I agree that tungsten bulbs are generally quite good for faithful colour, and it's easy to colour correct for them.
OTOH, they are hot as hell. :) I once did a fashion shoot using a cheap $40 dual head 500W garage service light that I bounced off reflectors inside a retail store, and just about cooked everybody. But I loved the results. And one really nice thing about tungsten is that, like a lot of old film gear, nobody wants it and it's cheap. I was recently given a Lowel Tota in great shape, with a heat-resistant silver umbrella. Almost $200 new at B&H. Those little common bayonet base tungsten halogen lamps with a 40 degree beam spread are great if you are lighting up close, like for macro. On Tue, Feb 28, 2017 at 11:00 AM, Mark C <[email protected]> wrote: > Thanks, Bruce. I'm not trying for exact color reproduction but just want > consistent results and reasonably rich colors. Some of the bulbs I've tried > produce muddy colors and some are difficult to adjust / color correct. I'll > continue experimenting and will take a look at the LED panels. I took a > look at the LED bulbs sold by B&W and they did not seem to have remarkable > CRI ratings but were a lot brighter than what I can find retail. > > From what I read it sounds like tungsten bulbs are generally excellent at > color reproduction, so there is always that route as well. > > Mark > > > > > > On 2/27/2017 4:58 PM, Bruce Walker wrote: >> >> Whether you need to worry about CRI or not depends on how fussy you >> are. If you are shooting products (including fashion) for a living you >> would (or should, anyway) be fussy and CRI is critical. Also if you >> shoot people and like your skin tones to be well rendered, or natural. >> >> So if you find that don't really care about CRI then any old light >> sources will do and buying random LED bulbs until you get the results >> you like will be fine. >> >> But if you, like me, really do care about CRI then I suggest you stick >> to LED panels and bulbs that are made for photography. Avoid all the >> consumer products (eg whatever's on sale at Walmart). LEDs that are >> made for commercial store displays have better CRI because they care >> about colour rendition for stuff they are selling. I have some of >> those by way of Amazon and they have surprisingly nice light. >> >> See what B&H Photo or Adorama has available in your price range. The >> 500 and 1000 LED panels are reasonably priced these days and put out a >> lot of good light. Fotodiox is a more budget source with good strong >> lights. >> >> Many photo LED panels use DC power, so definitely no flicker. AC >> powered ones? Dunno. >> >> Where I notice CRI making a huge difference is when I shoot with a >> calibrated colour workflow -- ie using a colour-checker card, and >> calibrating the monitor with a colorimeter. Then I can really see what >> normal consumer room lights do to skin versus shooting with strobes >> that have a very high CRI. I can even tell the difference between >> shooting with Profoto pack and head strobes and the less expensive >> Paul Buff lights. >> >> >> On Mon, Feb 27, 2017 at 3:30 PM, Mark C <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>> Does anyone here have advice about selecting LED lights for studio work? >>> >>> I've tried several consumer bands with mixed results. I understand that >>> the >>> color rendering index (CRI) rating is supposed indicate how well the >>> bulb >>> displays colors, but my experience so far has not shows any strong >>> correlation between that actual results. >>> >>> So far I've tried 4 different brands of bulbs, with the best results >>> coming >>> from Earthtronic bulbs with a mediocre CRI 81 and the worst coming from >>> GE >>> Reveal with a respectable CRI 93. IMO, the Reveal bulb was the least >>> accurate of all four brands that I tried in terms of color rendition and >>> also banded noticeably (do LEDs flicker?) >>> >>> So - how do you tell what LED's will work the best - or it just trial and >>> error? >>> >>> Mark >>> >>> >>> -- >>> PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List >>> [email protected] >>> http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net >>> to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and >>> follow the directions. >> >> >> > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. -- -bmw -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
