Lighting Glossary
Ordered by category · constantly updated
Color Rendering Index (CRI)
CRI (Ra)
Color Science
Measures how faithfully a light reproduces a set of standard colour swatches, scored out of 100. CRI 95+ is expected for professional colour work; 90+ is fine for everyday portraits.
Television Lighting Consistency Index (TLCI)
TLCI
Color Science
A colour metric optimised for camera sensors rather than the human eye. Video shooters should weight TLCI more heavily than CRI when choosing studio lights.
Spectral Similarity Index (SSI)
SSI
Color Science
Rates how closely a light's spectrum matches a reference source such as tungsten or D56. Higher SSI means skin tones and product colours behave predictably on set.
R9 Saturated Red
R9
Color Science
The CRI special index for saturated red. A weak R9 makes skin tones look dull, so portrait photographers check R9 alongside overall CRI.
Color Temperature (CCT)
CCT
Measurements
Describes how warm or cool white light looks, in kelvin. 5600K matches daylight, 3200K matches tungsten, and tunable fixtures usually cover 2700K-6500K.
Illuminance (Lux)
Lux @1m
Measurements
The amount of light landing on a surface. Lux measured at 1 m is the fairest way to compare how bright two studio lights really are at the same distance.
Bowens Mount
Bowens
Accessories
The industry-standard modifier mount. Softboxes, reflectors, grids and fresnels with a Bowens mount fit most COB studio lights, which keeps accessories cheap and portable.
Chip-on-Board (COB)
COB
Light Sources
Many small LED dies packaged into one dense emitting surface, so a monolight can deliver high output from a near point source that works with optical modifiers.
Bi-Color LED
Bi-Color
Light Sources
A fixture whose white light is tunable between two colour temperatures, typically 2700K-6800K, so one light can match tungsten interiors or daylight.
RGBWW LED
RGBWW
Light Sources
Red, green and blue emitters plus white and warm-white emitters. Adds full colour, gel matching and creative effects on top of accurate white light.
Flicker-Free Dimming
Flicker-Free
Video
Driver design that keeps light output constant across shutter speeds and frame rates, so high-speed and slow-motion footage shows no banding.
CRMX Wireless DMX
CRMX
Video
LumenRadio CRMX is the wireless DMX standard used on film sets. It lets a lighting desk control fixtures without running data cables.
The glossary is constantly updated. If you come across an unfamiliar lighting term, feel free to contact us with suggestions and we will add it soon.