Yellow outside lighting in photos?

Question

Hello - photos in decorating magazines often show night photos of houses that have lights that look yellow. How can I create this at my house? does this only appear in photos through filtering of shutter time or can you see it with the naked eye?

Answer 1

No, they often use "warm" lighting to create this effect.  This is either done with special "warm" lights or "gels" (colored filters).

You can buy colored "gels" from an online photo store or theatrical lighting store.

Answer 2

At my house we have lights outside and they're yellow all the time at night.  We just use regular light bulbs in a can ceiling light.  I think that there are some special lights that you can get at home depot that make for some really pretty outdoor lighting.  A lot of the time, the light yellow color is a reflection of the colors on your house or the indoor light.  If you have halogen lights, the yellow color will never be there because they have a blue light spectrum.  Regular light bulbs use a different spectrum of light.  The gels that you buy for theatrical lighting will make for a spooky theatrical look.  They are meant for theatre so they really don't work for homes.  Sometimes painting the inside of a can ceiling light yellow or using copper cans can reflect the light really pretty.

I would just go with not using halogens.

Good luck.