What color temp lights?

[ivan muller]

Hi,

I am busy re-arranging and painting my 'digital dark room' in anticipation of my new printer. I am a bit confused regarding the col temp I should use for my monitor calibration vs the rooms ambient light and the lights to view the prints with!

At the moment I set the monitor col temp on 6500K for my spyder 2 pro, but then I read that the prints should be viewed at d50 or close i.e. 5000K. Room ambient must be fairly dark. why the difference between monitor and print viewing lights? How dark should the ambient room lights be?

My photography is a mix between personal(print sales) and commercial (images on CD only)

I believe the solux is the most accurate and linear. Unfortunately in my neck of the woods the only lights I can get is the GE chroma 50

any comments?

Regards,

Ivan Muller

Ivan



T

[rdonson]

If you check there have been some other discussions here on viewing light sources.  The consensus is Solux and the preferences range from 3500K to 4100K to 4700K.

You can buy Solux from the web.  Check out their website.

[Pat Herold]

This is a good question, but the answer is a little hard to explain.

It partially has to do with the difference between emissive light (coming from a display) and reflective light (coming off of an illuminated print.)  Our eyes don't interpret these two lights the same way.  Especially as different luminance levels, our perception of color temperature changes with these two sources.

Because of this, it's recommended to have lighting that is close to daylight balanced (around 5000K), and 6500K is a good place to start with your monitor white point.  It will probably match fairly closely, or be a little blue.  You can use your own eyes for testing this too.  Compare a blank sheet of your printer's paper with the white of a blank document in Photoshop.  If they don't match in color or brightness then you need to adjust.

http://www.colorwiki.com/wiki/Color_Management_Myths_1-5

-Patrick Herold
CHROMiX, Inc.

[silverhalide]

It pretty much is determined by where the prints are viewed. Most gallery lighting is 3200k which is what I use for evaluation.

md

[Craig Murphy]

I bought the Solux kit with the four lightheads and 4' track with 4700 degree bulbs.  I also ordered the 3200's.  You could go cheaper this route by getting the MR16 track light fixtures and track separately from Home Depot and then ordering the bulbs from them.  The fixtures you get from Solux are however of a better quality than I have seen in the big box stores.