How many lumens do I need in a work light?

For close-up tasks like car repair or electrical work, 500–1,500 lumens is usually plenty. General garage and workshop tasks benefit from 2,000–5,000 lumens, while jobsite-scale area lighting typically calls for 10,000+ lumens from a tripod or multi-head fixture. Higher lumen counts are not always better — beam pattern, color temperature, and CRI matter as much as raw output for finish work.