Lights are ubiquitous in our lives. How often do we think about them, though? We flip a switch, reach for a torch or flashlight, or turn on our camera flash, and we do this without even thinking about it.
But what are the different types of lights? What are they used for and what are their characteristics?
10 Different Types of Lights We Come Across Everyday
Incandescent Lamps
Incandescent bulbs are the bulbs we generally grew up with in our homes. The light has a warm tint and the bulbs get really hot. The brighter an incandescent bulb is, the hotter it will get. That’s why wattage ratings are important to follow. If we put too bright of a bulb into a socket that can’t handle the extra heat, we could run into problems.
Incandescent bulbs for home use are rated from around 40W to 150W. Photofloods are incandescent bulbs with a specific color temperature. They emit a consistent color of light, making them more usable for photography than other incandescents.
To get that color temp, though, they have to be much higher wattage. 250W and 500W are more or less a standard. Since they are high wattage, they also get extremely hot. That’s one reason why there are so many different types of lights.
Most lighting kits use incandescent lights which make them great and affordable options for video creators and photographers.
Light Emitting Diode
LED bulbs offer a bright light, often at a specific color, without using a lot of power. So LEDs are often listed at the apparent brightness compared to incandescent. So, while an LED might actually use 6.75 watts of power, it could be labeled at the apparent brightness of a 60 watt bulb. That’s just a very basic comparison, not a real formula, they will all be rated by the manufacturer.
Besides being used in watches, clocks, and timers for nuclear bombs in the movies, LEDs have made their way into almost every type of device that has a bulb. I have LED photo lamps, LED marine lights, LED desk lamps, and lots of other devices.
If you want to learn more about LED’s, you can check out my guide on the best LED lights for photographers.
Neon Lamps
Neon gas is sealed into a glass tube and electrical current is applied. The gas glows and lights up brightly. Depending on the exact mixture of other gasses, the colors added to the glass, and the amount of electricity applied, virtually any color can be emitted. That’s one of the reasons why neon lights, among all the different types of lights, are used for sign making.
Neon lights, besides being a wonderful source of inspiration for a ton of songwriters, can really light up the night with all the colors of the spectrum. I can hardly imagine the downtown area of a large city without thinking about neon lights. Consider New York City, Las Vegas, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Macau. What would these cities look like without the bright colors of neon lights?
Fluorescent Tubes
Fluorescent bulbs are a cooler source of light that use less power than incandescent bulbs. Since they run cooler and more efficiently, fluorescent lights are often used in large rooms like offices, or in residential rooms that need a lot of light like a kitchen. Fluorescent bulbs are sealed glass filled with a gas. Electricity is applied to excite the gas which then causes the material coating the interior of the bulb to light up, or fluoresce.
The colors of items under fluorescent look funny, because the materials are so different than what is used for incandescent bulbs. Photographically, things tend to have an odd purple-ish green-ish tinge to them. Daylight color lamps are available, but generally at increased cost. The next type of bulb was created to combat those issues.
Compact Fluorescent Lamps
Compact fluorescent bulbs are a popular alternative for household lamps using incandescent bulbs. Very compact, compared to standard fluorescent bulbs, they also have a more natural color output. So, that makes them a great choice to use around the house or office.
Compact fluorescent bulbs have also found their way into photographic applications. For continuous light, the lower cost of operating compact fluorescent bulbs is a point in favor of this technology becoming one of the most common of the different types of lights available.
Halogen Lamps
Halogen bulbs tend to be very compact for the amount of light emitted. The special construction of halogen bulbs allow the lamps to operate at a temperature that greatly exceeds the safe operating limits of incandescent bulbs. The benefit of the capability to burn at a higher temperature is to create a specific color temperature at a very high brightness level.
This makes them a perfect choice for many projectors. From the most basic of slide projectors, to a full screen cinema projector, even digital projectors, a halogen lamp gives consistent output of color and wattage. They do get very hot, though.
Lower power versions of these bulbs have found their way into household applications. Light bars are popularly used as modern design elements suitable for kitchens, offices, or a small art gallery. Some recessed can lights use a low wattage, low heat halogen bulb and are suitable for al sorts of uses that one could imagine for any of the other different types of lights.
Metal Halide Lamps
Metal halide bulbs are another bulb type that use a gaseous mixture to create and enhance the light. The gas mixture includes metals such as sodium iodide. The advantage of this type of lamp is being able to burn at very high wattages. The high wattage and specialized construction gives these bulbs the characteristics of a long operating life within a very narrow color range.
The color range makes these bulbs a good choice for many photographic purposes such as large scale cinema projection and also for stage lighting. Metal halide bulbs are also found in large scale store interiors and as outdoor lighting.
Metal halides have also become an industry standard for automotive headlights. Whenever we see an advertisement for bright xenon bulb headlights, that xenon bulb is a metal halide lamp.
High Intensity Discharge Lamps
High intensity discharge lamps is an umbrella for several different types of lights. We’ve already looked at the metal halide genre of lamps. Other high intensity discharge lamps include mercury vapor, low pressure sodium, and high pressure sodium.
Many bulbs for very high intensity controlled color light output are called by other names, but are high intensity discharge lamps. The lamps in IMAX projectors at amusement parks across the world are super high wattage xenon bulbs. The heat discharge is very high, but the consistency of brightness and color output are the benefits of the low heat efficiency and high power usage.
Low Pressure Sodium Lamps
Low pressure sodium vapor lights are found primarily in outdoor applications. Streetlamps and smaller stadiums are common areas to find this type of lighting.
A very specific wavelength of light is emitted by low pressure sodium vapor. It looks very yellow and is an obvious sign of human habitation for any space faring aliens searching for us. Just kidding, but that characteristic unnatural yellow color is both an advantage and a disadvantage.
The disadvantage is the color rendition our eyes perceive under these lamps. Nothing looks quite right under that eerie glow. It also tends to give some people a headache as their brain tries harder to convert the signals from the optic nerve into something that their brain can accept. Some people are much more susceptible to this problem than others, but I’ve noticed it myself when playing night outdoor games late at night at local community centers.
Advantages of this type of light are very high energy efficiency and that very specific color output. Efficiency is easy to explain, these bulbs have a low operating cost and an extremely long life. The advantage of the specific wavelength of light emission is that it easy to specifically filter it out for astronomical or photographic purposes.
High Pressure Sodium Lamps
High pressure sodium vapor is exactly what it sounds like, a sodium vapor bulb with a higher pressure of gasses contained in the bulb.
The advantage of this type of lighting is very high efficiency and extremely long operating life. You most often see them in factories, parking lots, school gymnasiums, older shopping malls, and the like. Also used to illuminate outdoor sports venues used by the public, such as a community softball field.
One of the characteristics of high pressure sodium vapor lamps is the long start up time. Some bulbs won’t stabilize for several minutes after turning them on. These lamps have a broader spectrum of color than low pressure sodium vapor, but they still add a very yellow tint to everything they illuminate.
Other Different Types of Lights exist, but this list covers a very broad spectrum of what’s out there. Understanding the different types of lights out there will enable us to make the correct decision of what type of light we should be using. It also helps us out photographically, whether for film or digital, still or movies.