P#22 Q2B: What Are the Most Important Characteristics to Look for In Lighting Sources?

It's All About Rainbows

John Siskin: The spectrum is the most important characteristic of your lighting sources. Imagine that you're running your light through a prism and you're getting a rainbow. If you saw black lines coming in that rainbow, you might think, "There's something wrong with that light. Daylight doesn't give me black lines in that rainbow."

A florescent tube will give you black lines in your rainbow, as well as very bright lines and very dark lines, whereas a quartz light and a strobe light will give you a continuous rainbow. It's much easier to get a really accurate color balance out of strobe or quartz than any of the other lighting sources that we use. This includes lights that are really evil like sodium vapor lights and all the other weird stuff that's out there.

I understand that people want to use different lighting sources, particularly the fluorescents, because there are so many out there that are being represented as being good for photography. These are made for video and because video refreshes every part of a second -- 30 or 60 times a second or however many virtual frames it uses. Video doesn't have the problems with color balance that digital does.

Remember, despite the fact that people advertise these products as being good, they really are not.

In Conclusion

Not all lights are created equal, and some work better for digital photography than others. According to John Siskin, a good light spectrum is the most important thing to look for in your lighting sources, something that quartz and strobe lights can give to you.