I've been making notes and buying bulbs, and more bulbs :-D and I thought this may save someone some headaches.

Easiest to find in many sizes and shapes, 5000K bulbs. Read carefully! Also the new Energy Star regulations version 4, demand that makers list the color temperature, so more and more are labeled. In the past it was digging and begging, to get a response from some of the companies. You'll find all kinds of Natural Light, Full Spectrum and other names, that mean nothing, if the packages don't list the color Temp.

Linear Fluorescents Most Mfg.

3000 Kelvin (Warm White)
3500 Kelvin (Neutral)
4100 Kelvin (Cool White)
5000 Kelvin (Full Spectrum) Phillips "Natural Light", GE "Sunshine", Others
(5500K Have never found a tube by any Mfg. I'm still looking)
6500 Kelvin (Daylight)

Spiral / Twist Fluorescent

Kelvin 2700 (same as standard incandescent bulbs)
Kelvin 3500
Kelvin 4100
Kelvin 5000 Most Brands "Daylight"
Kelvin 5100 Some Phillips
Kelvin 5500 N:Vision "Daylight" Home Depot *
Kelvin 5800 Some Feit "Daylight"
Kelvin 6500

Circular Tubes, which I thought might be nice for an even lighting, are hard to find, come in all kinds of odd sizes, and so far the packages have very little color temperature information. Same problem as the tubes... no 5500K to match my Twist Lights. I'd love to be able to shoot through the center of a ring light, or use them for background fill, behind something translucent. No luck.

Most tubes, CRI 80-85. Twists run as high as the low 90's. So, OK they aren't perfect, but they run cool, don't use as much energy, are inexpensive compared to studio lights, last a long time and so far I find them a nice continuous lighting solution.

I found some bulbs marked Daylight that were 3200K. The term "Daylight" on the package, means nothing!

Good news is all the 5000K Daylight and ? Soft White bulbs are going into every lamp in the house and office, so they weren't a waste.

* This is my bulb of choice, because it's closest to balancing with Xenon flash color Temp. 5600K. So far it's the only 5500K bulb I've found and only available at Home Depot. Yes I've painted myself into the 5500K corner, but balance with flash was more important in the long run.

__________________

If you put your lights behind a white cloth, colour temperature will become the one of the cloth...

Or gel, of course.

Yes, I'm "discovering" that the translucent panel that I'm using for my back light, to wash out the background, seems to be about 5300K, I'm not sure what the bottoms of milk bottles are, that I'm using to soften the overhead lights.

I'll have to take shots with just the backlight, then just the overhead and finally just the bare bulbs and see what the camera says they are. I don't know for sure if the 5500K bulbs are what they claim they are.

I also bought some silk fabric at the store and I'll be trying that. I'm more worried about heat with that on the top lights.

But when I open the RAW I can click on Daylight and have the same color balance for every shot, since the light sources don't change. More important is having all the lighting the same color temperature, or it creates impossible situations.

It's all just fine, since I've always enjoyed the experiment side of photography as much as taking or processing images.

Thanks for pointing it out, in case I was neglecting the effects of what might be considered filters, over the lights.

__________________

Some people prefere fixed lights, so that they can compose better.

I prefere flash strobes. They are all 5600K, they take much less power and their output is much higher than any lamps you can buy.

Also, I never use bare lights. Always shoot either through a panel or against a panel, never directly to the subject.

I have an estabilished setup for little objects that works fine. I am looking into a setup to illuminate big objects like monuments, and eventually will look into a setup for humans, those trouble making creatures we do not approve of. :-D

My eventual goal is to use the fluorescent for back light (and modeling) and strobes for the main and fill. That's why I'm still working on color balance. That's in the "studio", which happens to be nothing more than a desk top.

The other setup is supposed to be portable. One umbrella with slave, on on camera. Everything will work with no AC power, so I can shoot out in the woods, or quick setup at the hotel. Camera and hot shoe flash, with one bag of slave flashes / batteries / accessories (Goodwill) and one small bag for the umbrella and stand. That bag came free when I bought a folding camping chair. :-D

When I actually get things working to satisfaction, I'll add some photos of the setup.

Right now I'm finding that the lighting is so good, and the photos are so sharp, that I'm having problems with dust and specks showing on the subjects and the translucent panel.

Fix one thing, something else becomes a problem.

__________________

Dust will always be a problem. It is virtually impossible not to get it. Just remind to brush everything before taking photos. I had to retake lots of photos because I forgot to brush the objects and later found dust everywhere, when seen at 100%. The other issue is shiny surfaces. For those you need matte spray.

Dude - you could write a book on bulbs, with the amount you've bought and tried

__________________
s e l l p h o t o s . t k

Top Sellers • Shutterstock • Fotolia • Dreamstime • BigStock • StockXpert • FeaturePics • MostPhotos •

That's not all of it, just the fluorescent part. You should see the collection of flashes, slave flashes and slave triggers I've been accumulating and playing with. :-D I'm hunting at the resale shops but haven't found one used flash yet. They want to much for the junk cameras, or I'd be tearing some of those apart to build a big soft flash with a bunch of bulbs.

Mostly I wanted to save others from going to most of the hardware and building supply stores to find out the same information. I didn't even get into the ballasts electronic or standard, flicker, CRI ratings, and finding sheets of translucent plastic, which wasn't easy.

BTW they make a translucent paint for aquariums, so that the walls can be painted for keeping animals in them as a cage, but allow light to get in. Humane societies use it. I may try that for the clear sheets that are easy to find and inexpensive. Matte surface has it's own advantages in some cases.

I have a sheet of glass for framing art, that's supposed to be non-glare. This would work to get an "invisible" floating platform, so objects would have the appearance of being without a background at all.

__________________

I use the new fluorescent bulbs a lot, especially when copying paintings for making resale prints. I still prefer to use the sun, in the shade of course as that gives me near zero glare, even with the semi-gloss sealer some artists use.

It's quite a battle to get the right color temps. I use 2 tri-bulb fixtures. When one bulb burns out it's impossible to match a new bulb. I may have to get three at a time from Home Depot. I'm not sure how accurate the color temp is from one bulb to the next, or how they degrade from specs over time.

The other challenge is to make sure the lights are on for some mysterious length of time before taking meter reading. I suspect they come up to full brightness slowly. At least the image has often looked overexposed in Photoshop for the first few shots.

I've used the fluorescents for background lighting but they just aren't strong enough, so I get out the strobes.

__________________
istockPhoto
Shutterstock
Dreamstime
Stockxpert
LuckyOliver
Fotolia
BigStockP
FeaturePics
SnapVillage

Wow Pete you're a bulb nerd, out of interest why don't you just use a grey card, or a Gretag Macbeth colour card, much cheaper than the amount you've spent on bulbs.

__________________
Richard
Shutterstock
iStockphoto
Dreamstime
123RF
StockXpert
Fotolia