Tungsten film was developed for photographers who use tungsten lights, also known as photofloods, which have a much lower color temperature than daylight, at 3200 kelvins or 3400 kelvins.
It also renders colors more accurately than daylight film under ordinary household incandescent lighting.
On daylight-balanced film tungsten lighting produces a spectrally accurate rendition of a scene; but human vision adjusts to the color of the lighting and perceives colors as if under daylight, seeing a spectrally accurate image as having a yellow-orange cast.
When shot outdoors, tungsten film produces a strong blue cast, an effect which is often used purposely to create different color contrasts.
In the motion picture industry the use of underexposed tungsten-balanced film in an outdoor setting is a common way of producing a "day for night" effect, whereby film shot during the daytime looks as if it had been shot at night.