Lighting - Lighting Comparison Part 1 - Fluorescent

Here is a comparison of the various full-spectrum fluorescent lights I looked at for my layout.  There are a lot of graphics on this page, so it may take a few moments to load.

What This Comparison Shows, and What to Look For

This comparison shows differences in spectrum and color rendering between the various brands of full-spectrum light bulbs.  You want to keep an eye out for colors that have more of a blue, green or yellow cast to them.  Check for the color rendering quality of the white background (does it look blue or yellow, or does it look white?), also look at the green ground-foam foliage, and the black fascia.

Other things to keep in mind include the season you plan to model as well as the altitude and latitude. Color temperatures vary by all of those parameters.

What This Does Not Show

This test does not show relative light output (the camera compensates to even them all out).  It also does not give a sense of what it "feels like" in the room with the specific lights on.  For example, some lights may render colors better on the camera, but provide too much "blue" in the room to seem normal to human eyes.  Another example is the one seen with "cool white" fluorescents.  The camera is able to do a very good job of correcting for those types of lights, but the room under that lighting looks horrible to human eyes when compared to full-spectrum lighting.

This test also does not show what the subjects would look like under proper three-point lighting.  For the tests below, only a single overhead lamp was on.  For that reason, many details (especially the trucks) are lost in the shadow.  That's fine, as we are comparing color temperatures and rendering here, not light output or proper lighting.

Finally, this test also does not show how these various lights look in conjunction with secondary lighting such as full-spectrum halogen spots.  I hope to have a comparsion that includes that online soon.

Test Setup

All lamps were tested in the same two-bulb fixture in which I installed a Fulham Workhorse 5 electronic ballast.  Please note that the electronic ballast causes the bulbs to produce more light, but light that also appears to have a slightly lower color temperature.  No other lights were on in the room.  It was dusk outside and the window shades were drawn shut.  No significant light entered the room from other parts of the house (with the full-spectrum fluorescent off, it was pretty dark in the room!)

The test setup was fairly simple.  I set my Olympus C3000Z digital camera up on a tripod in front of an improvised "stage" for a small scenery kit I built a couple years back.  The f-stop was set to 3.6.  The flash was turned off. The camera was also set to spot meter and close-up focus.  I used a remote to trigger the shutter.  I tried several different white balance settings for each bulb.  I did my best not to move the camera during the process, but I did bump it once or twice while changing bulbs.  Other than resizing and jpeg compression, no other processing was done on the images.

The color of the boxcar is (as best as I can tell) boxcar red.  The color of the switcher is a very flat weathered gray/black with some brown on the trucks.  The board behind the diorama is white poster board. The fascia on the front of the fascia is flat black.  The ballast is normal mixed-gray Woodland Scenics ballast as supplied with the kit.

Disclaimer

This was a completely un-scientific test done by an amateur. I am not a lighting expert.  Consider the information on this page as you would any such information from a non-professional.  Everything here is my opinion.  Feel free to disagree :-)

Also, please note that many monitors are not color correct.  LCD (laptop, flat-screen desktop) monitors almost always have a strong blue tint.  Many normal CRTs have a yellowish to greenish tint.  Advanced monitors allow you to correct the color through monitor settings with the help of color color cards held up to the monitor for comparison.

I did this comparison in late 2003; the information was valid at that time.

Comparison Table

This is a large table (it has to be so you can see enough detail on the individual photos for comparison.), so it may take a few minutes to load.

The first row below shows a normal "cool white" fluorescent light for comparison.  All other entries are full-spectrum bulbs are described on other pages in this section.  Except for the cool white, the entries below are in alphabetical order.