[LargeFormat] Home flourecent soft box

[Michael Briggs]

On 19-Jan-02 Frantisek Vlcek wrote:

>  It has also section on lightbox, he used the 5500 degree
> K balanced fluorescent tubes that are sold in the better photographic
> shops, but are of course pretty expensive.

If one searches in the big hardware megastores, sometimes one can find
"daylight" fluorescent tubes at reasonable prices.  Usually, if you
study the fine print on the box, they will have a color temperature and a CRI
(Color Rendering Index).   The CRI ranges from 0 to 100 and tells how close to a
blackbody spectrum the light is.  If the spectrum is far from blackbody, as it
can be with cheap fluorescent lights, the color temperature isn't really
meaningful.    Bulbs wih color temperatures from about 5000 to 6000 K with CRI
of about 90 or higher should be reasonably satisfactory with daylight films.
A pro with exacting needs for color balance and using slide film might have
stricter requirements.

--Michael