Introduced here are light sources for flash photography configured to produce high-fidelity white light that is tunable over a broader range of correlated color temperatures (CCTs) than conventional flash technologies. The light source can include multiple independently controllable color channels representing illuminants (e.g., light-emitting diodes) of different colors with varying degrees of saturation. Operating collectively, the multiple color channels can produce a high spectral quality white light corresponding to different CCTs (e.g., “warm” white light having a red hue, “cool” white light having a blue hue). Operating independently, these same color channels can be pre-flashed in a variety of prescribed sequences to probe the spectral characteristics of a scene, thereby allowing for an enhanced, spectrally matched white flash as well as collecting per-pixel reflectivity data that can be later used in during post processing of the captured image.