If you're dealing with black body radiators, e.g. tungsten bulbs,
anything over 3200K is probably fine. Under-powered standard bulbs tend
to run down around 2800K and make most things too warm looking, but any
BBR will provide relatively pleasing color. If you don't have a BBR, and
they take a ferocious amount of power compared to the other options, the
crucial thing is the Color Rendering Index. (The CRI of a black body
radiator is, by definition, 100.)
The reason those old fluorescent lamps were so gross is that they had
less than 5% of their light output from a BBR and the rest of it was all
in three or four specific wavelengths. The eye was fooled into believing
that these added up to white, and it worked when looking at white or
grey objects, but for colors that fell between the lines of the spectrum
you could get almost anything.
Note that the early "white" LED lamps had only three colors, mostly
yellow as I recall, and were much worse than any 79-cent tubes from the
bargain section of the hardware store. They've gotten a lot better,
although most that I've seen have seemed pretty blue to me, and they
still have big gaps in the spectrum.
Sunlight at noon is around 5000K, photographers' strobes normally are
about 5500K, north window light is about 7000K. Personally, I don't like
the cool light of the latter, although it's really good for matching
press colors because it makes the yellow ink quite clear, while it is
almost invisible under 5000K lamps and even worse under tungsten. Some
things may look better under the cooler light (it enhances the contrast
of skin tones, which is why portrait painters like it), but if you
aren't going to have a well-controlled range of things, you're better
off staying in the 5000-5500K range.
But the really crucial thing is the CRI. A high CRI means that there are
lots of spikes in the output, with no complete gaps. It won't be smooth
like the curve of a BBR, but it won't be anything like the huge gaps in
those old fluorescents. I've shot a lot of slide film using 5000K tubes
with a CRI of 93, and in just about every case I was happy with the results.
I'm tempted to say that if they are willing to print the CRI on the
package, it probably will be good enough for your purposes. If they
don't put that data on the package, that probably means that it isn't
very good. Based on my experience with lamps that were at 93, I'd
predict satisfaction with anything over about 85.
Van
On 01/10/2010 17:43, sarahfpollock wrote:
>
> I'm investigating getting some lights for my outdoor display. Setting
> aside the huge logistical concerns of batteries, etc., for a moment,
> I'm curious: What's the best color temperature for showing off artwork?
>
> For example, we all know that old fluorescent lights are gross. And
> the LEDs that I've tried were all greenish. Also not good.
>
> So, I guess regardless of whether one is indoors or outdoors, what's
> the degrees Kelvin to which I should aspire for making the art look
> the best?
>
> Sarah
> www.sarahpollock.com
>
>
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