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ok, so if you have any sort of decent modern camera, you can do this too. i happen to have a nikon d40. it has a manual and it lists the actual color temperatures for each white balance (WB) setting. when WB set in camera matches the color temp of the object in the photo, then the object will look white, when it's set lower the object looks bluer, when it's set higher the object will look redder/yellower. the important thing is that when WB is right the object is white, that's all that matters.
i have 2 bulbs, one marked 3500K and one 5500K. you can see the labels in the first 2 pics. i started with the 3500K bulb. set the WB in camera to flourescent, in the d40 that is 4200K. 3rd picture is what the 3500K bulb looks like with WB set at 4200K. it's not exactly white, so i raise WB by +1, which in my camera equals 3700K color temp. 4th pic is what that looks like. now it's white. then to make sure i take one at WB set to flourescent +3, in the d40 that means 2700K. 5th pic shows the color is more blue now, that means i was as close as i can get to the actual object color temp with the flourescent +1 setting that equals 3700K. so this blub's color temp is somewhere around 3700K, and from the label we know it's 3500K, so im almost dead on!
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