Cinematography : What’s the best color temp for indoor studio lights? by Doug Nelson

Indoor studios are 3200K unless used for other purposes like recreating day or night exteriors. Color rendering (CRI) of the lights is very important.

Don; Thanx for the info. I’m certainly not going to argue – I assume you know what you’re talking about; I certainly don’t - with you but 3200K seems counterintuitive to me. I’m trying to get away from the excessive heat generated by halogen lights and I have to say that most sets I worked on have used 5500K fluorescents – I just wondered if 6500K (with it’s somewhat blue cast) would give me greater color saturation.

Back in the days when film was used indoors the preferred color temp was 3200K to MATCH the film. Now that digital sensors are being used the preferred color temp is 5100K - 5600K to MATCH the sensor. There are numerous daylight balanced fluorescent lights available today that are relatively inexpensive and they do have a high CRI because they utilize 3 different phospors to achieve full spectrum color. There are also single 100W LED fresnel lights that give reasonable quality lighting.

Hi Doug, Color saturation & color temperature aren't really connected except in cases where some colors may oversaturate. 3200 is complimentary with gold, orange, brown. 5600 is complementary with blues. I like 5600 overall because it is the color of technology - computer screens and such and because it is much easier to have 5600 lights today. I have Kino's & Dedo's . When I want to go 3200 I use CTO on the Kino's rather than change bulbs simply because it is cheaper. Color rendering (CRI) is very important to saturation. I'd post a pic illustrating this difference but there doesn't seem to be a way to do this. All of the older LED's are below 80 CRI and the newest generation beat Kino's but cost even more. Cineo and BBS Lighting make some of the best lights that have my attention today. Seems like you've put a lot of thought into this. Good Luck!

Thanx for the info guys. I think I'll stock up with 5500K Kinos for general use.

For any lighting there are a couple of important parameters. First, the lighting source be a full continuous spectrum that avoids peaks and valleys in colour output. This is very important to reproducing skintone. Skintone is critical because we usually make pictures about people. Second, a range of light quality from soft to hard. Typically we use both and various steps in between on any shoot. Remember that you can diffuse a hard light and have a usable soft source, but making a soft light into a hard light is impractical. Professional cameras are workable in either of the 2 colour temperature standards for our industry, 3200˚K and 5600˚K. There may be slight differences, but both must be able to accurately reproduce colour with any system. Colour Rendering Index or CRI is NOT a photographic standard. It is a visual standard based on the perceptions of the viewer of 8 pastel colours. While a CRI >90 may be usable, it most certainly does not tell you where the deficiency is, and 2 light sources with the same CRI will probably look entirely different and neither may reproduce colour accurately through the camera system being used. Unfortunately the advertising hype has forced even knowledgeable ethical manufacturers to include this specification despite its irrelevance. CRI is completely misleading when the light is being made for use in cinematography. The consistent accurate reproduction of skintone is the reason that we continue to use tungsten filament lamps. Currently fluorescent and LED are not good enough when looking at skin tone critically. The smooth continuous spectrum is one of the reasons that we use tungsten sources. Since cameras are getting increasingly sensitive, smaller fixtures with less heat generation can provide the needed amount of light for the desired stop for the cameras used. Surely in a studio the image created is the most important thing.

Andrew - thanx for your input. It's greatly appreciated.

Personally, I would go with something that's daylight balanced (55 or 5600K) because it gives me flexibility in how much light is lost when I add gels and diffusion. BUT in my experience, there really is no such thing as a "right" color temp. Tungsten balanced (3200K) lights are perfectly fine and are used in professional studios. Choosing a color temp is part of what defines the "look" you're going for. Messing with your white balance and color temps can bring about some pretty cool, and artistic, looks. What kind of shows are you shooting? Interviews and talking heads shot all indoors can look just fine with either 3200K or 5600K lights. If you're doing something a bit more creative, having a mix of both you can use and jump back and forth between probably wouldn't hurt. Just my $0.02

Which sources will provide full spectrum 5600˚K light? No diffusion I am aware of causes a colour shift to be different depending upon the color temperature of the light source. Certainly there is a benefit to using gels to convert daylight to tungsten and loosing ⅔ of a stop compared to converting tungsten to daylight and loosing 2 stops. The problem is the source of the light. Other than actual daylight, all readily available native 5600˚K light has spectrum issues. These problems mean making a decision on which compromises you wish to accept.

Basically, I don’t want to use incandescent due to the heat (it’s a small studio) and I don’t like typical strip fluorescents due to flicker. That’s why I thought full spectrum 6500K would be good but I’ve since learned that the camera sensor is best attuned to about 5500K. That’s why I chose the Keno panels at 5500K. I could probably get away with something a little less expensive but I don’t think I’ll find anything better.

As long as the lights work for your application, great. Kinoflos soft light exhibits excess green as shown in flesh tones as well as on Kino’s own spectral distribution charts. All depends upon personal preferences and considerations.