Now you've calibrated everything: what lights do you use?

[Dimitris Servis]

Hi all

now that winter has come I feel I need better lighting to check my prints from my Epson R3000. Long story short:

I see 3 options:

1. Halogens: only SoLux have something like 3500K with CRI>90 but they are not available in Europe
2. Fluorescents: Osram and Philips lamps for proofing, >5000K CRI>90 but Ifeel they may be too cool...
3. LEDs: not much here, most of them are <3000K CRI>80

What do you use? What do you suggest

Thanks a lot!

Dimitris

 

[Emulator]

You made me take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_rendering_index. It seems to be a topic which changes (some times rapidly) with lamp technology. I clearly don't pay enough attention to the subject.

 

[Dimitris Servis]

You made me take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_rendering_index. It seems to be a topic which changes (some times rapidly) with lamp technology. I clearly don't pay enough attention to the subject.

Hope that was OK

You might as well look at this one

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_CRI_LED_Lighting

CRI is one thing and of course how the whole spectrum is rendered is important. But our eyes are not equally sensitive to the whole spectrum, are they? Plus, are the same light properties good enough for both color and B&W prints?

 

[RogerB]

Hi all

now that winter has come I feel I need better lighting to check my prints from my Epson R3000. Long story short:

I see 3 options:

1. Halogens: only SoLux have something like 3500K with CRI>90 but they are not available in Europe
2. Fluorescents: Osram and Philips lamps for proofing, >5000K CRI>90 but Ifeel they may be too cool...
3. LEDs: not much here, most of them are <3000K CRI>80

What do you use? What do you suggest

Thanks a lot!

Dimitris

Solux low-voltage lamps are available in Europe - take a look at http://svenlight.co.uk/index.php?id_category=17&controller=category They are so good that I wouldn't consider anything else. I use the 50W 4700K versions and they are, literally, brilliant.

I think it's generally agreed that CRI is not a very good measure of the ability to render colour acurately. Fluorescents are very spiky in their output and LEDs are rather lumpy, whereas Solux is very smooth. Personally, if I couldn't have Solux I would use standard 2750K halogen - at least their spectrum is smooth and the eye/brain quickly adjusts to the lower colour temperature. FWIW an ordinary halogen is very close to Illuminant A, and will have a CRI of about 98. My "3000K" LEDs have a spectrum that is nothng like a 3000K black-body and a CRI of 82.

 

[Emulator]

RogerB said: Solux is very smooth. How have you set them up, as a viewing booth or room lighting?

 

[The Hat]

Hi all

now that winter has come I feel I need better lighting to check my prints from my Epson R3000. Long story short:

I see 3 options:

1. Halogens: only SoLux have something like 3500K with CRI>90 but they are not available in Europe
2. Fluorescents: Osram and Philips lamps for proofing, >5000K CRI>90 but Ifeel they may be too cool...
3. LEDs: not much here, most of them are <3000K CRI>80

What do you use? What do you suggest

Thanks a lot!

Dimitris

@Dimitris Servis Winter maybe here but you’re in the best place in the world to take advantage of the natural light, forget about electrical bulbs, lamps and tubes..

Stick your prints to an outside window and leave them there for 12 weeks and that would be equal to high summer in any part of the world..

 

[Dimitris Servis]

@Dimitris Servis Winter maybe here but you’re in the best place in the world to take advantage of the natural light, forget about electrical bulbs, lamps and tubes..

Stick your prints to an outside window and leave them there for 12 weeks and that would be equal to high summer in any part of the world..

That means I need to look at them while being out in the snow?

Besides, it is this time of the year that it is really really dark...

 

[The Hat]

That means I need to look at them while being out in the snow?

Besides, it is this time of the year that it is really really dark...

It makes no difference to the levels of light, it’s the reflection that will do all the work for you.
There’s no need to view them from outside just pull them off the window when you want too.

 

[Dimitris Servis]

I was just kidding about being out in the snow

Sure the sun works wonders but unfortunately I need to work while he's up there...

 

[Paul Verizzo]

At 6500 degrees, the typical LED monitor is about as close to "indirect sunlight" as you can get.

Are you sure that LED lighting is so warm? That's hardly cooler than halogen incandescents. I have a string of LED lights are that obviously very cool white. A quick poking around on the intertubes shows that there are a lot of 5000-6000 degree bulbs out there in various configurations.