Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Do you use 5000k lamp to evaluate prints ? Which lamps/booth  (Read 1870 times)

Nora_nor

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 156

I looked at the flourescent tubes we have in the room with the z2100, and they are 830, meaning 3000K. No wonder bw prints on luster paper with full ink set has a pink cast....
How do you view the prints? Is there and old thread here?
In peopleĀ“s homes they do not have those 830 lamps, but often halogen or LED lamps at 2700K. Any experience with colours changing with those lamps?
Logged

Ernst Dinkla

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4005
Re: Do you use 5000k lamp to evaluate prints ? Which lamps/booth
« Reply #1 on: July 25, 2015, 07:10:51 am »

Better go to the color management forum here, numerous threads on the subject there.

Edit: as the thread looks like to continue here. Several years ago I bought 20 Osram Decostar 51 Cool Blue halogen lamps that should deliver 4500K, 100 CRI light. With 13 volt fed + a matted foil they drop just below a measured 4000K. Way easier to get in the EU and at an affordable price.

Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
December 2014 update, 700+ inkjet media white spectral plots
« Last Edit: July 25, 2015, 02:49:21 pm by Ernst Dinkla »
Logged

Jager

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 207
    • E vestigio
Re: Do you use 5000k lamp to evaluate prints ? Which lamps/booth
« Reply #2 on: July 25, 2015, 07:35:30 am »

Yes.  Last year, after spending years struggling to evaluate prints under highly variable window light, or even worse - the different temperatures of house lighting in my home - I bit the bullet and invested in a GTI viewing booth.

Set up next to my Eizo monitor, the GTI booth allows very quick and very accurate print evaluation.  I was astonished at what a luxury it was make a proof, set in in the GTI booth right next to my monitor, then dial down the brightness of the GTI until the print matched the screen.  Knowing that subsequent soft proofs - and any edits you would make - would be perfectly represented in the next print was a revelation.  The whole thing was an epiphany.  All those years of, basically, throwing darts at the color spectrum...

I can't recommend a good viewing booth highly enough.  If you get one, absolutely get one that has the dimming feature.

PeterAit

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4559
    • Peter Aitken Photographs
Re: Do you use 5000k lamp to evaluate prints ? Which lamps/booth
« Reply #3 on: July 25, 2015, 10:44:40 am »

Aftewr much investigation I have been using 3500K bulbs in Solux fixtures for quite a few years. Prints get pinned to a wall about 6 feet from my monitor where they get little if any illumination other than from the Solux. I have been very happy with the way my final prints look when displayed under a variety of lighting conditions. Unless it's impossible to dim or darken your room, IMO a booth is overkill. Will your prints be displayed in a booth?
Logged

howardm

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1984
Re: Do you use 5000k lamp to evaluate prints ? Which lamps/booth
« Reply #4 on: July 25, 2015, 11:24:08 am »

same here.  I replaced the 4700 Solux w/ their 3500

Some Guy

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 729
Re: Do you use 5000k lamp to evaluate prints ? Which lamps/booth
« Reply #5 on: July 25, 2015, 11:24:55 am »

When in college we had a huge gray viewing booth that had those bright blue photofloods in it and cooling fans.  Four people could sit around it and argue about the color pack for the next print in the darkroom.  Many waiting just took stuff outside in the sunlight and did it.  I still do that to this day with inkjet prints since all my rooms vary so widely in color temps.

I just pulled out my color temp meter and my room reads about 3,100K.  I print in the D55 range when I make my ICC profiles.  I probably should go for D50 too.

When I frame and hang, I like to use the picture frame lights over the prints.  Some Westinghouse piano lamp fixture for $30 from hardware store that has two frosted T6 bulbs in it.  I dip the bulbs in some Martha Stewart blue ("Bluebonnet") Transparent Glass Paint from Michael's Art Supply until they sort of look like the old blue photofloods so they won't be as orange.  Put them on a wall dimmer and they really set off the prints.  However, even dipped in blue transparent glass paint they are still about 2,700K measured as the tungsten low-wattage T-6 is pretty warm stock.

You could go the LED picture frame lights (Hograth Lighting: http://www.hogarthlighting.com ) with variable color, but those are in the thousands each price range since they are built to cover the print area as well as a color correction.  There are also some cheaper in-ceiling directional Phantom lights too.

Guess the saying is: "Print it for the final viewing conditions."

SG
Logged

digitaldog

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 20630
  • Andrew Rodney
    • http://www.digitaldog.net/
Re: Do you use 5000k lamp to evaluate prints ? Which lamps/booth
« Reply #6 on: July 25, 2015, 12:24:25 pm »

same here.  I replaced the 4700 Solux w/ their 3500
Agreed, much more pleasing color rendition. Some assume the numbers need to be exactly or close(er) to CCT 5000K and just automatically buy the 4700K or worse, their 5000K lamps, which are 4700K at a slightly higher voltage only to find, the prints look 'too cool'.
Logged
http://www.digitaldog.net/
Author "Color Management for Photographers".

Arlen

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1707
Re: Do you use 5000k lamp to evaluate prints ? Which lamps/booth
« Reply #7 on: July 25, 2015, 01:06:12 pm »

I've been using the Solux 4700K lamp and have been pretty happy with it for years, after seeing Andrew (if I remember correctly) recommend it back in the olden days. But I think I'll try the 3500K bulb and see how that looks, since you guys now seem to think those are superior.
Logged

Nora_nor

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 156
Re: Do you use 5000k lamp to evaluate prints ? Which lamps/booth
« Reply #8 on: July 28, 2015, 11:55:31 am »

Nowadays most people have bought new lighting in their houses to save energy. But when I go to the stores, even electrical stores, all, ALL lamps say they are 2700K here.
Where I print (in a workshop for artists, others paint or sew) they put 830 flourescent tubes, meaning irregular spectrum because of the tubes and 3000K. This makes the prints pink

I was wondering a little bit if strange things happen at home with all the new energy saving lamps.
I doubt any have 830 ( =3000K) flourescent tubes
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up