughout the article and for Spyder fans, read near the end.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

Remember on UHH you get: expert advice, strong conflicting opinions, and completely wrong answers. It’s up to the reader to sort them out.

michaelgem

Good question. Totally neutral (no tint to the yellow or blue side) is well known, especially in photography, to be around 5000K to 5500K and often quoted to be 5200K.

Starting with the IES Lighting Handbook, 5th edition, the section “Color Temperature” on p 5-11 states that a blackbody radiator would be “white (neutral) at about 5000°K.” [Kaufman 1972] Also, several fluorescent lamp manufacturers produce full-spectrum white lamps that have CCTs ranging from 5000 to 5500°K. The color differences of these full-spectrum lamps are slight. All CCTs in this range appear to be quite close to neutral white.

However, the CCT of full-spectrum white light can be narrowed from this range. The blackbody temperature that would be closest to full-spectrum white light would be the one having the flattest planckian distribution curve across the visible spectrum, 400 - 700 nm. Figure 4-14 of the IESNA Lighting Handbook, which plots a family of such planckian distribution curves, shows that the flattest curve would be between the 5000 and 6000°K curves. Interpolating between these two curves shows that the flattest curve would be at about 5200°K.

Noon daylight white is typically quoted from 5000 to 5500.

Anywhere from 5000 to 5500 is indistinguishable to an observer and essentially dead neutral, no tint of either blue or yellow.

So the answer to your question: why are monitors set to around 6500 K when daylight is typically around 5500? is that someone decided to set that as their standard. That is in spite of the fact that it is slightly toward the blue side, while the room ambient light is typically on the yellowish side often well below neutral 5000K.

Since your eyes auto white balance to the ambient incident light, the monitor should be adjusted to that ambient color temperature, so that your brain sees colors in the monitor the same as surrounding colors in the room (i.e. correctly).

Rich1939 Loc: Pike County Penna.

Daylight around 5-5500 K would actually warm light as it is from the sun. 6500 K light would be neutral (usually artificial) white. when working with a file for printing using 5500 will hel you to get close to how the image will print, 6500 on the other hand will not and is best used when processing for web viewing.