Blue photo bulbs

Re: Blue photo bulbs

George Balock

John,

What is the difference in color balance between the strobes and an LED cool white bulb?

Re: Blue photo bulbs

Jim Barbour

That brings it back. Remember the mogul and medium screw flash bulbs? At one point someone replaced all the standard incandescent bulbs in the upper bay of a barrack with medium screw flash. When the light switch was flipped I swear you could read a paper under a blanket it was so bright. DAMHIKT The (insert modifier here) Buck Sargent who insisted on turning on all the lights at 3:40am when he came in from late shift KP was blind for an hour or so. Never did find out how it happened since by the time his sight returned all the standard bulbs were back in place and everyone else was still asleep.

Re: Blue photo bulbs

john lucas

Generally Strobes or electronic flash are color balanced for about 55degree K. LED's on the other hand can be almost anything and often are not complete spectrum so your camera might not be able to correct for them no matter what. You can buy LED's that say they are 55K but I haven't tried to shoot with them. I am looking at some LED photo lights but may not be able to purchase them to play with because they come with a package deal. The higher end LED photo lights are just too expensive for me to play with.

Re: Blue photo bulbs

john lucas

When I was a kid and first started playing with camera we had flash bulbs of course. I figured out you could fire the flash bulbs with a batter and not in the camera. So layed it on the chenile bedspread and lit it off. Burned about a 6" hole in the bedspread. Really hard to hide that from your mom.

Re: Blue photo bulbs

John K Jordan

I use large photo CFLs for my little photo cube and the color temperature is perfect. I tried adding a "Supernova" LED light from Ken Rizza and was pleasantly surprised to find the color temperature was so close to the photo lights I couldn't see any difference in the shadows on neutral grey.

I was just thinking the other day again of how much different (and easier) photography is now than when I was immersed in the '70s with darkrooms and yearbooks, loading bulk Tri-X and sending off color for processing. Amazing.

I still have a couple of film Nikons and a Crown Graphic waiting to become antiques. (Well, I guess the 4x5 already is an antique.)

JKJ

Re: Blue photo bulbs

George Balock

Why do I think that this was payback for turning on all the lights at 3:40. AM on a semi regular basis. And I’m sure that the temperature in the barrack went up about 10 degrees from the heat of the bulbs.

Re: Blue photo bulbs

Stuart Johnson

My gosh, we did the same thing only we did leave a couple regular bulbs in place. I was a photographer in the 142 Signal 2AD and had access to a lot of stuff that made base life a lot easier. There was always a cook that would swap a nbr 10 can of coffee for a couple photos and coffee was gold. The only thing better was the new Polaroid 4x5 film packs.

Re: Blue photo bulbs

Bill Boehme

I still have a bunch of blue photo bulbs. They are 500 watt bulbs so you need ceramic sockets and the color temperature is about 4800K. Also they have a very short life of only six hours. The light output is 10,500 lumens, at least initially, but drops off considerably near the end. They get blazing hot and I actually had one that melted the glass. I also had one shatter the glass, but they are coated to keep the glass from flying. Usually they just go out with an audible pop and then I have to wait ten minutes for things to cool off enough to put in a new bulb.

The color temperature constantly changes during the short life of the bulb so I would shoot an x-rite color passport or Gretag-Macbeth color checker every 30 minutes or so to create an updated color profile. BTW, the exact color temperature isn't critical as long as the light source has a fairly broad spectrum output. The light can be white balanced in the camera if shooting jpg or in post processing if shooting raw.

I never liked CFL lights because they don't have a very good spectral distribution, but when I discovered LED lighting I found them to be outstanding in all respects. And interestingly the best ones that I have found for product photography is the Keystone shop light found at Rockler Hardware.

The light output is 4400 lumens and the color temperature is 4000K. They only use 55 watts and have a nominal life of 30,000 hours. I shoot through an umbrella to diffuse the light.

How about these, John?

GaryG in MD

I haven't used them extensively yet, but so far they seem fine.

Can't beat the price, because the word "photo" is not associated with them.

Any thoughts (obviously without trying them)?

They come in several different power ratings from "100-W equivalent" to "500-W equivalent" while actually pulling only 1/5 that much power from the lines. They claim to be 6500ºK. They run dead cold, which is a huge advantage.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01KFU8C7W/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/LEPOWER-Outdoor-Halogen-Equivalent-Waterproof/dp/B073RJWFSF/ref=pd_sim_60_5?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B073RJWFSF&pd_rd_r=35c5349a-b9f6-11e8-951a-bffc31d64799&pd_rd_w=bQoBW&pd_rd_wg=6mzTv&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=18bb0b78-4200-49b9-ac91-f141d61a1780&pf_rd_r=SHP27YRVQ754VD1HG7J8&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=SHP27YRVQ754VD1HG7J8

Does anyone have any experience with these?

Re: How about these, John?

john lucas

They look interesting. Possibly a little blue but I will have to look at my camera and see if I can change the white balance to that high. It will probably be close enough to color correct in photo shop if they are full spectrum.

Full spectrum CFL

John K Jordan

These are what I use. They are perfect for my use. 5400K. They were a lot cheaper a couple of years ago.

JKJ

Re: Full spectrum CFL

john lucas

john I have some excellent CFL bulbs but they are getting harder to find. I'm looking now for LED's to see if they will work for other people when I teach shooting your own art work.

Re: Full spectrum CFL

John K Jordan

>>>I'm looking now for LED's to see if they will work for other people when I teach shooting your own art work.

I can lend you some of the LED lights from Rizza if you want to try them. (Could bring some to Arrowmont. Or stop here sometime.) I have several types.

JKJ

Re: Full spectrum CFL

Tony - Memphis

My wife is an artist. She is very particular about the lighting in her studio. We've had good luck with Blue Max bulbs. I also installed a couple of full spectrum LED tubes. She's happy for the moment. These things are very subjective. (and expensive!).

I have had good luck buying from fullspectrumsolutions.com.

I'd like to replace all the bulbs in my shop, but its not worth the money to me. I do bring color samples in the house before I commit. Amazing how much different lighting affects color. Sunlight is the best!

Tony