digital darkroom

i am in the process of setting up my own studio., i fortunately have the space where i can allocate a

separate room for my digital working area. as i am new to the digital world, i have been told that since

i have the opportunity to set-up a room specifically for digital work, i should be aware of a few things. can

someone confirm or suggest other things i must be aware of. been told that the room should be rid of all

windows, to avoid reflections on my monitor. the spotlights used for "general" lighting of the room,

should be for example on the ceiling in the first 1/3 part of the room... then further down will come my

desk with computer etc.. so that the lights are not behind me, reflecting on my monitor, they should be

infront of me if anything, while im working - and that the wall behind me should ideally be black, to avoid

reflection back to monitor. can someone comment, suggest etc. thank you.

Avoid getting light directly on the monitor (glare obscures shadow detail). If you use fluorescents (good for saving electricity), ensure that it has a high CRI (over 90) and a CCT of 5000-6500K. Try to diffuse the light so you can not tell where it is coming from, and refrain from painting the wall in color. Grey is colorimetrically good, but might be depressing for extended use, for white should work fine too.

Let me expand on some of my answers to address your concerns. The reason it is important to use color-corrected fluorescents is that otherwise you will not be viewing prints under a full spectrum. Remember the wave nature of light; it contains a spectrum of wavelengths, in various intensities. By varying the spectrum (i.e., the relative intensities of the wavelengths), you get different colors. CRI is a measure of how faithful a light is to a black body (an ideal light). Lights with a low CRI typically accentuate one color over another, and do not render yet others at all, making it impossible to get a good idea of what the object they are illuminating would look like under "normal" lighting conditions (such as day light).

 

Painting the walls a neutral color is a perceptual issue. If the walls are a saturated blue, for example, you may be inclined to bias whites in that direction. That is, a pale blue may look neutral to you.

I have put my set up in a spare bedroom that has two windows exposed to southern sun. Room darkening shades control enough of the bright sun so it is not an issue during daylight hours photo work.

 

The incandescent lights are all on dimmers. One is turned very low so I can see the work area, but it is difficult to read. This is the photo work light.

 

The other is an open light that bounces againt the white ceiling. If I`m doing P-Net or E-mail or other general computer work, it can be quite bright, but it is positioned to not produce glare on the screen. It also is on a dimmer.

 

Neither source will reflect on the screen. That would be intolerable.

 

The decorating scheme is a patterned wallpaper due to be changed, but if the lights are low, wall reflections are not an issue. Bright ambient light WILL change the screen image enough so you will not want to work that way.

 

Get a good, stress good, CRT monitor or an Apple Cinema Display. I recommend the latter along with an Apple computer. LCD screens are no good for photowork as the display changes with the viewing angle. Although I did see an HP LCD screen at Freys that was not too bad. The cheapies at Circuit City/Best Buy are not to be considered. All notebook book computers have LCD screens.

You may want to read an article that I wrote on the subject of digital darkroom lighting. You can find at at:

 

http://www.solux.net/ies_files/Digital%20Darkroom%20Lighting.pdf

thank you for all your help and suggestions. a bit unclear as to whether i keep the lights ON

or OFF while working on photoshop? do i work on darkness while doing my photshop work

and only switch lights on for viewing my images under daylight equivelant lights? please

clarify. thank you

Dark is best, but tiresome, so use as dim lighting as you can. Note that fluorescents can not be dimmed.

I use dim lighting which remains constant. That's the key. Avoid any reflections.

 

1-ALWAYS calibrate your monitor. Repeatedly to get it right. Then do update monthly.

2- Then profile your favorite paper. Take the time to get it right.

3- Make sure that step 2 is done with a known quantity and includes a gray scale and Macbeth chart.

 

THEN, you shall be rewarded!

Hala,

 

You should always keep the lights on, the same lights you use to view your prints (see my previously mentioned article). The reason is that you need a brightness reference point for your eyes, otherwise you may adjust the brightness of your image too low in low ambient light or too high in high ambient light. By working at the same light level as you will view your prints you avoid this. That's also why it is so important to match your monitor brightness to the brightness of your digital darkroom lighting or vice versa.

That is why I said dimmers on all lights. Keep it as dark as you can and still function to find what is needed. Do not be changing light levels when photo editing.

 

For office computer work, the lighting should be brighter, but still no reflections.

Dimmers will change the color temperature of your lighting, something that should be avoided at all cost. Lights should be matched in color temperature to the monitor setting. Again, read my article referenced above.

....And be sure to buy Solux bulbs, right? I have a few 5500K metal halide's sitting around I'll be happy to compare against a Solux anyday.

 

Regardless, I don't like specular light sources for reference viewing because this type of light source creates a different set of problems than 5500K CFLs. One trick I've found with track based or 12volt Solux bulbs is to mount them on goosenecks and bounce them off the ceiling for a much, much better distribution of light. Why galleries still insist on using point light sources to display prints still aggravates me, but good luck convincing them differently.

 

I otherwse use 4100k CFLs for general reference viewing, and a mix 2700 + 6000k CFLs for more critical viewing. The combination gives a more even distribution of magenta/red/orange than a single 5500k CFL.

 

A dim room with your monitor in front of a neutral painted wall is otherwise the easiest solution, but Steve beat me to it.

Scott,

 

First, I have nothing to gain by whether you buy SoLux bulbs or not. I'm not employed or paid by SoLux in any way, shape or form.

 

Bouncing lamps like the SoLux off of the ceiling potentially introduces two problems: if the ceiling is not painted in a neutral shade, the reflected light will no longer have the same color temperature and you will loose a tremendous amount of brightness, something galleries and musea are very much aware of.

 

CFL's are about the worst lightsource you can use for viewing prints. Even the ones specifically developed and recommended for critical viewing have tremendous spikes at various wavelenghts, resulting in metamerism and just plain incorrect colors.

 

Working in a digital darkroom that is too dimly lit will cause many people to reduce the brightness of the image on-screen to match the digital darkroom lighting environment, resulting in prints that are too dark. This is especially the case when LCD monitors are used since their "native" brightness is so much higher than for CRT's.

 

You may want to read my article, referenced above.

The Solux bulbs are undeniably the finest man made light source that mimic's daylight. Not

expensive and worth every penny. Control IS an issue (as is heat) but the light quality is

outstanding. Nothing else comes close to producing a true, full spectrum light for mimicing

daylight.

Andrew,

 

Why would you say that control is an issue for SoLux bulbs? Put into a proper fixture, you can direct the light where you need it and there is always the on/off switch. Yes, these bulbs get hot but used in the proper fixture that is not an issue.

Intensity control and spill control are the issues when using them for print to screen

matching.

Andrew,

 

I would appreciate it if you could expand a little on "Intensity control and spill control are the issues when using them for print to screen matching." You may cover that on your website, but to be honest, the website is a little hard to get around on.

 

SoLux lamps don't have intensity control; they are either on or off, so I'm not sure what you mean. I have adjusted the brightness of the SoLux lighting to match the screen brightness by a) adding a second fixture and b) by lowering the fxtures about 2 feet down from a 10 feet high ceiling. I'm not sure what you mean by spill control. If you mount the lights above your head and use a monitor hood (I made mine from a black piece of mat board) you don't get light in places where you don't want it like in your eyes and on the monitor screen.

The intensity of the light striking the print should correlate to the luminance of the display

white point. You can't use a dimmer on the Solux or you hose the CCT so you have to move

em (Inverse square law) as well as make sure you flag off light you don't want hitting other

areas.

Andrew,

 

Those issues are issues for all light sources, not just SoLux.