Two LED lights can both be set to 5600K, both be bright enough, and still give completely different results. Under one, skin looks healthy and red looks red. Under the other, faces turn slightly grey or green. Colour temperature and brightness tell you nothing about this. Colour accuracy does.
That is what CRI 95 and TLCI 95 on a spec sheet describe. This guide explains what each colour metric measures, and why Godox's new PaletteLab engine is such a big step forward for LED colour.
Shop Godox PaletteLab LightsTL;DR
CRI measures colour accuracy for the human eye, and R9 adds the saturated red that matters for skin. TLCI predicts how colour looks to a video camera. TM-30 checks 99 colours and adds a saturation score, and SSI compares the whole spectrum to a reference. For professional work, look for CRI 95+ and TLCI 95+. Godox PaletteLab goes further by filling the spectral gaps of ordinary LEDs, and the SL200 RF and SL300 RF are rated CRI 98 and TLCI 99.
Why LED Lights Struggle With Colour
Sunlight and tungsten produce a smooth, continuous spectrum, with a little of every colour. Most white LEDs do not. A typical white LED uses a blue emitter coated in phosphor. It looks white, but its spectrum has a sharp blue spike, a dip in cyan, and weak deep red.
Objects can only reflect the light that hits them. If a light lacks the deep reds that skin needs, skin comes out flat or greyish.
Too Little Red, Too Much Blue? Why Not Just Gel It or Change White Balance?
If a light looks too blue, why not add a warming gel or adjust white balance? Because both only work with the light that is already there.
- Gels subtract, they cannot add. A gel is a filter: it works by removing some wavelengths. If a light has almost no deep red, a warming gel cannot create it. It cuts the blue instead, which shifts the overall colour but also costs you brightness, and the red gap is still there.
- White balance shifts everything at once. It scales your camera's red, green, and blue channels to make a neutral grey look neutral. That fixes an overall warm, cool, or green cast, but it cannot recover colours that never reflected off your subject. Two reds that look different in daylight can record as the same flat red under a gappy LED, and no slider can separate them again.
- Pushing it costs quality. Lifting a weak red channel in the edit adds noise and can shift other colours, especially skin.
Gels and white balance are still the right tools for setting colour temperature or correcting a green or magenta tint. But colour accuracy has to come from the light's spectrum, which is what the metrics below measure.
The Colour Accuracy Metrics at a Glance
| Metric | Built for | What it measures | How to read it |
|---|---|---|---|
| CRI (Ra) | The human eye | How faithfully 8 pastel test colours render | Out of 100. 95 and above is excellent |
| CRI R9 | The human eye | How well one saturated red renders, which Ra leaves out | Out of 100. Look for 90 and above for skin |
| TLCI | Video cameras | How much footage would need colour correction | Out of 100. 85 and above needs little or no correction |
| TM-30 Rf | The human eye | Fidelity across 99 real-world colour samples | Out of 100, like CRI but far broader |
| TM-30 Rg | The human eye | Whether colours look more or less saturated than the reference | 100 matches the reference; above is richer, below is duller |
| SSI | Cameras and film | How closely the spectrum matches a reference | Out of 100. Harder to score highly on than CRI |
CRI: The Classic Colour Score
The Colour Rendering Index is the most widely quoted number. It compares test colours under your light against a reference source: a blackbody for warm light, daylight for cooler light. The headline score, Ra, averages the first eight test colours, all soft pastels. A perfect match scores 100.
Because Ra only uses pastels, a light can score well while rendering strong colours poorly.
Why R9 Matters
R9 is the score for a strong, saturated red, and it is not part of the Ra average. It is the colour LEDs find hardest, and red runs through skin, lips, and countless products, so a low R9 is often why faces look lifeless under an otherwise "high CRI" light.
How CRI, its Ra average, and the R9 red sample work, per Color rendering index, Wikipedia.
TLCI: Colour Accuracy for Cameras
The Television Lighting Consistency Index was introduced by the European Broadcasting Union because cameras do not see colour the way eyes do. It simulates a standard broadcast camera and predicts how much a colourist would need to correct the footage.
| TLCI score | What it means for your footage |
|---|---|
| 85 to 100 | A colourist would probably not need to correct it |
| 75 to 85 | Minor correction needed, easily done |
| 50 to 75 | Correction needed, and the result may not be fully acceptable |
| Below 50 | Poor colour that is hard to fix |
In practice, most video professionals look for TLCI 95 and above.
TM-30 and SSI: The Modern Measures
TM-30, from the Illuminating Engineering Society, checks 99 colour samples drawn from real-world objects instead of CRI's eight pastels. Rf is fidelity, out of 100. Rg is gamut: 100 matches the reference saturation, above is richer, below is duller. The amaran Halo 100x, for example, is listed at TM-30 94/102: high fidelity, with very slightly richer colour.
SSI, the Spectral Similarity Index, was developed for the film industry. It compares a light's whole spectrum against a reference, such as daylight or tungsten. A close spectral match is one of the best signs a light will behave well on any camera, and because SSI scores run lower than CRI, a high SSI is a strong result.
Good to know: these scores all measure white light. They describe an RGB light in its CCT, or white, mode, not when it is set to a saturated colour.
Is CRI 95 and TLCI 95 Enough?
For most creators, yes. CRI 95+ and TLCI 95+ is widely treated as the professional benchmark. A few points still separate good from great:
- Check R9: two lights with the same CRI can have very different reds.
- Check across the range: scores can differ between warm and cool settings.
- Match your lights: a CRI 98 key with a CRI 85 fill gives two colours on one face.
How a selection of our lights compare:
| Light | Type | CRI | TLCI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Godox SL300 RF (PaletteLab) | RGB COB | 98 | 99 |
| Godox SL200 RF (PaletteLab) | RGB COB | 98 | 99 |
| Godox ML150 RF (PaletteLab) | RGB COB | 96 | 96 |
| Godox Litemons LE200Bi | Bi-colour COB | 98 | 98 |
| Godox ML100Bi | Bi-colour COB | 97 | 98 |
| amaran Halo 100x | Bi-colour COB | 96 | 97 |
| Godox Litemons LP600R | RGB panel | 96 | 96 |
| Godox TL60 | RGB tube | 95 | 97 |
| Godox ML100R | RGB COB | 95 | 95 |
| Godox Litemons LA300Bi | Bi-colour COB | 95 | 94 |
CRI and TLCI as specified by each manufacturer, from our product listings.
The LA300Bi sits at TLCI 94, just under the line, a difference unlikely to be visible. Treat these numbers as a guide, not a pass or fail.
Godox PaletteLab: Colour Accuracy, Rebuilt
Godox's PaletteLab takes a different approach. It is a full-spectrum colour engine built on an analysis of natural daylight, aiming to reproduce a continuous spectrum rather than a few peaks that add up to white.
Using what Godox calls Multispectral Coupling Technology, PaletteLab smooths the transitions from blue to cyan and from orange-red to deep red, exactly where ordinary LEDs struggle. Filling those gaps lifts every colour accuracy score at once.
The Numbers Behind PaletteLab
- TM-30 Rf 97, Rg 101: near-perfect fidelity across all 99 colour samples, with saturation almost exactly matching the reference.
- R9 99: deep reds rendered almost perfectly, the key to natural skin.
- SSI 92 and 87: a close spectral match to its reference sources, a demanding test for any LED.
- CRI 98 and TLCI 99: the ratings on the SL200 RF and SL300 RF.
PaletteLab TM-30, R9, and SSI figures as published by Godox for the PaletteLab system. CRI and TLCI per model, from our product listings.
Skin Tones Without the LED Grey
Skin is the hardest test for any light, and it is where PaletteLab's tuned red range matters most, removing the greyish cast weaker LEDs leave on faces.
Selectable Light Curves
On the SL200 RF and SL300 RF, a Light Curve menu lets you choose how the light renders white: Godox's own tuning, or curves that follow a blackbody or daylight reference. Godox notes the ML150 RF does not have this function. The SL200 RF and SL300 RF also cover 92% of Rec.2020 in colour mode.
Godox PaletteLab Lights
The PaletteLab colour engine, available now at CameraStuff.
Related Guides
About Godox
Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Shenzhen, China, Godox is an integrated company combining R&D, manufacturing, and sales. It provides one-stop imaging lighting solutions with a comprehensive product ecosystem for photography, videography, cinematic production, broadcasting, and other sectors within the imaging industry.
Its portfolio covers professional flashes, studio and portable lighting, LED lighting, audio equipment, cameras, photo printers, wireless control systems, and lighting accessories, supporting a wide range of creative and production needs worldwide.
Guided by its core values of innovation, integrity, rigor, pragmatism, and inclusiveness, Godox is committed to providing outstanding imaging, cinematic lighting, and audio solutions. The company continuously pursues technological breakthroughs with the goal of becoming a leading force in the industry.
CameraStuff has been an authorised Godox distributor in South Africa since 2018, backed by an official Letter of Authorization from Godox Global.
See All GodoxColour Accuracy FAQs
Can I fix a low-CRI light with gels or white balance?
Only partly. Gels and white balance can correct an overall colour cast, but they cannot add wavelengths the light does not produce. If the spectrum is missing deep red, skin and red objects will still render poorly.
What is the difference between CRI and TLCI?
CRI measures how colours look to the human eye. TLCI was created by the European Broadcasting Union to predict how colours look to a video camera, and how much correction footage would need. For video, TLCI is usually the more relevant number.
What makes Godox PaletteLab different?
PaletteLab is Godox's full-spectrum colour engine. It aims to fill the spectral gaps of ordinary LEDs, especially from blue to cyan and from orange through deep red. Godox quotes a TM-30 Rf of 97, R9 of 99, and SSI values of 92 and 87 for the system.
Conrad Knuist
Head of Marketing and Photography Specialist
Conrad Knuist is Head of Marketing and Photography Specialist at CameraStuff, South Africa's specialist camera and lighting retailer. With over 18 years of hands-on experience across portrait, event, and commercial photography, Conrad helps South African creators get their colour right in camera.
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