Studio Lighting

[siderealxxx]

Howdy,

My studio doesn't get much natural light and I'm in there for 8hrs every day. I really need some form of lighting on all day so I don't feel like I live in a cave.

The trouble is I've always been sensitive to LED lighting. Something to do with the refresh rate can make me feel subtly queasy.

I recently had one of these installed in my new studio space and sure enough it's making me feel odd:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09MQS3JYR? ... asin_title

Does anyone have any smart lighting solutions for their studio which can be easily retro-fitted? I don't have a Huge amount of floor space left for lamps etc but I've not ruled it out.

Any thoughts welcome - thanks

[Drew Stephenson]

Ikea used to do some daylight-mimicking lamps but it doesn't look like they're still doing so - still might be something worth looking into?
I made some lamps for my place from some biscuit tins (in the shape of old radios). Most of the light comes out of the back (reflected from the gold metallic inside) and I don't know if something like that might mitigate the effects of the LED discomfort you experience?

[James Perrett]

The trouble is I've always been sensitive to LED lighting. Something to do with the refresh rate can make me feel subtly queasy.

There are different types of LED lighting - I would guess that the LED lighting you are talking about uses a simple capacitive dropper which will give a 50 or 100Hz flicker. You really need LED lighting that drives the LEDs with DC to prevent flicker. These lights are often slightly slower to start up and may also fade out when switched off rather than switch off immediately.

[siderealxxx]

Thanks for the info chaps. I wasn't aware of a difference with AC/DC power on LED lights!

Just checked the spec of this unit and sure enough it's ‎2.3E+2 Volts (AC). I noticed it also makes my laptop screen appear to flicker too :/

Trouble is it seems most products don't specify AC or DC without seeking it out. Let me know if there's anything else regarding voltage/power to look out for (I don't know anything about electronics).

We live and learn! Thanks

[James Perrett]

Trouble is it seems most products don't specify AC or DC without seeking it out. Let me know if there's anything else regarding voltage/power to look out for (I don't know anything about electronics).

The trouble is that you don't really know how they work until you can test them as identical looking bulbs can work differently. Unfortunately the ones I use in my studio are no longer available.

I've just done a quick test by waving a long key under the GU10 bulbs in my kitchen and ironically the expensive Tungsram narrow beam bulbs flicker while the standard beam BK Licht bulbs that came with the fitting don't flicker.

[MarkOne]

Might be worth looking in to lighting for SAD. (Seasonal Affective Disorder) which properly imitate natural sunlight.

[resistorman]

LED flicker drives me crazy too, but it seems to be less common these days. I've had good luck with Philips, they have bulbs advertised as flicker-free.

[Folderol]

it is possible to get totally flicker-free LED lamps, but they are more expensive!
This is done by rectifying and partially smoothing the supply, then using an HF inverter to provide the wanted lamp current. LEDs are current driven, not voltage. Cheap ones try to use a quasi voltage drive system - sometimes just a series resistor to limit the peaks..

[siderealxxx]

Thanks for all the input on this. To be clear, is it the lamp/transformer or the bulb that imposes the limitation?

I think I want to install a 4-way spot light ceiling light but I can't find anything specified about flicker free or quite what to look for to avoid it!

[James Perrett]

To be clear, is it the lamp/transformer or the bulb that imposes the limitation?

If we are talking about low voltage LED lights with a modern power supply then that is likely to be DC with no flicker. If we are talking about bulbs that connect directly to the mains (like traditional GLS bulbs or GU10 spotlights) then it is pot luck - some will contain a proper power supply which powers the LEDs with DC while others will contain a more primitive circuit which produces flicker. As I mentioned in my previous post, price is no indicator of quality in this respect.

Edit to add

https://www.amazon.co.uk/B-K-Licht-Ceil ... B07THKFQBL

is the one I bought 3 years ago that included bulbs that don't flicker.

[siderealxxx]

Ok thanks. I'm surprised this isn't more clearly defined by manufacturers as it makes a big difference!

The one you've posted looks close to what I want, though a touch big, so I will try this manufacturer for smaller versions.

Cheers

[resistorman]

Philips makes a line of LED bulbs called Eye Comfort, so at least one manufacturer advertises as flicker-free:
https://www.usa.lighting.philips.com/co ... eyecomfort

[ajay_m]

I'm quite sensitive to the 'rainbow' effect from DLP projectors, which is caused by flickering, but looking at the standard warm white LED spotlights I've got around the house, from a variety of brands including Philips, if I move my eyes rapidly from side to side I can't spot any flicker at all nor can I see any if I wave a pen rapidly back and forth in front of the light.

Modern LED lights use fairly sophisticated control chips I think driven by a full-wave bridge e.g as per the application note here

https://www.onsemi.com/pdf/datasheet/ncl30488-d.pdf

and I *think* therefore that flicker should not normally be an issue.

Most bigger hardware stores like B&Q usually have lighting on display and you ought to be able to do a flicker test there and confirm whether normal LED spotlights or downlights are causing issues for you, but as far as I can see, most modern LED lights seem to produce pretty constant light levels without obvious flicker, certainly not at 50 or 100Hz. Of course, as has been said, very cheap brands might take shortcuts. I have found Philips to be the most reliable and Osram have a truly horrible failure rate, can't recall how many supposed '25 year' units I've replaced. It's not the LEDs, but the power supply built into the light that seems to fail early on some of these units.

[ajay_m]

EDIT: I just saw that the light you mentioned is 'cool white'. This is a big part of your problem. You do not want to fit cool white LEDs. The light is far too harsh; it's great for your dentist, not so great for you. You want warm white LEDs with a much much lower colour temperature.

As for efficient lighting, because each 3W LED light is about the same as a 50W halogen spot, you can be fairly profligate with them to light up an area properly. If you choose dimmable lamps you can then potentially also dim them but this is where flicker might become an issue, you'd have to check on that. Personally I prefer to have several switches and some control over which lights are on and which are off.

For an average sized room you need a surprisingly large number of spotlights and/or downlights and having some wall uplights is also desirable because they cast diffused light off the ceiling and back down into the work area. I have seen some office environments where extremely powerful uplights were cast up onto a white ceiling to provide an even diffuse lighting across the whole space. This stops you casting a shadow over your work area by being in between the light source and what you're trying to look at.

So as an example in our lounge in a fairly small terraced house we have two ceiling light fittings each holding six spots plus three uplighters and a scattering of table lamps etc. You don't always turn all of these on, depending on ambient light or just whether you want a bright environment for reading or a more subdued light for watching TV etc. It's normally the case that you don't have enough light but of course in a studio sometimes you may want to listen in a darkened room - so having the flexibility to do this, possibly with some wireless remotes hooked up to your lighting in groups, can be advantageous. You also want to think about work surfaces like mixers where you'd like strong focussed illumination (this is a good advantage of adjustable spot fittings).

Some decorative lamps can also soften the environment. You can purchase very low colour temperature bulbs (2700K) for these, which give a really nice soft yellow glow, these often use the new filament LEDs which are a very clever modern trick and look just like incandescent wires.

Avoid any of these fancy colour changing LEDs. They are just RGB LEDs and so the 'white' light they generate is severely spectrally imbalanced. It causes real fatigue. Whereas modern warm white LEDs have a broad spectrum very close to natural light, they've come ahead in leaps and bounds in the last decade. To check, use a CD and cast the light obliquely across it and you'll see the spectrum. Old CFL lamps which looked white have a deep violet line, a cyan line and an orange line but don't have a continuous spectrum, but a modern LED will cast a continuous spectrum right from violet through to red. It is the red light that was historically lacking from fluorescent lamps in particular, that caused visual fatigue.

[SafeandSound Mastering]

I use 1 x Energizer 20 Watt LED lightbulb in a bayonet fitting that has not even got a light shade over it and it works very well for me.

It provides the right hue and enough brightness and diffuse light everywhere I need it for professional work and is super economical.

Never discount simplicity as a valid starting point.

[paulb]

I’m a big fan of Ledvance SUN@HOME bulbs and lights. They are very high CRI (i.e. very natural, without the high blue light content you get with lower quality LEDs), no flicker (that I can detect), a pretty decent app for controlling them (over wifi, but only on the local network) and I believe you can connect them up to home automation systems.

I have a 60x60cm panel on my office ceiling which is in biorhythm mode and changes tint and intensity over the course of the day to match the sun. It has transformed my ability to concentrate during the working day, particularly in winter. I also have their E27 bulbs from the same range in the lounge and dining room which we set according to whether we want a naturally fading/yellowing light in the evening to lull us to sleep, or a good strong daylight tint to brighten an overcast day. I wouldn’t hesitate to put them in the studio if I didn’t already have other adequate lighting up there

[sonics]

Avoid any of these fancy colour changing LEDs. They are just RGB LEDs and so the 'white' light they generate is severely spectrally imbalanced. It causes real fatigue.

Those that I use are more sophisticated and have both colour LED and white LED components - two lights in one, as it were. I can control the colour, style intensity, temperature etc. using an app. I'm very impressed with the quality of the light, but don't know about flicker rates as I'm not so sensitive to that.

[Dynamic Mike]

A bit late to the party & slightly off-topic but I recently bought one of these https://nebotools.co.uk/products/high-bright-6000 for the garage/workshop. B&Q are currently offloading them for £20. I was so impressed I went back & bought 2 more. I now have 2 in the garage & one destined for the loft space. They are incredibly bright, I've not noticed any flicker & best of all when dangling from a rose they look like a satellite.

[siderealxxx]

This is proving to be something of a hornets nest...

I've just replaced the light in question with a warmer 3-way spotlight and whilst the flickering has stopped (yay!) and the light is softer, I'm now getting serious shadows from my ceiling mounted acoustic panels which are in close proximity!

So now I have another issue to solve. I can remove and return the spotlight so I'm now thinking I need a hanging LED bar at the same height as the ceiling panels to negate the shadows.

Long story short, most of them come with adjustable cable unto 210cm (!) but don't go very short (I only need approx 20cm). Does anyone know if the cable in this kind of thing can be cut/shortened in some capacity, as it also carries the power?!

https://www.lights.co.uk/p/lucande-led- ... NDclM0EyNA

Thanks!