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A lot of the guidelines that are used to light a scene for a camera are also quite useful for lighting a room for yourself, just with less light needed as the h

A lot of the guidelines that are used to light a scene for a camera are also quite useful for lighting a room for yourself, just with less light needed as the human eye has a much higher dynamic range than a camera sensor: * Use diffuse light. This usually means multiple light sources bouncing and diffusing light off surfaces (ceilings, walls, etc) or diffusers. * Minimize shadows. Shadows lead to contrast which can lead to eye strain. Use multiple, maybe directional, light sources to illuminate shadows. * Minimize highlights. Windows without blinds let in lots of light which leads to contrast and can lead to eye strain. Curtains and blinds are great ways to diffuse light. * Uniform color temperature. Try to make sure all your lights have the same color temperature. Small variations are okay but large color temperature variations lead to color contrast which also tends to be hard on eye strain. * Select your color temperature based on needs and feeling. A lot of people prefer warmer color temperature lights and cool temperature lights are known to be more stressful for folks with anxiety-related conditions, but if your work requires accurate color representation, or you find yourself mentally trying to compensate for color temperature, then change the temperature to what you find most productive yet relaxing. * Wall color. Remember that "white" light that reflects off colored surfaces will take on a hue similar to the reflected surfaces. Walls of different colors can cause challenges for uniform color temperature, and warm colored walls can take cold lights and turn them warm. A side effect, of course, is that your room will become a lot more photogenic. It's no coincidence since photogenic rooms are often just easiest on the eye to look at. "Golden Hour" is considered a great time for photogenic events, photographs, and videos. "Golden Hour" lighting tends to be diffuse, not too strong, and warm toned. Humans tend to really like this style of lighting and if you do too, you might want to recreate some of these properties in your office.

toddmorey 2y ago
In the history of LED lighting, it took quite a bit of work (hybrid phosphor technology, etc) to get them to emit warm color temperatures. The exact color temp can be a personal preference, but I think a lot of people aren't privy to the difference the color temperature of "white" light can make! I want to go on a guerrilla campaign around my neighborhood and replace porch light bulbs with warm equivalents.
- amarcheschi 2y ago
  Along light temperature there's light cri as well, which measures how faithful to real life a light is. New standards such as Tm30 came out recently as well
  - esafak 2y ago
    It's hard enough to get the CRI out of manufacturers. I've never seen any other measure of light quality reporter ever.
    - davidmurdoch 2y ago
      Waveform lighting publishes their reports.
  - gsck 2y ago
    CRI is usually only reported on professional grade lamps (Theatre, Film/TV) you'll almost never find it reported on anything below that.
    - Auracle 2y ago
      Some consumer bulbs at least used to have it listed on their packaging.
- Karrot_Kream 2y ago
  In general I think the population at large, and especially programmer types, know way too little about lighting given how ubiquitous both lighting and photography/videography is in our everyday life. Good on you for fighting the warm light fight!
  - Der_Einzige 2y ago
    They claim to know a lot but then none of them build proper Cf Lumen or F.Lux style tooling (i.e. super easy default instead of requiring tons of setup) for turning ALL blue light off (red shifting) IN THE DEFAULT OS as the primary way to use your device at night. None of that wussy shifting the color temperature brown shit that doesn't meaningfully reduce blue light hazard. I can literally preserve my whole night vision and have zero eye strain in pitch black conditions by red shifting my computer screen. No one supports this because we are stupid. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_effects_of_high-energy_visible_light https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_effects_of_high-ene... The laser pointer community of all groups understands this stuff well. They recommend green lasers because they use the lowest power for the highest visibility at night. Blue lasers are easy to get super powerful, but unlike a lower powered green one, which usually will only temporarily blind you if you make a mistake - a powerful blue laser will straight up destroy your eyes forever. Permanent blindness.
sumea 2y ago
I am quite sensitive to glare. I have tried many setups in my windowless office with low ceiling height and have found linear up-down pendant lights the best option. Up-light is more important as it bounces soft light from ceiling. When I want to work in dimmer environment in the evenings, I switch off the down-light. I also try to buy lightning fixtures that are designed anti-glare although they are more expensive. You can also make pendant lights yourself with led strips and aluminium profiles. Your eyesight and glasses also matter a lot. My glasses are quite worn with lots of scratches. They definitely make issues worse.
- walterbell 2y ago
  Glasses are extremely affordable online (e.g. eyebuydirect, owned by the same multi-billion dollar company that sells lenses and frames to local opticians) if you have the prescription, PD (pupil distance) and physical frame measurements of your current glasses.
bongodongobob 2y ago
I agree up until golden hour. It's a very specific style of lighting and isn't any better or worse. It's not the best time to take a picture, it doesn't have the best light. It's a specific kind of light.
- Auracle 2y ago
  Eh, I can tell you I definitely had more sales of portrait prints at golden hour for my high school senior sessions. You can, of course, make great photos in any light. Golden hour and blue hour are easy because the light is inherently nice.
- Karrot_Kream 2y ago
  Right I don't disagree. I just wanted to hold up golden hour as a specific example of lighting properties that humans tend to subconsciously really enjoy and evoke that as a source of inspiration for lighting your home spaces. Maybe you don't care for the overly warm temperatures but you enjoy the diffuse, desaturated look. This is more just a comment written to get folks who are considering lighting to think critically about it for the first time. The average person plops a bright stand lamp in a corner of the room and calls it a day, maybe with a dimmer if they're a bit advanced. The fact that you have an opinion about golden hour lighting means you're already beyond that point :)
BenoitEssiambre 2y ago
I'm in a basement and had fairly good success with certain "led shop lights" to make the space feel more like it has natural light (though I could improve things further). I do find however, that using diffuse lighting and minimizing shadows is what makes lighting feel artificial. Natural sunlight has very parallel rays that create very evenly lit surfaces with very sharp shadows. Whereas most artificial light has radial rays around the light source that diminish in intensity with the cube of the distance and thus create fading gradients on surfaces and weak shadows especially if you have many of them. I find I miss the feel of parallel rays of natural light so I try to find lights that have for example, parabolic reflectors to make the rays more parallel and position a few of them farther away from me pointed towards my visual field to try to replicate natural sunlight coming through a window. One challenge however, is that it's surprisingly difficult to get good parallel rays from artificial light sources because of conservation of etendue ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etendue https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etendue ). I wish there were more options on the market.
- BenoitEssiambre 2y ago
  What I'm trying to achieve is lighting a bit like in these "Artificial Skylight" concepts: https://architizer.com/blog/practice/materials/let-there-be-light-coelux/ https://architizer.com/blog/practice/materials/let-there-be-... They claim their technology is about "Rayleigh scattering" but I think that's mostly marketing mumbo jumbo. Sure that might add a bit of diffuse blue but their main secret, I would bet, is parallel rays which explains why their fixtures require so much space above the ceiling to get around conservation of etendue. The effect of parallel rays and sharp shadows are definitely represented in their example pictures.
  - vvladymyrov 2y ago
    I’ve installed 4 similar skylight lamps to the basement. Bought them on Amazon for 700$ each (had to replace 1 because it had uneven light). They make basement light much closer to ourdoor light and made basement very cozy and comfortable. I had depth space in the ceiling, but width of the lamp didn’t fit between joists - so could not push lamp all the way at the ceiling level. End up building nice boxing around lamp. So it was medium complexity project with great result.
Dalewyn 2y ago
>* Select your color temperature based on needs and feeling. A lot of people prefer warmer color temperature lights and cool temperature lights are known to be more stressful for folks with anxiety-related conditions, but if your work requires accurate color representation, or you find yourself mentally trying to compensate for color temperature, then change the temperature to what you find most productive yet relaxing. This is huge. I personally can not stand warm color temperatures in my office or bedroom, I know all the colors are off and it aggravates me to no end. On the other hand, I can't stand cool color temperatures in the dining room because it doesn't lend well to eating comfortably. And in either case, I can't stand warm color temperatures on any monitors/screens or televisions because of the same reason as when I'm in my office or bedroom. Use color temperatures that suit your preferences, going against them just because someone says it's better for you (eg: red shift at night, aka blue light fearmongering) is patented bullshit.
anilakar 2y ago
Diffused bright light from a white wall behind you is not any better. Learned this the hard way when I started WFH in Anno Covidi 1.
blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
Is there a way to diffuse light from overhead recessed lighting? For me the ‘soft’ LED bulbs I have aren’t enough. I wish there was some kind of diffusion cover I could put on the outside of the recessed housing that softens the light further but also doesn’t look like I hacked something together. But I also wonder - why has there been such wide adoption of overhead recessed lighting? To me they’re a big part of why lighting in modern homes looks harsh.
- Xcelerate 2y ago
  That’s funny cause I’m going the exact opposite direction and trying to remove the diffuse lighting and replace it with very hard and bright lighting that has a spectrum as similar to sunlight as I can find/afford. Recessed lighting with parabolic reflectors collimates light conically, which is more similar sunlight than omnidirectional lighting that passes through a diffuser. The sun is basically a point source so far away that the light rays that reach us are almost parallel. To me it feels much “cozier” than soft lighting, which gives everything a bland, washed out look and makes me sleepy during the work day. I was even thinking about replacing my surface mount LED lighting with recessed cans. But everyone is obviously quite different in their preferences haha. If you want more diffuse lighting, there are filters and lenses they sell that you can slide into the cans.
  - blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
    Wow that is a very different take. I’m on the verge of going to floor lamps only. > If you want more diffuse lighting, there are filters and lenses they sell that you can slide into the cans. Any idea what they’re called or what to look for? I’ve tried searching and only found whole recessed cans that come with those filters but not something that I can fit into the cans I already have.

toddmorey 2y ago

In the history of LED lighting, it took quite a bit of work (hybrid phosphor technology, etc) to get them to emit warm color temperatures. The exact color temp can be a personal preference, but I think a lot of people aren't privy to the difference the color temperature of "white" light can make! I want to go on a guerrilla campaign around my neighborhood and replace porch light bulbs with warm equivalents.

amarcheschi 2y ago
Along light temperature there's light cri as well, which measures how faithful to real life a light is. New standards such as Tm30 came out recently as well
- esafak 2y ago
  It's hard enough to get the CRI out of manufacturers. I've never seen any other measure of light quality reporter ever.
  - davidmurdoch 2y ago
    Waveform lighting publishes their reports.
- gsck 2y ago
  CRI is usually only reported on professional grade lamps (Theatre, Film/TV) you'll almost never find it reported on anything below that.
  - Auracle 2y ago
    Some consumer bulbs at least used to have it listed on their packaging.
Karrot_Kream 2y ago
In general I think the population at large, and especially programmer types, know way too little about lighting given how ubiquitous both lighting and photography/videography is in our everyday life. Good on you for fighting the warm light fight!
- Der_Einzige 2y ago
  They claim to know a lot but then none of them build proper Cf Lumen or F.Lux style tooling (i.e. super easy default instead of requiring tons of setup) for turning ALL blue light off (red shifting) IN THE DEFAULT OS as the primary way to use your device at night. None of that wussy shifting the color temperature brown shit that doesn't meaningfully reduce blue light hazard. I can literally preserve my whole night vision and have zero eye strain in pitch black conditions by red shifting my computer screen. No one supports this because we are stupid. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_effects_of_high-energy_visible_light https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_effects_of_high-ene... The laser pointer community of all groups understands this stuff well. They recommend green lasers because they use the lowest power for the highest visibility at night. Blue lasers are easy to get super powerful, but unlike a lower powered green one, which usually will only temporarily blind you if you make a mistake - a powerful blue laser will straight up destroy your eyes forever. Permanent blindness.

sumea 2y ago

I am quite sensitive to glare. I have tried many setups in my windowless office with low ceiling height and have found linear up-down pendant lights the best option. Up-light is more important as it bounces soft light from ceiling. When I want to work in dimmer environment in the evenings, I switch off the down-light. I also try to buy lightning fixtures that are designed anti-glare although they are more expensive. You can also make pendant lights yourself with led strips and aluminium profiles. Your eyesight and glasses also matter a lot. My glasses are quite worn with lots of scratches. They definitely make issues worse.

walterbell 2y ago
Glasses are extremely affordable online (e.g. eyebuydirect, owned by the same multi-billion dollar company that sells lenses and frames to local opticians) if you have the prescription, PD (pupil distance) and physical frame measurements of your current glasses.

bongodongobob 2y ago

I agree up until golden hour. It's a very specific style of lighting and isn't any better or worse. It's not the best time to take a picture, it doesn't have the best light. It's a specific kind of light.

Auracle 2y ago
Eh, I can tell you I definitely had more sales of portrait prints at golden hour for my high school senior sessions. You can, of course, make great photos in any light. Golden hour and blue hour are easy because the light is inherently nice.
Karrot_Kream 2y ago
Right I don't disagree. I just wanted to hold up golden hour as a specific example of lighting properties that humans tend to subconsciously really enjoy and evoke that as a source of inspiration for lighting your home spaces. Maybe you don't care for the overly warm temperatures but you enjoy the diffuse, desaturated look. This is more just a comment written to get folks who are considering lighting to think critically about it for the first time. The average person plops a bright stand lamp in a corner of the room and calls it a day, maybe with a dimmer if they're a bit advanced. The fact that you have an opinion about golden hour lighting means you're already beyond that point :)

BenoitEssiambre 2y ago

I'm in a basement and had fairly good success with certain "led shop lights" to make the space feel more like it has natural light (though I could improve things further). I do find however, that using diffuse lighting and minimizing shadows is what makes lighting feel artificial. Natural sunlight has very parallel rays that create very evenly lit surfaces with very sharp shadows. Whereas most artificial light has radial rays around the light source that diminish in intensity with the cube of the distance and thus create fading gradients on surfaces and weak shadows especially if you have many of them. I find I miss the feel of parallel rays of natural light so I try to find lights that have for example, parabolic reflectors to make the rays more parallel and position a few of them farther away from me pointed towards my visual field to try to replicate natural sunlight coming through a window. One challenge however, is that it's surprisingly difficult to get good parallel rays from artificial light sources because of conservation of etendue ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etendue https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etendue ). I wish there were more options on the market.

BenoitEssiambre 2y ago
What I'm trying to achieve is lighting a bit like in these "Artificial Skylight" concepts: https://architizer.com/blog/practice/materials/let-there-be-light-coelux/ https://architizer.com/blog/practice/materials/let-there-be-... They claim their technology is about "Rayleigh scattering" but I think that's mostly marketing mumbo jumbo. Sure that might add a bit of diffuse blue but their main secret, I would bet, is parallel rays which explains why their fixtures require so much space above the ceiling to get around conservation of etendue. The effect of parallel rays and sharp shadows are definitely represented in their example pictures.
- vvladymyrov 2y ago
  I’ve installed 4 similar skylight lamps to the basement. Bought them on Amazon for 700$ each (had to replace 1 because it had uneven light). They make basement light much closer to ourdoor light and made basement very cozy and comfortable. I had depth space in the ceiling, but width of the lamp didn’t fit between joists - so could not push lamp all the way at the ceiling level. End up building nice boxing around lamp. So it was medium complexity project with great result.

Dalewyn 2y ago

>* Select your color temperature based on needs and feeling. A lot of people prefer warmer color temperature lights and cool temperature lights are known to be more stressful for folks with anxiety-related conditions, but if your work requires accurate color representation, or you find yourself mentally trying to compensate for color temperature, then change the temperature to what you find most productive yet relaxing. This is huge. I personally can not stand warm color temperatures in my office or bedroom, I know all the colors are off and it aggravates me to no end. On the other hand, I can't stand cool color temperatures in the dining room because it doesn't lend well to eating comfortably. And in either case, I can't stand warm color temperatures on any monitors/screens or televisions because of the same reason as when I'm in my office or bedroom. Use color temperatures that suit your preferences, going against them just because someone says it's better for you (eg: red shift at night, aka blue light fearmongering) is patented bullshit.

anilakar 2y ago

Diffused bright light from a white wall behind you is not any better. Learned this the hard way when I started WFH in Anno Covidi 1.

blackeyeblitzar 2y ago

Is there a way to diffuse light from overhead recessed lighting? For me the ‘soft’ LED bulbs I have aren’t enough. I wish there was some kind of diffusion cover I could put on the outside of the recessed housing that softens the light further but also doesn’t look like I hacked something together. But I also wonder - why has there been such wide adoption of overhead recessed lighting? To me they’re a big part of why lighting in modern homes looks harsh.

Xcelerate 2y ago
That’s funny cause I’m going the exact opposite direction and trying to remove the diffuse lighting and replace it with very hard and bright lighting that has a spectrum as similar to sunlight as I can find/afford. Recessed lighting with parabolic reflectors collimates light conically, which is more similar sunlight than omnidirectional lighting that passes through a diffuser. The sun is basically a point source so far away that the light rays that reach us are almost parallel. To me it feels much “cozier” than soft lighting, which gives everything a bland, washed out look and makes me sleepy during the work day. I was even thinking about replacing my surface mount LED lighting with recessed cans. But everyone is obviously quite different in their preferences haha. If you want more diffuse lighting, there are filters and lenses they sell that you can slide into the cans.
- blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
  Wow that is a very different take. I’m on the verge of going to floor lamps only. > If you want more diffuse lighting, there are filters and lenses they sell that you can slide into the cans. Any idea what they’re called or what to look for? I’ve tried searching and only found whole recessed cans that come with those filters but not something that I can fit into the cans I already have.