GE reveal lightbulbs

Hi,

 

Stupid question time. I have these GE "Reveal" lightbulbs that I use

around my house. My digital camera loves them. Anyone tried

shooting daylight film under these lights?

GE Reveal bulbs are not daylight-balanced. They are closer to daylight than regular tungsten bulbs and your digital camera should be able to "white balance" for them.

 

You may be able to shoot color print film under the bulbs and correct for the temp shift in printing. However, slide film will not be as forgiving.

Cool. That would work perfectly with the way I operate. (Develop only and straight to the film scanner.)

They work well. just will have to increase the contract some once scanned.

 

I use 2 of the 150s for my background lighting

<p><i>You may be able to shoot color print film under the bulbs and correct

for the temp shift in printing.</p></i>

<p>Not quite. They are only about 200K different from a regular tungsten bulb

- I measured one with my color temp meter. So they are about 3400K or

3500K. Daylight is typically 5500K.</p>

My experience matches that of Tom Weis. The Reveal bulbs are a very close match for tungsten film but a long way from daylight balanced.

I shoot daylight film (usually NPZ) under them all the time. In fact, I replaced all of the regular incandescent bulbs inside my house with them. They do help with photos and video, and they also provide IMHO more pleasing illumination generally. Two things, though: (1) Don't expect miracles. These are basically incandescent bulbs with a weak/slight filter coating. The improvement, especially on film, is subtle. (2) Remember that there's a cost other than money: light levels. That filter coating means that you get less illumination from Reveal bulbs than you do from G.E.'s regular incandescent bulbs of the same voltages.