Tungsten lighting is one of the most common, and inexpensive types of lighting instruments used in the film industry.

There are three types of tungsten light fixtures used in the motion picture industry:

Open Face Light

The Open face light is a single or double ended lamp placed in front of a spherical reflector with no lens in front. The light emanating from an open face fixture can be spotted and flooded by moving the reflector closer or farther away from the bulb. Although the least expensive fixtures to buy, the quality of light isn’t good as a fresnel or PAR system.

Fresnel Light

Fresnels fixtures, like open face lights, have a bulb placed in front of a reflector.  However, fresnels feature a lens that further focuses the light.  The result is a much smoother light quality that more than justifies the increased cost of the light.  Fresnels are the most common light type on motion picture sets.

PAR Lights

PAR, or Parabolic Aluminized Reflector, is a fixture that generates a very focused light beam.  Using interchangable lenses to create different spread patterns, the PAR is a very customizable fixture.  

Pros and Cons of Tungsten Lights

• PRO - Tungsten lighting creates a very warm, pleasing light that brings out flesh tones exceptionally well.  Ideal when lighting people, the color spectrum exhibited by the tungsten element will help your actors look their best.
• CON - Tungsten lighting can be difficult to properly color correct when balancing to sunlight. Using Color Temperature Blue (CTB) gels will reduce the light output by roughly 50% and create a purple-blue hue to the lighting that ultimately looks unflattering on the skin.
• PRO - Tungsten lighting does not flicker.  Although alternating current turns on and off 60 times a second, it takes longer than 1/60th of a second for the tungsten element to stop glowing, so it does not flicker.  The benefit of this continuous light is that you do not need to worry about flickering at different frame rates or shutter speeds as you would with an HMI.
• CON- Tungsten lighting is HOT. Especially if you’re working on a smaller set with limited air flow, tungsten heads are like little heaters, generating a lot of heat.
• PRO - Tungsten lighting is the cheapest type of light available.

Common Wattages

Tungsten light fixtures come in a variety of wattages.  Understand that many tungsten lamps can also be "down lamp" meaning lower watt bulbs can be used in most fixtures.

Use on a household 120volt, 15 or 20 amp circuit:

• 100 watts
• 150 watts
• 300 watts
• 650 (can be down lamped to 500 watt bulb or a 300 watt bulb)
• 1,000 watts

Larger watt lamps will require either a direct tie-in to a breaker panel (which is extremely dangerous and often illegal) or a generator and include the following sizes:

• 2,000 watts
• 5,000 watts
• 10,000 watts
• 12,000 watts (can be down lamped to 10,000 watts)
• 24,000 watts (can be down lamped to 20,000 watts)