Measuring the Color of White

If you are going to use it to "check your prints" ...

LOOSE the florescent!

If you are going to use it to "check your prints" ...

LOOSE the florescent!

lid wrote:
Gary Eickmeier wrote:

OK, so I got this Ott Light, a portable desk lamp with a daylight
balanced fluorescent bulb, in order to check my prints and compare them
to the monitor.


But the light seems a little green to my sore eyes, so I am wondering
how I can measure the color temp of it to be sure of what I am looking
at.


This doesn't make sense with a fluorescent. What you really need to
know is the colour rendering index, or CRI, and to measure that you
need a spectrophotometer.

According to a web site I'm looking at, the Ott-Lites come in two
kinds, the Task bulb and the True Color bulb. The former has a CRI of
83, which is useless for your purpose. The latter has a CRI of about
93, which is more like what you need for photos.

So which kind of bulb do you have?

Good question! The lamp is at

http://staples.com/Catalog/Browse/sk...+Tab le+Lamps

but it doesn't tell which bulb it is.

Gary Eickmeier

lid wrote:
Gary Eickmeier wrote:

OK, so I got this Ott Light, a portable desk lamp with a daylight
balanced fluorescent bulb, in order to check my prints and compare them
to the monitor.


But the light seems a little green to my sore eyes, so I am wondering
how I can measure the color temp of it to be sure of what I am looking
at.


This doesn't make sense with a fluorescent. What you really need to
know is the colour rendering index, or CRI, and to measure that you
need a spectrophotometer.

According to a web site I'm looking at, the Ott-Lites come in two
kinds, the Task bulb and the True Color bulb. The former has a CRI of
83, which is useless for your purpose. The latter has a CRI of about
93, which is more like what you need for photos.

So which kind of bulb do you have?

Good question! The lamp is at

http://staples.com/Catalog/Browse/sk...+Tab le+Lamps

but it doesn't tell which bulb it is.

Gary Eickmeier

RSD99 wrote:

If you are going to use it to "check your prints" ...

LOOSE the florescent!

What do you mean, "loose" it? Like let it loose?

Gary Eickmeier

RSD99 wrote:

If you are going to use it to "check your prints" ...

LOOSE the florescent!

What do you mean, "loose" it? Like let it loose?

Gary Eickmeier

wrote:

This is not intended as a recommendation for this company, but the
following link is on topic and worth a read..

http://www.soluxtli.com/Ott_lite.htm

In summary, daylight is not equal, by a longshot, to any fluoro and you
should expect some problems..

Very illuminating! But the other company's lights are really weird.
Would they make a bulb that would work in the Ott?

Gary Eickmeier

wrote:

This is not intended as a recommendation for this company, but the
following link is on topic and worth a read..

http://www.soluxtli.com/Ott_lite.htm

In summary, daylight is not equal, by a longshot, to any fluoro and you
should expect some problems..

Very illuminating! But the other company's lights are really weird.
Would they make a bulb that would work in the Ott?

Gary Eickmeier

Gary Eickmeier wrote:


lid wrote:

Gary Eickmeier wrote:

OK, so I got this Ott Light, a portable desk lamp with a daylight
balanced fluorescent bulb, in order to check my prints and compare
them to the monitor.



But the light seems a little green to my sore eyes, so I am wondering
how I can measure the color temp of it to be sure of what I am
looking at.



This doesn't make sense with a fluorescent. What you really need to
know is the colour rendering index, or CRI, and to measure that you
need a spectrophotometer.

According to a web site I'm looking at, the Ott-Lites come in two
kinds, the Task bulb and the True Color bulb. The former has a CRI of
83, which is useless for your purpose. The latter has a CRI of about
93, which is more like what you need for photos.

So which kind of bulb do you have?


Good question! The lamp is at

http://staples.com/Catalog/Browse/sk...+Tab le+Lamps


but it doesn't tell which bulb it is.

Gary Eickmeier

You can probably tell if you have the CRI 83 or the CRI 93 by taking a
picture of a Kodak Gray card illuminated ONLY by the Ott Light.
Look at the image in Photoshop.
If the RGB values are pretty close to each other (+/- 5 units), you have
the CRI 93. If the G value is way out of line with R&B, you have the CRI 83
Bob Williams

Gary Eickmeier wrote:

lid wrote:
Gary Eickmeier wrote:

OK, so I got this Ott Light, a portable desk lamp with a daylight
balanced fluorescent bulb, in order to check my prints and compare them
to the monitor.

According to a web site I'm looking at, the Ott-Lites come in two
kinds, the Task bulb and the True Color bulb. The former has a CRI of
83, which is useless for your purpose. The latter has a CRI of about
93, which is more like what you need for photos.

So which kind of bulb do you have?

Good question! The lamp is at

http://staples.com/Catalog/Browse/sk...+Tab le+Lamps

but it doesn't tell which bulb it is.

I think, Gary, that if it don't _say_ True Color, then it probably
ain't. The good news is that you can probably replace the tube.

Andrew.