Halogen Lighting

Halogen Lighting is a form of powerful lighting used for many things. It can be used from things such as, car head lamps, to security lights and to floodlights. Below is a section taken from wikipedia's article, 'Halogen Lamp'.

A halogen lamp is an incandescent lamp in which a tungsten filament is sealed into a compact transparent envelope filled with an inert gas and a small amount of halogen such as iodine or bromine. The combination of the halogen gas and the tungsten filament produces a chemical reaction known as a halogen cycle (see below) that increases the lifetime of the bulb and prevents its darkening by redepositing tungsten from the inside of the bulb back onto the filament. The halogen lamp can operate its filament at a higher temperature than a standard gas filled lamp of similar power without loss of operating life. This gives it a higher effiacy (10-30 lm/W). It also gives light of a higher colour temperature compared to a non-halogen incandescent lamp. Alternatively, it may be designed to have perhaps twice the life with the same or slightly higher efficacy. Because of their smaller size, halogen lamps can advantageously be used with optical systems that are more efficient.

A halogen lamp in operation.

Below are a selection of images that I like that use halogen lighting.

This image was taken by Alec Soth in Fountain City, Wisconsin. I really like how he has used the dusk time of day and the lighting from the petrol station to draw your eyes yo the petrol station. I love the contrast between the seemingly unaltered background and the very modernized petrol station.

This is an image taken by Lise Sarfati. I love the lighting. Although the lighting is massive and harsh in this image it kind of has a subtle look to it. I really like how it catches the goal posts. It has a nice composition to it as well.


This image was taken by Paolo Pellegrin in Gaza. I love how he has captured such a hostile moment. I also really like the silhouettes created by the head lights on full beam. It adds atmosphere and tension to the image; which when photographing conflict is something that should be done in my view.

Below is the photograph I have taken. Overall I found halogen lighting quite and easy one to utilise. There will be more images to follow.

I shot this image at a petrol station near to where I live. I shot it using my DSLR camera. The original file was in colour but I like the tones the harsh light creates when turned to black and white. I also added a green filter for more contrast. Overall I like this image. I like the contrast and the composition.