Lamp color questions

[USACelt]

I read answers to peoples "best light" questions and see references to neutral colored lights have better color rendition. I have also seen one person say encandescents are better for distance. At this point I want to know how many people need to accurately discern a color at long distances. I have never needed to pick color swatches at 100 yards in the middle of the night. I can't say anything about distance because i've never used a high powered incan light. My experience with lighting as a photographer in a studio, the higher temp range lights are better for accurate colors, but warmer lights aren't. They are good for skin tones, but give everything a orange tint. Same with flashlights. Not sure where everyone got the idea warmer was better for colors, it isn't. But I guess the bottom line is, why do you need better color rendition at night ? This is just a "hmmmm" question, just curious.

 

[asdalton]

Not sure where everyone got the idea warmer was better for colors, it isn't.

It depends on what you mean by "better for colors."

Strictly speaking, there's no correlation between color temperature and CRI. White LEDs tend to have a very high color temperature (often visibly blue) and low CRI, while incandescent lamps have a low color temperature and high CRI -- but these characteristics are a consequence of the different means of generating light.

The question of color temperature arises in flashlights because typical viewing environments tend to be dominated by different ranges of color. In particular, outdoor environments have a lot of red/brown/green/yellow, and a beam with a warmer tint will give a better response. Cooler tints tend to make everything look gray and also dimmer than one would expect based on testing the flashlight indoors. The issue here is the number of photons reflected back to your eyes, not how pleasing it looks.