500 watt halogen work lights

[adam_touffay]

<p>In shooting an indoor scene lit by those 500 watt halogen work lights, such as those sold at Home Depot and used by construction crews, what is the color balance or Kelvin of these lights? Will be shooting digital and can dial in my custom white balance or do it from a white card, but would like to know since I prefer the former method and have an idea before I go on location.</p>

[bebu_lamar]

<p>I would say somewhere between 2800 to 3400.</p>

[tobiasfeltus]

<p>They are Tungsten, so Tungsten. But really you should shoot RAW anyway.</p>

[sherman_peabody]

<p>In a pinch, I once tried using one of those lights to light a white backdrop, and it's definitely in the tungsten range. I was trying to mix that with regular flash to light the subject, so of course it didn't work. But it might have if I had used orange gels on the flashes.</p>

<p>The other thing with those lights is that the reflectors they usually have behind them produce uneven illumination - lots of banding. If you have any choice, you might consider another choice of lighting.</p>

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[jcuknz]

<p>I'd describe the bulbs as halogen with a colour temp of 3400 rather than tungsten photo bulbs at 3200 and domestic bulbs even lower. Same CT as photofloods for Type A colour film of way back.</p>