"What Lighting Are You Using?" Topic

Hmmm…
So I took a look at the Perry faces I did yesterday as a test, and they look mahhvelous! in the light at my desk + the ambient Florida sunlight. Outside of the light--yikes, Zombies! Outside in direct sunlight, an improvement, but still very different.

So, what lighting setup are people using for painting--particularly in this age of CFL and LED?

thanks!
jeff

I have an array of 4 of these link cheap LED lamps. I've had them a good time now and find that they do as good a job as I need.

They seem to match Scottish daylight quite well.

x42

I have a nice LED light from Ikea that our generous neighbour gave me when he bought one too many for his house

I have an overhead shop fluorescent light.
Since I paint and game on the same table it doesn't make much difference.

I have daylight florescent bulbs in my room. 4 fixtures with 4 bulbs in each fixture.

13 watt OTT Light (Full Spectrum)

I have daylight CFLs.

Two OTT Lights: one on each end of the workbench.

The problem with CRL (and to some extent LED) is that they don't match the spectrum of daylight – missing some colour components.

CRI is the measure of how well light matches daylight – regular Tungsten (normal light bulbs) actually matches pretty well. You want 90+ (it's a % matching to spectrum of sun).

This is something I am very sensitive too – I find regular fluorescents dim and uncomfortable to use

Luckily companies exist to take money from people like me. Search for high cri clf (Compact Fluorescents) or full spectrum. I use bulbs from

link

I am sure the OTT stuff is good too

For my money several cheap fixtures with full spectrum bulbs is the way to go. It should also give enough light for photography – I am still playing with that

I haven't yet seen a high CRI LED bulb that is daylight balanced. Have some "warm" bulbs that I really like for normal use, but not for painting.

I have not been that impressed with durability of CFL bulbs, but for painting it's not an issue

Let us know whether this makes a difference

John

On a bright day, I will paint by the window and get daylight – but for the most part, I paint under halogen.

I photograph increasingly with LED (which are fixed to k5700), so when photographed, the figures look a bit cooler than they do on the gaming table.

Natural light as often as possible. I have a bay window in my living room.
I also mix some red into flesh color to fight the zombie look.

Daylight CFL and a gooseneck LED lamp

I bought 2 OTT lights at Joann's Fabrics when they had them at 50% off.

I have 2 OTT bulbs in a track light fixture on the ceiling and another in the swing arm lamp on my desk.

The old rule of thumb was to paint figures using the same light quality you prefer to display your models in either at home at convention or at your FNGS. The problem is with all fixtures moving from fluorescent to halogen to LED's it's a harder decision than it used to be. They all have their own peculiar light spectrum regardless of how they are labeled.

I seem to remember reading somewhere that the set up that produces the best results for most lighting situations is a 2 source arrangement, one incandescent and one fluorescent.

Thanks for all the ideas--I shall make my way to Lowe's tomorrow and see what I can pick up.

Thanks for all the ideas--I shall make my way to Lowe's tomorrow and see what I can pick up

That was kinda my point on compact CFL – I haven't seen daylight balanced (4000-5500K) high CRI (> 90) at home improvement store.

You would be better off getting something (like OTT) from craft store, if you get the right coupon (or wait a week for second purchase) it won't end up being that expensive

John

I just use a halogen spotlight and as far as possible try to sit near the window to get natural daylight.

I usually paint on my back porch for a variety of reasons. When I'm inside I have a 100watt equivent CFL light on my desk and the room light overhead.

John--yeah, it looked like OTT was the way to go--I've got several options in the immediate area.

And Amazon.com it is. :-) I could order the fixtures from the big box guys, but it would be a delivery anyway.

Again--thanks for all the great info.

I have a 13w Ott-Lite and another Ott with a ring "bulb" and central magnifier. I got mine when they were on sale at Michael's craft store.

I've tried White Lightning several times, but have not been overly-pleased with how the painted figures turned out.

I've tried White Lightning several times, but have not been overly-pleased with how the painted figures turned out.

Being a fully accredited Nerd, I feel entitled to offer opinions

Light is funny stuff and our vision system adapts to changes very quickly. This can be much more pronounced in photography, where fluorescent lighting can produce green results and indandescent yellow. With digital photography white balance has become part of the controls on the camera and you can set for daylight, tungsten (incandescent) etc. or even morning, noon, evening

So a useful piece of advice is to paint figures under the light that you will game with, which if it is always in some hall with nasty fluorescent lighting means you paint to match that and that if you painted under white light, then it wouldn't look right on the table

Personally I don't like fluorescent lighting – I paint primarily to please myself and use daylight balanced lights. Can't see anything very clearly under 3 foot without my glasses anyway

The Nerdy acronyms I have been using are to describe the quality of the light. So you can have a daylight fluorescent bulb (say 5000K) that looks nasty because it has poor CRI (essentially some colours missing from the spectrum). You can also have "marketing talk" like "full spectrum" without a number for CRI – pretty suspicious

As my eyesight deteriorates, the one thing that I need is lots of light when painting.

It is a good idea to take a painted figure with a distinctive colour scheme and look it under different lighting. Your vision system will adapt the colours very quickly, but the relative colours and the contrast will appear different.

There is a certain point at which this theory is too abstract (and I probably hit that at the second paragraph) – knowing what results you want to achieve and knowing what tools and techniques you need is the place to start

John

I used a mixed lighting setup, Halogen plus LED spots and CFL room lighting, I need the brightness more than the colour spectrum.

My solution is sort of reverse logic. Flesh is the hardest to "get right" so I choose a base flesh colour (Vallejo 70.845, "Sunny Skin Tone") and build a way of painting, so I wash with a thinned sepia ink then highlight with "Basic Skintone" (Vallejo 70.815) I know that this will give me a tanned/weather beaten Caucasian that satisfies me in daylight, so I don't need to mix colours under artificial light with the problems that can come from partial spectra lighting.

I use two of these:
Daylight UN1062 Naturalight Hobby Table Lamp

I get great light from these and the models look good on the table when gaming as well.

Yep, just picked up a Naturalight floor standing lamp from Amazon, and am using it in conjunction with a 5000k LED. I like the mix of the two, and having two sources has been a bonus so far, as well.

Mutt, my flesh "recipe" is very similar.

Thanks again, for all the help.

Natural light as often as possible. I have a bay window in my living room.