Best lighting to work and paint under?

[Guest]

Evening all, after sitting in my shed for the last couple of hours trying to paint my Normandy GB figures i was wondering what was the best type of light to work under, as the only spare time i get is in the evenings natural daylight is out.

I was thinking of rewiring my shed and putting large florescent tubes in but would this be best for painting under or can anyone suggest a better light source.

Thanks

Darren

[Guest]

I will get shot for this but I love the Halogen lamps(tall desk lamp types), so bright and I have mine set up so the shadow cast is minimum,I just love the stark bright white light they give off, I find fluorescent light puts an orange tint over the work area.....or it could just be my eyes...lol

[Guest]

I have three lights over my workspace one big flouresent tube, a daylight lamp and a halogen light too.

[AlanG]

I have a magnifying light that has a daylight bulb (> 5000K) in it. In my opinion it's great. You can also get these bulbs for strip lights. In fact i've just had these installed in my place of work and what a difference they have made to the place.

[Guest]

Thanks for all the replies and have read up on the daylight florescent lamps that are designed for arts and crafts, will pop into the local electrical wholesalers and see what they can offer. Will let you know the results as soon as i'm sorted.

Cheers

Darren

[John]

Colour 860 is daylight if anyone want's any lamps let me know I am a buyer for an electrical wholesaler

[Guest]

Interesting subject this. As an (ex) photographer, I know the importance of light balance but I still paint under a desk top lamp with a 4.5" folded, so in effect 9", fluorescent tube. It is only small but gives of a consistent light and no heat. I know that this will eventually fail and I will be looking for replacement. It does not give out a proper 'daylight' temperature (to be honest, neither does daylight, it changes all the time) but I will be looking for a 'daylight' solution for replacement. The most readily available are the normal bulb type but these give off heat so I will look for a desktop strip light type, preferably low voltage to run cool. Why these have to be so expensive I do not know. However, to get a more realistic idea of what the actual colour of the paint is, a daylight balanced light source is a must.

In the spray shed, I just have a standard 4' fluorescent tube running width ways straight over the spray bench.

[John]

For the best light output from a tube you should use triphosphor with a high frequency ballast in the fitting, most fittings have a switch start ballast with a halophosphate tube which is very energy inefficient, a triphosphor and HF ballast will give you a longer life for your tube and the light output will stay constant for much longer, standard tubes drop in efficiency very early on in life, triphosphor don't they stay at full for about 97% of it's life.

And for day light 860 or sky white 880 but the 880's are very expensive, and to give you and idea the tube Graham uses 4ft 36w cost us about 70p the same in triphosphor is about £1 not a lot in it, we sell them for a lot more than that.

[Guest]

Just another little point for those modellers who use bench drills, lathes or any other rotating machinery regularly. You should light your workbench from more than a single source to prevent a strobe effect being set up which can make the rotating item look either slower than it is turning or even stopped.

Double tube fitings are one option but simply more than one light source is also usefull. What you have to be careful of then is the fact that you should use the same temperature lamp from all the sources to ensure a consistent light for the accuracy of the paint rendition.

[stona]

Cripes,I just use a couple of 60w desk lamps,one on each side of my work area. One is well articulated and gets dragged around to see into tricky areas. I wear my magnifier on my bonce. I paint in a connecting corridor between my back door and the utility room (read ex-outhouse Brrrrr!!) and only spray in daylight so the colour temperature of my lighting isn't really relevant.

Whatever you do,and I'm sure John's solution is far more professional than mine,you need a good level of light I think from more than one direction or the shadow is very irritating.

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

For the best light output from a tube you should use triphosphor with a high frequency ballast in the fitting, most fittings have a switch start ballast with a halophosphate tube which is very energy inefficient, a triphosphor and HF ballast will give you a longer life for your tube and the light output will stay constant for much longer, standard tubes drop in efficiency very early on in life, triphosphor don't they stay at full for about 97% of it's life.

Just what I was going to say................ :noidea:

[Guest]

For the best light output from a tube you should use triphosphor with a high frequency ballast in the fitting, most fittings have a switch start ballast with a halophosphate tube which is very energy inefficient, a triphosphor and HF ballast will give you a longer life for your tube and the light output will stay constant for much longer, standard tubes drop in efficiency very early on in life, triphosphor don't they stay at full for about 97% of it's life. And for day light 860 or sky white 880 but the 880's are very expensive, and to give you and idea the tube Graham uses 4ft 36w cost us about 70p the same in triphosphor is about £1 not a lot in it, we sell them for a lot more than that.

I got that perfectly right up to 'the best output from a tube, you should use', kind of lost the thread a bit there.

I use a bright single bulb, paint standing upright and hold the piece i'm spraying so i can move it around the bulb to see where i'm at, not hugely professional but it works for me, as long a I can see if i'm laying down a wet coat then I know it's not dry / powdery and i'm not flooding it, I had three 50W spots which were useless though the room was bright but the light was far too focused, I changed to a single fitting and tried a standard 60W bulb which was too dim, I then tried a Halogen 70W (100W equiv), which was OK, now have an energy saver 18w which is fine once warmed up and am currently awaiting the local get everthing store getting me a 30W energy saver so i'll see how that goes, if necessary I may add a couple of strip lights over the spraying bench, I do have an Angle lamp if I need close up spotlights on anything.

[stona]

This is a great thread,it just shows,once again,that we all have different ways of doing things.

m1ks,I do almost all of my spraying standing up as well!

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

Loads of great information, cheers guys. Looks like i'm going to get myself a 6ft double with triphosphor tubes (cheers John), hopefully this will aid my figure painting and stop me squinting at everything.

[Guest]

Could it be the lack of a 6ft double with triphosphor tubes that makes me a rubbish figure painter??????? Although it is more likely that I just cannot paint figures lol