Please understand I am not offering rules, but an approach to architectural lighting.

First examine the room for existing light sources, everything from lamps to windows. Then classify those resources, something like friend or foe. So a window that throws diffused light into a room is a friend, and a mercury vapor lamp is a foe. Fluorescent lamps are generally foes, but they can be used under some circumstances, especially with digital.

This understanding of the lighting of the room will give you the information you need to choose the dominant color spect- rum you can use in your shot. If you have a lot of daylight, then you would certainly light with daylight balanced lights, but if your light is mostly from tungsten sources, traditional bulbs and halogen lights, you will want to work with a color balance of 3200oK, as this is closer to the color of the bulbs. While I would use strobes for any architectural lighting situation, I would balance the strobes to a spectrum similar to the room, using a variety of gels. One of the advantages to filtering strobes is that these lights will definitely not be included in your picture, which means that you don’t have to hide the filters. When I first examine a room I am more interested in the choice of color spectrum than the details of how I will work in that spectrum. Color spectrum is somewhat similar to the key of a piece of music; it tells you what will fit easily and what will be dissonant. You really have three choices: daylight, tungsten and fluorescent. Fluorescent is the most difficult spectrum to work in because the bulbs can be wildly different.