# 500W Halogen Hi-Intensity Flood Lamps



## MichaelE (Mar 7, 2018)

Has anyone used one or more of these for authentic daylight lighting for photography?

My recent 'Austrian Railroading' thread got me thinking about trying to improve the realism of photos. 

When I had my Boeing 727 simulator operating I would sometimes use these lamps on the outside of the simulator with the light coming into the cockpit area. It certainly turned it into daytime. I could only use these in the winter though as they heated the room up immensely, and along with all of the computers running it became quite toasty in the room in a short time.

But what about for model railroading? Would these high-intensity flood lamps better simulate daytime with harsh shadows and daytime-like ambiance for photography?


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## Aard D'Vaark (Aug 1, 2019)

I don't know if they come in various colours, but the one I have on the garage is a fairly bright white, and and does generate a lot of heat ...


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

I have two of the 500W halogen floods. About three weeks ago I took some layout photos using them and posted them in the S gauge photo of the day thread. My primary purpose was to get maximum depth of field with the lens set at f22 so I set up the floods to reflect off the white ceiling for a more even lighting. I find that just ceiling mounted 8W LEDs give the harsh shadows that look like real sunlight for the layout pictures.


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## MichaelE (Mar 7, 2018)

I have a 200W LED cob bulb in the ceiling fixture, but still can't get that daylight effect.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

I am not sure exactly what you are looking for or over how much of an area. Here are two examples using just the overhead LED can lights with an iPhone. I was looking for shadows and a sunlight effect.


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## Mark VerMurlen (Aug 15, 2015)

Getting distinct shadows is obtained by having a point light source (or close to it). So yes, a 500W halogen work light should give you that effect provided it doesn't have a large reflector. You can use foil or something that won't combust to cut down the spread of light. You can buy thicker black coated aluminum foil from photography suppliers made for this purpose. You may also need to control reflections from walls and the ceiling to avoid filling in the shadows. Black poster boards are often used in professional photography to reduce light reflections. You can also have the opposite problem that the shadows are too dark in which case you can use white poster boards to reflect some light back into the shadows. In a photography class I took some time ago, i remember coming across a saying that great pictures are made, not just "taken".


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## Stumpy (Mar 19, 2013)

Going back to the days when I kept a marine aquarium, where you wanted lighting that was as close as possible to sunlight in order to stimulate coral growth, the higher the Kelvin rating the closer to "daylight" you get. Your garden variety household "daylight" bulbs run around 6000K. I had 10,000K in the aquarium hood. 









Why I Shoot in Kelvin by Katelyn James - Jasmine Star


Hello and Welcome to Photographer Week here on JasmineStarBlog.com! I'm excited to collaborate with fellow peers as they shed light and share industry tips. Today my good pal (and former bride…whoop!) Katelyn James is breaking down why shooting with Kelvin white balance rocks her world...




jasminestar.com





Then there's CRI...

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CRI or Color Rendering Index

Click to expand...

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> The CRI is the measure of the ability of a light source to reproduce colors of various objects compared to an ideal light source such as incandescent (only because it's what our eyes are used to) or natural light. The scale is from 0-100, and those lights with a CRI closer to 100 have an ability to show truer colors across a wide spectrum. It's important to consider for some applications, but definitely not for all. For example, it's very important in a retail store to have lights with a high CRI, so that colors appear as they truly are. Whereas in a factory (CRIs often in the 70s or 80s), or with street lamps (CRIs in the 30s or 40s), color accuracy isn't nearly as important as the overall amount of light produced or lamp cost.








Light Bulbs Color Temperature Range - Choosing the Light Bulbs


With CFLs and LEDs, light bulbs now come in a vast range of color temperatures, providing many options to choose from when lighting the rooms in your home.




www.batteriesplus.com


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

For reference to the great points made above, the two pictures I posted above were taken with some filtered daylight in the room, maybe 50 footcandles on the scene, and another 50 to 70 footcandles from the ceiling LED cans to highlight the scene and produce the shadows. The LED bulbs are 3,000 deg K, 92CRI. They were not cheap when I bought them. The CRI is very important to get good, intense colors. I assume halogen lights would have a CRI of 100 if they were rated that way.


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## Lemonhawk (Sep 24, 2013)

If its a static scene, try "focus stacking" instead of bright lights and high F stop. You can get an amazing DOF and increased detail!


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