Tungsten Lighting Safety

Tungsten Lighting Safety

Tungsten lights can be very powerful and produce beautiful colour rendition, but as they also become quite hot and draw a lot of power it’s important to know best practice for using them safely on set. 

Step 1: Power source

Tungsten lights like this Cinelight 800w can be used on location shoots if you have allocated enough power points. Too many high-powered lights (e.g. multiple 1k in the same room of a house) can overload a circuit and blow a fuse, and no light bigger than 2k can be used with normal domestic power. Make sure any cables aren’t old or otherwise potentially dodgy and never use double adaptors or stacked powerboards.   

Step 2: Setting up

Position the light on the stand and counterweight with a shot bag. Check that the light has sufficient head room and isn’t touching plastic or fabric.

Before plugging it in to power, make sure the switch is in the OFF position.

Open the barn doors. It’s best to treat a tungsten light as if it’s always hot, so use set gloves while handling them. The screen on an open-faced light like this is what offers protection if the bulb should blow, so don’t remove it.

Barn doors are used to shape and direct the light. To change the colour temperature of a tungsten light you’ll use gels like this CTB (colour temperature blue), and to change the intensity & spread of the light you can use a diffusion sheet.

Use wooden pegs to attach whatever modifier you need to the barn doors, leaving enough room between it and the face of the light. Always keep an eye on gels or diff and if they start to melt or smoke remove them immediately.

Before you turn on the light, alert other people on the set by saying “Striking!” (or “I’m turning on the light now” or whatever). If someone is looking directly at a powerful light when it’s turned on it can damage their vision (or at least hurt a lot). Give everyone a few seconds to make safe and avert their eyes. 

Step 3: Packing down

Tungsten light bulbs use an incandescent filament, which is more fragile when hot. Allow lights to cool down after use before moving them to avoid damaging the bulb. They should be almost cool to the touch before they are packed away.