Tools / Color science
Sky Lab
Compute the color of the sky from physics: sunlight scattered by air and haze, filtered by ozone, wavelength by wavelength, then turned into color with the CIE observer. Pick a sun height or a real place and time, then take the sky away as a gradient or a palette — and see the color of the sun itself. Theory: Why is the sky blue? →
Setup
Sun
Local time
Sun elevation
Place
Air
Altitude
km above sea level
Exposure
Look
Vivid adds a photographer's saturation boost
The sky
Toward the sun
Away from the sun
A cloudless sky: clouds lit from below by the low sun cause most of the fiery reds in sunset photos, and they are not modeled here. Inspired by Maxime Heckel's sky rendering article.
The sun
Through the day
Each column is the sky from horizon (bottom) to zenith: toward the sun around sunrise and sunset, turning to 90° from the sun in daytime. Click to jump there.
Sky gradient
Sky palette