A NEW IDEA FOR LIGHTING FOR PHOTOS

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

A long time ago I picked up a regular 4 bulb light bar for shooting my pictures indoors and it worked quite well except for 2 things. The bulbs were constantly buring out at $10+ per bulb, (the last time I bought any), and the intense heat these things gave off is almost dangerous.

A couple of years ago I was going to shoot some pictures on my layout but by the time I got to the 3rd or 4th picture I had lost 2 bulbs to burn out. It was Sunday, the photo shop was closed and the closest available store was more than 25 miles away, so I tried something different.

We had been converting “all” of our standard light bulbs to the new compact florescent bulbs so I figured why not give it a try, I had nothing to loose!!

The standard light bulb puts out about 2700 lumins and these new bulbs put out about 3300 lumins with “NO” blueish tint to them. So I replaced the old “photo” bulbs with the compacts and was amazed at the brightness, it does take a minute or so for them to come to full brightness though but they also aren’t as hot as your oven either.

So I had to make a couple of “small” adjustments to the light settings on my camera but the pictures came out as good or “better” then those old photo bulbs.

The power difference is amazing as well, the new bulbs use 23 watts of power, the photo bulbs were 150 watts of power, for each bulb!!

I can now flip these on and take and my time because of no severe heat involved as well as the fact that I am still using that same set of bulbs I installed over 2 years go.

I have also found that same light bar is now very handy for when I need serious light to work on something on the layout, and again, they aren’t like working under “sun” la

2

Great idea Mark. I use flourescent tubes above my 4X8 layout at that same color temp. Now, I will try the CFL’s for fill. Thanks,

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Mark, I use 5000°K Full Spectrum CFLs with a CRI of 82 for layout lighting. The difference in the color rendering and look of the layout is stunning! I do the lighting al la (He whose name must not be mentioned) the guy who has an online magazine. One bulb every 2 feet. I use a combination of 4w and 10w CFLs.

Here is an old photo of one scene on my layout shot under 2700°K lighting (standard CFLs)

Here is the same basic area shot using 5000°K Full Spectrum (82 CRI) bulbs…

Big difference in color… Both were adjusted on the computer using the standard stuff in photoshop. One of the big things was the difference in the background sky. Whether you use CFLs or Tube florescents, the CRI or color rendering rating is most important. Also important is the time of day you want to have. 2700°K is early morning and has a lot of yellow in the spectrum. 4000°K bulbs (shoplight) is terrible on all accounts. 5000°K - 6500°K are considered daylight and often give excellent lighting.

[edit] Oh! And yes the camera was set for “Florescent” for the top photo, and “Daylight” for the bottom…

I also only have CFLs and a few LED lights here at home.

73

4

Nothing wrong with what you are doing lighting wise. One correction on your “lumins” (actually spelled “lumen”) reference. I believe you are referring to color temperature which is measured in degrees of Kelvin. Lumens are units of light level and a measurement in the range you mention would be extremely bright. The higher the degree of Kelvin, the bluer the light will be. Bright sunlight is around 5200 degrees Kelvin while overcast or shadowed daylight can be in the 6000 degree Kelvin range. Common household incandescent (tungston) lighting is usually around 3000 degrees Kelvin and very red in comparison to daylight. Our minds are conditioned to not notice the difference between daylight and icandescent lighting but film and video knows the difference. A few words of warning on buying non photo rated flourescent lighting “off the shelf” is that you never know what you’ll get until you plug it into power.&nbs

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I have been using daylight temperature fluorescents and CFLs in soft boxes for years.

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I also use Daylight CFL’s in my photo light stands. They make great fill lights. All you have to do is make sure the camera light settings are for Fluorescent. Most do it automatically if set to auto. Also try not to mix fluorescent with incandescent bulbs.

7

Interesting idea! I assume the 23 watt CFL bulbs are rated as “100 watt equivalent”. We have some in our home here and there, not all applications can use them, such as where dimmers are in use.

I’ve been using photoflood lights in relfectors for my photography for years, with 250 and 500 watt bulbs. I now mainly use peanut sized quartz halogen bulbs rated at 600 watts, so I don’t think replacing them with the 100 watt equivalent CFLs will suit my work. But it is an interesting idea.

BTW it should be “lumens” and not “lumins”.

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My apologies for not spelling “lumens” correctly, the wife has misplaced my Funk&Wagnalls…

Aside from all of the “lumens” and “kelvin” vs sunlight and cloudy definitions, they are about 20% brighter than a 100 watt incandescent bulb according to the specifications that I have read. In actual usage they get exteremely bright to my eyes and cast no shadows.

As for the “photo” bulbs, to each his own there, I am just tired of constantly buying those expensive bulbs, watching them constantly “burn out” at $10+ per bulb and having everything in front of them rise to oven temperatures, includng me sometimes.

I haven’t tried LED’s simply because I haven’t bought any as yet but from what I understand they are brighter than anything, are long lasting, and remain somewhat cool much as the CFL’s do, just more money.

For my money, incandecent lighting is a thing of the past, it creates large amounts of heat, it is very “inefficent” and can get rather expensive if they have to be continually replaced because they burnout, again from the heat.

The incandescent bulb is a 19th century invention that should have been replaced in the 20th century at the latest, but the same can also be said for the “infernal” combustion engine.

Using CFL’s has dropped our power usage 1 full kilowatt hour per month since we replaced our incandescent bulbs, a serious savings.

We used to use 20 100watt light bulbs in our main basement, that’s 2000 watts. Since I replaced them with the CFL it is now 660 watts and the results are it is brighter with less shadows. In other words a more “even” light.

I can’t wait for the LED lights to become cheaper because t

9

having twenty 100 watt bulbs also heats up the room and raises the electric bill.

At 23 watts a piece you should only be using 460 watts with the CFL’s.

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See…that’s what happens when you reach a certain age, can’t spell, can’t do math…the “can’ts” outweight the “can’s”!!

At least I can still find my way to the basement to play with my trains, so far…

Mark

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The are reasonably priced CFLs that are the correct color temperature for photography: Click Link

There are dimmers for flourescents but they are about three times as expensive as incandesant dimmers.

The LED photo lighting game is well under way. They work well for key (non fill) and back lighting a subject. Keep in mind that if you are trying to simulate direct daylight (as in bright and sunny day), your light source is only coming from one source and angle.

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They can be hard to find but we use "Full Spectrum Daylight" CFL’s in all the lamps in the house. It helps me with my seasonal depression during the dark days of winter and gives a natural daylight light that the plants love.

I would second using them as lights for photos for a more “natural outdoorsy sunny day look”

13

I like that slingshot flying cow with moo sounds in the link you gave above [:D]

http://www.handhelditems.com/slingshot-flying-with-sound-p-5064.html

14

According to a chart printed on a package of CFLs I got, 23W = 90W and 26W = 100W. I’ve replaced all the ones I can in our house and I like the colour better than incandescents. It’s a little whiter but so close it’s hard to tell the difference. They do come in a pure white colour (don’t know what colour temperature though). One warning: even though they produce almost no heat, they need some ventilation. The fixture in our hall is a small globe, too small for a regular size CFL so I put in a mini CFL. After burning out 2 of them in less than a year, I went back to an incandescent bulb. No problem with the minis in open fixtures.

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I’ve been using four 27 watt CFL bulbs above my layout for a few years now and they made a world of difference over the old Shop Lite tubes I was using. It’s a light more like regular daylight than the brite white light I was getting from the tubes.

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They now have the same color available in the tubes. I have mostly CFL’s but I like the tubes better because they start up faster and put out more light.

17

Kinda wonder what kind of use you were making with the incandescent bulbs. I’ve been using them for 30 years or so, and I only have to replace burned out ones quite a few years apart. They are rated for 25 hours of use, and this is a fairly long time when used for short exposures rather than general lighting. I don’t keep them burning for really long times when doing model photography, I have the lamps hooked up to a power bar that hangs from my tripod, so I put them on to check the lighting, then off, then during the actual exposure. I’ve hauled them all over the place taking photos of other modelers’ layouts, and they still last; the last time I bought a spare they were $6-8 locally.

And I can’t see replacing 1500 watts of photofloods or 1200 watts of quartz halogen l

18

Two softboxes. One with 12 Daylight CFLs and one with 24 Daylight CFLs.

They can be dimmed by turning off 1/3, 2/3 or 1/2 of the bulbs.