Jewelry Photography (fluorescent lights NO!)

Jewelry Discussion
1

Will flourescent ‘grow lights’ work as a substitue for natural
light, it has a 5000K temp rating.

Fluorescent lights use phosphors which emit narrow spectrum
bands of light. Thus they do not have an even color distribution.
so in a word NO! Take a photo under fluorescent lighting some
time and you will see- it is the most unflattering lighting ever
developed.

Photo stores used to have 5400K light bulbs. This is very close
to sunlight in color, but sunlight isn’t consistent! It varies
with the weather and other factors filtering the light. Failing
the Edison screw-in base 5400K lamps, try a professional
lighting supply (they might also have the Edison base lamps).
The halogen lamps intended for TV/film studio instruments will
also fit most of the relatively inexpensive construction utility
lights. There are often several Kelvin temperatures available.
Marrin and Mary Delle Fleet F&S Microsystems - F&S Enterprises
Memphis, TN @Marrin_and_Mary_Dell

2

Regarding this flourescent thing — flourescents do produce a
sick green color for white on daylight film, very unpleasant as
well as inaccurate. However, I think the mercury vapor or argon
vapor or whatever in the lamp produces discrete wavelengths of
light according to the quanta of energy released when an electron
is excited and falls back into a resting state orbital. This
light is very unbalanced, as you can see from looking at a
mercury or sodium vapor lamp. The light in a standard
flourescent fixture is produced when these quanta of light hit
the phosphors on the tube, which are supposed to phosphoresce
with a more balanced spectrum of light. I think tubes balalnced
for 5500K with a good color rendering index (CRI) would do fairly
well on daylight film (6500K?), but I haven’t tried it.