Lighting question ( kelvin scale )

[simon007]

Just looking at this diagram from this website:

Mastering Film » White balance with Canon DSLRs

Std. Clear metal halide looks to be a perfect white.
Would this be better for PORTRAIT work?

Simon

[Marko]

Better is what works for you. The Kelvin scale measures colour temperatures that vary from light source to light source. You can set this in camera if you like if you know the colour temperature of the light source - and there are guides on the net that will tell you the common colour temperatures.

Seems to me though that most people on this forum, myself included, use AWB. When the results in the LCD screen look seriously different from the subject we are shooting, then we change the balance to cloudy, sunny, tungsten etc. to try to match the light source - OR in that case, take a custom white balance (I've done this on occasion but not often) OR fix it in a graphics program like photoshop if the image was shot in RAW.
Hope that may help.

[jerry kraus]

If you are referring to that clear metal halide as a light source (bulb), you do not want to do that. It, as well as most LED's are not a chromatically correct light source. They are both weak in areas of the spectrum and will give you an incorrect color rendition of some colors in the image. You would be better of to use flash if you are going to do portraits. Not only for chomatically correct images, but also for freezing subject or camera movement.