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I plan to shoot some color calibration photos for an arcane device. I plan to do the noon light and the tungsten lighting. As you may know, normal tungsten light bulbs are no longer sold here in Germany. What about the bulbs for ovens, like 40 watt Appliance Oven Light Bulb? Can they be considered same color? Typical oven is black inside, not even a need to use it outside the oven to take the shoot? Or is it better to try getting some older used second-hand real tungsten bulbs?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ What is the noon light? moonlight? middle day? Is the photo on an interior? do you have a large window? \$\endgroup\$
    – Rafael
    Commented Jan 24 at 8:42
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Rafael: I am trying to do this: rawpedia.rawtherapee.com/How_to_create_DCP_color_profiles \$\endgroup\$
    – Stefan Hegny
    Commented Jan 24 at 14:20
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    \$\begingroup\$ Oh. But I find that article a bit troubling. Let me explain. The usage of a color target is to profile a combination of your camera and the specific light situation in your photoshoot. Why does it say a park is not a good spot if your photoshoot is in a park? Why does it need you to use a tungsten lamp if you NEVER going to use that tungsten lamp as an illuminant? This sounds like it wants to profile your camera, but you can not profile your camera alone. Even the lens produces a tint sometimes. \$\endgroup\$
    – Rafael
    Commented Jan 24 at 17:24
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    \$\begingroup\$ The theoretical case it is talking about is if you want to make a "controlled" setup for a generic profile. But I think that is useless. Taking a random lightbulb gives you not the right D50 illuminant. On the list Alan Marcus gave you see that only Carbon Arc does it. If you need it there are standard D50 google.com/… But for normal day usage you use the light you are actually using. \$\endgroup\$
    – Rafael
    Commented Jan 24 at 17:34
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    \$\begingroup\$ That is the point of calibrating for the situation. If your photoshoot needs to be in a park, you use a target so the green color cast is corrected. Trying to do a "generic" profile is useless in real life. A manufacturer can provide one for you, as a starting point, but in real life, you do not use that, but a case by case basis. \$\endgroup\$
    – Rafael
    Commented Jan 25 at 16:27

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Likely you can find an operational tungsten bulb. Perhaps a slide, movie or enlarger lamp. Also automotive headlight bulbs operate at 12 volts color temperature is listed.

Light Source Temperature
Ordinary candle 1900 K
40 watt ordinary bulb 2760 K
60 watt ordinary bulb 2510 K
100 watt ordinary bulb 2865 K
500 watt ordinary bulb 2960 K
1000 watt ordinary bulb 3000 K
500 watt slide of movie lamp 3190 K
Photoflood No. 1 250 watt 3440 K
Photoflood No. 2 500 watt 3425 K
Photoflood No. 4 1000 watt 3415 K
White flame carbon ark 5000 K

1 volt change = 10 K change

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Not all tungsten bulbs are equal. Your best bet is to take a photo of a white reference (or greyscale/color checker) in the same light to use as your calibration.

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I do not quite understand what your setup is.

Specifically, what is the combination of what I understand is ambient light with a light that goes somehow inside the device?

What is "shoot some color calibration photos" do you need to turn that warm light to white? Do you need to keep the white on the outside and the orange inside?

Is the color really important? (3000K vs 3500K for example)

Can you do some post-processing?

Well. Some options are:

  1. Use the bulb you mentioned. There is no way to know if it is the same color as your unknown base bulb. Fotoflood? It is tungsten after all.

  2. Use any warm LED bulb.

  3. Use a white bulb and cover it with a gel specific to the color temperature you need. leefilters.com, rosco.com.

  4. Use a white bulb and convert it on post.

  5. Use a white bulb and use blue color settings on the camera or in post, so the photo is warm.

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Vintage film lights (typically for Super-8 illumination) are still easy to get. Be sure to read the small print on the case: those without an extra fan inside are often limited to 5 minutes of operation at a time.

The one I have can be run with halogen lamps of 1000W, with an average life time of 15h for 3400K bulbs and 75h for 3200K bulbs. Essentially you get longer life with lower temperature. I think normal light bulbs (typically up to 100W) were standardized by manufacturers to last about 1000h, running likely a bit colder.

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