Flash photography tip: Match the colour temperature

Saturday 25 April 2026, 15:30 by Elja Trum | 1,269 views | 0 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

Flash light has a fixed colour temperature. It is roughly comparable to the light you get in the middle of the day. When the ambient light has a different colour, for example at sunset, you can clearly see a colour difference between the light from your flash and that of the surroundings. This immediately shows that a photo was taken with flash.

Left without a colour filter, right with an orange colour filter
To prevent the flash light from being so clearly distinguishable from the surroundings, you need to adjust the colour temperature of your flash light. You can use colour filters for this. There are colour filters with a yellow tint specifically for colour temperature, CTOs, or Color Temperature Orange, and blue ones, CTB, or Color Temperature Blue.

By placing one or more colour filters over your flash head, the light takes on a colour that matches the surroundings. In principle, you determine this tint ‘by eye’, simply by looking at your display.

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