Color Temperature Meter+

Now reads the camera's own illuminant estimate instead of guessing from a photo — steadier numbers, and no longer thrown off by the colour of whatever you point at.

Read the colour temperature of the light you are working in, in Kelvin and tint, straight from your iPhone's camera.

HOW IT MEASURES The camera continuously estimates the colour of the light falling on a scene — that is how it decides white balance in the first place. This app reads that estimate directly, so the number reflects the LIGHT, not the colour of whatever happens to be in frame. Point it at a room and it reports the room's light; a wooden table no longer drags the reading warm.

WHAT YOU GET • Kelvin and tint, updating live • Light type identified: tungsten, halogen, fluorescent, LED, daylight, overcast • Spectrum bar showing where the reading sits, candlelight to open shade • Freeze to hold a reading while you compare two sources • Mired display for filter maths, and the CTO/CTB gel that closes the gap between two sources • White balance suggestions per camera system • History with timestamps, so you can compare rooms and times

HONEST ABOUT THE LIMITS This is a phone camera, not a spectrometer. It reports correlated colour temperature and tint, which is what matters for matching white balance and choosing gels — it does not measure spectral power distribution or CRI, and it will not separate two sources that share a colour temperature but differ in spectrum. Mixed lighting returns a blend, because that is genuinely what the camera sees. For critical colour work, treat it as a fast field reading rather than a lab instrument.

WHO USES IT Photographers matching ambient light · videographers keeping colour consistent between setups · gaffers picking gels · lighting designers · anyone who wants to know why a room photographs orange

Available in 25 languages.