Lighting for my Editing Suite

[Tim Polster]

Hello,

This might not be the correct forum, but the topic does deal with lights and light placement.

I am upgrading my office/editing bay recently. I have painted the walls a nice grey and am trying to improve my lighting. I have researched all of the high CRI bulbs and am trying to figure out where to place light around the office.

I want to have a 'well lit' condition and an 'editing' condition. The 'editing' condition is under control as the lower light levels are pretty easy to achieve. The 'well lit' setup is proving to be challenging.

My computer and preview screens are around one corner of the 11' x 11' foot room.

I am trying to figure out a way to have a lot of light in the room without it all washing out my computer monitors. I have a ceiling fan in the middle of the ceiling which I might remove for a better lighting fixture if needed.

Does anybody have any ideas about how to add a fair amount of light without washing out computer screens which are basically up against a wall?

Thanks for your input.

[Marshall Levy]

Not sure if this will help you at all, but my client meeting room / one of the edit rooms is setup with two main lighting routines:

>cieling flourescent lights ( x1 4-bulb) in the center that illuminates the entire room for editing, cleaning, and whatever else.

>when clients come over to view videos or similar situations, there are both string lights that illuminate from behind the crown molding as well as four pinspots in each corner. It's a nice, relaxing light that is bright enough to work with, but not distracting. It's also dimmable when watching videos.

Deciding on one or the other wasn't an option, so each room is setup very similar to this.

[Richard Andrewski]

Hi Tim,

From my experience you definitely want soft and even overhead lighting like fluorescent to avoid glare on the screens. I would go with 6500K as color temperature.

[Tim Polster]

It sounds like I should replace the ceiling fan with a 4x or a 2x fluorescent fixture with a diffuser.

My main question was to have have the fixture be straight above where I sit as to have the light coming straight down or have the fixture in the middle of the room.

Middle would be easier as the wiring is already there and the distance is only 2-3 feet over.

I have attached a crude overhead scetch of the space with some sample light positions.

Thanks

[Richard Andrewski]

If it was me, I wouldn't put anything on the ceiling that would end up behind my back while I was working. You're more likely to see some glare in that way on the screen. Not that it will absolutely happen but is more likely I would think. Straight overhead seems like more the ticket.

[Bill Davis]

In my studio, I considered a lot of options but in the end I figured that I wanted light that would be relatively soft, concentrated on the desktop and not spill much on the computer screen.

I ended up using the CHEAPEST fixtures in my local Home Depot - which happened to be 14" round industrial shades on a simple socket and cord. I think I paid $9.95 each for them. I have 4 in the edit suite. 2 suspended over the client couch. And 2 suspended over the center of my edit table. I use 40 watt "vanity bulbs" the large 4" diameter soft lights for use in bathrooms.

To my taste, the light is PERFECT. Enough to light up my worktop for writing, etc. but hardly any light up or on the walls surrounding.

Here's a fast iPhone snap. The lamps are overexposed, obviously - but the point is that they're cheap, nothing special fixtures and they work great.

YMMV.

[Tim Polster]

Thanks for your insights.

I think a 2 bulb flo fixture right above my workspace would seem to be the best approach.

High CRI flos (90+) are only $8 per 4 foot tube.

This would give me plenty of "paper" working light, not affect the monitors as much and would be a proper color temperature.

When I am editing video or photos I will have a dim flo light behind the monitors and only a little ambient light in the room.

I will post some photos after I get it set up.

BTW, painting the walls grey has been great. Much better than I expected but it really calls for 5000k or 6500k lighting as it really shows any color cast.

[Richard Andrewski]

If I was going to have light behind me, I would do something like a "wall washer" from ceiling and shining on the wall, or a light on the floor shining up on the wall. That makes the light shining on your back or the screen more indirect or bounced which is a good effect.

[Brett Sherman]

Keeping your monitors low helps a lot. If you're looking slightly down towards the monitor it won't reflect light that's near the ceiling. Just basic geometry. It's also better for ergonomics.