Light sources...

[Oni No Ken]

Greetings!

Coming back from a long, long departure from the hobby, and I'm getting my work station together.

I was wondering what light sources have worked well for you, specifically the types of bulbs/led's you're working with. I plan on having two light sources, and one of those nifty floating magnifying glass lamps.

Please set tech and terminology localization settings to USA.

Cheers!

 

[QuietiManes]

Usually the "sunlight" or "daylight" type bulbs work well. If you get some photography bulbs, anything in the 5000k to 6000k colour temperature range should be ideal. Representing colours correctly and reducing eye strain, etc. You want to avoid the stuff that casts any sort of colourful glow as much as possible. And while you want lots of light, you don't want it shining in your eyes, place it behind you or off to the side with a shade blocking your face (as much as possible).

 

[Flagg]

Hi Oni -

Having recently gotten back into the hobby also, I found myself in the same boat as you... How to light my new workstation? (amongst many other questions of course LOL)

I obviously wanted some kind of light source that isn't going to change the colors I'm looking at from day to night... So, I grabbed a couple cheap "daylight" CFL bulbs (the twisty flourescent kind) from the local Walmart. They were rated at 6500K. (on the cool side of the spectrum, regular "soft white bulbs" are usually 2700K and are considered "warm")

Anyway, I set them up and instead of the "daylight" feel that I was going for, they cast a decidedly blue tone.

Disappointed, I ended up doing a bunch of research on lighting for artists and discovered an interesting fact...

Most of the bulbs advertised as "daylight" don't REALLY accurately reproduce the daylight spectrum at all!

So, if you look at a light bulb box in the store, you'll probably see one or two ratings. Lumens and sometimes "K" (or Kelvins). Lumens is the "brightness" of the lightbulb, and essentially is tied to wattage. So a 60W incandescent bulb is going to give off somewhere around 850 Lumens. The higher the watts, the higher the lumens typically. (CFLs and LEDs produce more Lumens per watt than incandescents.)

I already mentioned the "Kelvin" rating. That's indicates how warm or cool the light appears. Most of the "daylight" bulbs crank up the K rating to the cool side of the spectrum.

BUT!

There is one more bulb rating that you probably will NOT see on any of the regular store bought bulbs.

CRI (Color rendering index)

This is the ability of the bulb to actually and accurately reproduce the colors of the daylight spectrum. This is kind of related to the K rating, but not really. You can have a warm light with a high CRI, or a cool light with a low CRI (remember those walmart daylight CFLs I bought?)

Anyway, the closer the CRI rating is to 100, the more "daylight accurate" it is. Most incandescents are around 70 CRI (iirc), and I think most CFLs - even the ones billed as "daylight" - are around 80 CRI (iirc again). Since this is pretty low, manufacturers don't really advertise it.

However, there ARE bulbs available with higher CRI ratings.

For me, since I was using a couple of architect style desk lamps with screw in bulb sockets, I wanted to go with the CFL variety. After a ton of MORE research, where I was looking for high CRI, the right SIZE bulb (I could only go about 4" long), and a reasonable price, I ended up going with this company - www.fullspectrumsolutions.com - and the "BlueMax 14w Spiral CFL" specifically.

If you want to look around for high CRI bulbs, there are plenty of vendors. These guys shipped out quickly were reasonably priced and I'd buy from them again. Just sayin.

Hope this was helpful for you. I've got these set up now and love them. I've used GE Reveal bulbs and the the 6500k CFLs I mentioned BlueMax ones earlier and these are FAR superior in terms of color rendering.

 

[Dragonsreach]

I'm going to disagree with QuietManes on one point, you should not paint in your own shadow.
Light is king, use as much as possible, and don't forget to take your mini into ordinary daylight now and again to check how it looks.

 

[boubi]

Anyway, the closer the CRI rating is to 100, the more "daylight accurate" it is. Most incandescents are around 70 CRI (iirc), and I think most CFLs - even the ones billed as "daylight" - are around 80 CRI (iirc again). Since this is pretty low, manufacturers don't really advertise it.

However, there ARE bulbs available with higher CRI ratings.

Actually that's not right, Incandescent (including halogen) bulbs achieved a CRI of 99 (only sun is 100) with a Color temperature of 2700K, it has more red components so it is much warmer, but light quality is really good.
The CFLi you can find any quality, normally CRI is between 70-85. LED past years were around 70-75, but now Energy Star requirements in US and ErP in Europe require minimum CRI 80. So for painting, it depends, I believe the best is a good halogen bulb, you have specialized halogen at 3500-4000K which is a good neutral light with CRI 99, cannot be better, but normally not cheap and hard to find.

A good alternative is the full spectrum CFLi lamps, but quite pricey... LED is not here yet to achieve special lighting with a CRI > 90, but it will come when the technology is mature. In 6 months time normal CRI80 LED lamps will be at the same price than CFLi, currently under R&D and first production coming out in 2-3 months then time to hit the shelves... Then when volume will dramatically increase manufacturers will start specialty lighting including high CRI LED lamp.

Good luck with your come back into the hobby! Happy painting!

 

[TrystanGST]

I use whatever lighting is in the surroundings, but paint under this:
http://www.ottlite.com/p-65-wing-shade-table-lamp.aspx
It was recommended to my by a fellow painter, and it kicks butt.

 

[Flagg]

I *THINK* the Ottlites have a CRI rating in the 90-93 range, which is good. Downside is they can be a bit pricey.

The BlueMax one I mentioned has a CRI rating of "90+". Ninety is about the minimum that is recommended for good color rendition. I would have preferred a little bit higher CRI, but I was constrained the physical size of the bulb, plus at <$10 per bulb, thought it was a pretty good happy medium. And, in actual use, I'm well satisfied with it.

@ boubi

Keep in mind that even a high CRI bulb, if it has too warm of a "temperature," won't give good color rendering for painting purposes... It will appear too yellow. I'm thinking you want something in the 4700-5500K range.
See this for reference:
http://www.fullspectrumsolutions.com/cri_explained.htm

Personally I didn't study the high CRI incandescents and halogens very much as I wanted a higher Lumens per Watt, and lower heat output. The lamps I have are metal and I move them around pretty often. Even a plain ole 60W bulb gets them pretty hot to the touch... But, a 14W CFL (same Lumen output as 60W incandescent) and they're just barely warm.


EDIT: I've seen some sources that say Ottlites have CRIs as low as 80. I imagine it depends on the particular model and who is reporting the rating.

 

[Einion]

Please set tech and terminology localization settings to USA.

There are a few prior threads with specific recommendations for the US, if you search for the keywords colour rendering index and color rendering index that should bring up a few of the better ones; pretty sure at least a couple of prior threads have some specific recommendations.

You can't use the inbuilt CMON search to look for Ott as it's a three-letter word, so if you want to find all the threads that mention them you'll have to search the site externally.

Einion