Reader's Comments - Index of - Free

Light
Street Lights
Street lights are not blackbody radiators so you can't even talk
about their color temperature. They discharge in various narrow
spectral bands and the color that this produces on film isn't very
predictable or controllable. Usually you get an eerie green light,
which I personally find kind of interesting.
The Kodak Professional Photoguide has a page devoted to
filtration suggestions for street lights, but you have to know the
brand of bulb in use!
Indoors -- Fluorescent Lights
Long-tube fluorescent fixtures are designed to offer diffuse
unobtrusive light. As such, they make for reasonably good black
and white photography. I find that in a typical office, I must use
f/1.4 and 1/60th of a second with ISO 400 film.
For color photography, fluorescent lights have some of the same
properties as street lights, i.e., they discharge in narrow spectral
bands. You will get a rather green unappealing light if you don't
filter with a "fluorescent -> daylight" filter (Tiffen calls this an "FL-
http://www.photo.net/making-photographs/light (8 of 22)7/3/2005 2:22:38 AM