Mark, here's an alternate diffusion suggestion: white rip-stop nylon fabric from the fabric store. Quite cheap, very white, and fairly heat resistant. It's essentially what soft boxes use.
On Tue, Feb 28, 2017 at 5:55 PM, Mark C <[email protected]> wrote: > I'm just doing desktop macro work with a couple of goose neck desk lights > and small pieces of white foam core for reflectors. Incandescent bulbs are > an option but the heat is a concern. I currently use wax paper to diffuse > the lighting - would need to rethink that approach with hot lights. In the > past I have used flashes, but need continuous light to take advantage of > pixel shift. > > Mark > > > On 2/28/2017 11:29 AM, Bruce Walker wrote: >> >> 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. >> >> >> > > > -- > 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.
