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Photo Forum / Photo Technique / People Photography / March 2004

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color temp for halogens

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Doug - 09 Mar 2004 01:31 GMT
I have a few halogen shop lights that I am thinking about using for some
portrait work (background, hairlight) and I am curious if this is a good
idea.  I am using 35mm negative, not digital.

In one case I want to use them in my studio, which would be a combination of
those two halogens, plus my Canon 420ex for fill.  Are these all the same
temp?

In the second instance, I want to drag them to some location work that I am
doing and using them in daylight.

Am I looking for trouble?  Has anyone ever done this??

thanks
zeitgeist - 09 Mar 2004 07:20 GMT
> I have a few halogen shop lights that I am thinking about using for some
> portrait work (background, hairlight) and I am curious if this is a good
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
>
> Am I looking for trouble?  Has anyone ever done this??

halogen is basically the same as tungsten, and would give you a very warm
yellow orange color cast.

however, the juxtabosition of the two can be interesting.

shoot vertically, aim your flash to bounce off a sidewall.  Use the halogens
for background and hair light.  You'll need a tripod for this.

set your f/stop for as minimal as you can, shoot wide open if needed, and
you'll need a very slow shutter speed, 1/15th would be lucky, you could end
up 1/8th 1/4th.  If you have a hand held meter, you want to get the
background to be one stop under what your subject exposure will be.

keep in mind, 100 watt seconds, a rating of a flash power, is the equivelent
to a 100 watt incandescent bulb for one full second.  So do the math to get
a decent exposure at 1/15th, that's four stops and each stop doubles the
required out put, 2, 4, 8, 16 100 watt bulbs.
Mxsmanic - 09 Mar 2004 09:57 GMT
> I have a few halogen shop lights that I am thinking about using for some
> portrait work (background, hairlight) and I am curious if this is a good
> idea.  I am using 35mm negative, not digital.

If you filter for it and/or use tungsten film, it's not much of a
problem.  Color casts can also be corrected after principal photography
in Photoshop, but that's an inferior solution to filtering or otherwise
compensating at the time of exposure.

Halogen lamps have a higher color temperature than ordinary light bulbs,
since their filament temperatures are higher.  But they are still quite
orangish-red compared to daylight.

> In one case I want to use them in my studio, which would be a combination of
> those two halogens, plus my Canon 420ex for fill.  Are these all the same
> temp?

Flash units typically produce daylight color temps until you put filters
over them.  Mixing them unfiltered with halogen light will make proper
balance impossible, although the effects may or may not be acceptable.

> In the second instance, I want to drag them to some location work that I am
> doing and using them in daylight.

Not a problem in daylight, as flash units are already balanced for that.

Signature

Transpose hotmail and mxsmanic in my e-mail address to reach me directly.

KBob - 11 Mar 2004 03:10 GMT
>I have a few halogen shop lights that I am thinking about using for some
>portrait work (background, hairlight) and I am curious if this is a good
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
>
>thanks

Color temp of the usual halogen 120V non-photo lamps is about
2800-2900K.  Visit any of the websites of the leading lamp suppliers
for details.
Stefan Patric - 12 Mar 2004 00:59 GMT
>>I have a few halogen shop lights that I am thinking about using for
>>some portrait work (background, hairlight) and I am curious if this is
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>>those two halogens, plus my Canon 420ex for fill.  Are these all the
>>same temp?

No!  Halogen shop lights are around 2800K, while your flash is around
5500 to 6000K.  Mixing them or the halogens with normal daylight is not
a good idea -- colorwise.  Won't make any difference with black and
white.

Mixing flash and daylight is okay.

>>In the second instance, I want to drag them to some location work that
>>I am doing and using them in daylight.

You're going to have color problems.  See if you can buy some Rosco
Industries "Booster Blue" filters (www.rosco.com) to balance the
halogens to around 5000 to 5500K.  You're shooting daylight balanced
film, so all light(s) has to be balanced, more or less, to "Standard
Daylight" to get acceptable results.

Theatrical lighting and movie supply houses have all kinds of filtration
media for all kinds of light sources.

>>Am I looking for trouble?  Has anyone ever done this??

Yes.  And Yes.  I shot architectural interiors for years,
professionally, and had to deal constantly with "mixed" light sources.
For the most part, you can compensate, you just have to know what
you're doing.  The Rosco website's Technotes area is a good place to
start learning.  Also, find and read as many books as you can find on
photographic lighting techniques.

>>thanks
>
> Color temp of the usual halogen 120V non-photo lamps is about
> 2800-2900K.  Visit any of the websites of the leading lamp suppliers
> for details.

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Stefan Patric
tootek2@yahoo.com

 
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