Originally posted by sumx4182 If you were photographing a place with little to no light (natural OR artificial)...and you were planning on bringing a small continuous light to work with, does color temperature selection matter? I can get better lumen output from the same fixture at higher temperatures and I would assume it doesn't matter since the white balance would be adjusted to whatever source. My plan is to get a small LED flood light as a source so I have a choice of 3500K, 4100K, or 5000K.
I'm assuming that you are planning to bring a so-called LED video light? This is the kind that uses white LEDs. In that case, no it does not matter which colour temp panel you bring. You can adjust the WB in post and everything will be fine.
It's just the same as if you brought a CFL (fluorescent) light source or a tungsten (incandescent) light source. Adjust for colour temp in post and all is well.
You would be wise to bring a grey card and photograph that in the light as a reference for WB adjustments later. The grey card may or may not be perfectly neutral, but the ref shot will get you very close to the correct WB anyway. (Close enough unless you're doing product photography.)
How big a space is this? You can get some pretty big LED panels, but if you're using one of the small, common 160-LED ones I'd recommend taking a tripod too so you can set long shutter times. They don't give as much light as you may think. Practice at home before you go.
---------- Post added 04-03-14 at 05:34 AM ----------
Originally posted by sumx4182 So LED is essentially worthless as photography lighting?
LED is great for photography, both still and video. (Na Horuk is apparently off on a tangent about single colour LEDs, which is
not what LED light panels use.)
There is a possible issue with a spectrum spike in the really inexpensive or older LED panels (that you typically get from eBay), but that can be fixed at source with a gel. See Kirk Tuck's excellent book on LED lights for all the dope.