[pixie]

Hi all, I've had a 5'x3' print made of a night scene photo I took a couple of weeks ago, first ever this large. The print looks great in bright daylight but dark on our living room wall where we'd like to display it. The print studio insists that it is good (I know ) but at the same time the technician mentioned monitor calibrating . For sure there are shortcomings on my part in the PP of the photo. For a couple of reasons I don't want to go the route of redoing the print, mainly the cost. Enough of my OCD. So my question to you, my fellow pentaxians, is about display lighting. Can it make a difference in the viewing experience?. I've searched for threads on this and came up empty on the forum.

Track lighting? Options available? What kind of light bulbs, etc?

[TonyW]

The correct lighting will make a huge difference to the viewing experience and for this special print IMHO needs some careful thought. Keeping out of direct daylight is great from an archival perspective. So now you will need to establish the correct light level and type of light to bring the print brightness up to that of your daylight viewing experience. You may want to experiment a little but FWIW;

For the size of the print my thoughts go immediately to some form of track lighting and preference now towards LED for colour rendering.

Hope these links may be of help.

8 Tips for Lighting Art: How to Light Artwork in Your Home | Architectural Digest
From layering to LEDS: how to light your artworks | Christie's

[othar]

Independent from the lighting system, test various color temperatures of the lights to see where your print looks best under (This part might be tricky too, because I prefer corresponding color temperatures of lights at least within each room)

[acoufap]

The correct lighting will make a huge difference to the viewing experience and for this special print IMHO needs some careful thought. Keeping out of direct daylight is great from an archival perspective. So now you will need to establish the correct light level and type of light to bring the print brightness up to that of your daylight viewing experience. You may want to experiment a little but FWIW;

For the size of the print my thoughts go immediately to some form of track lighting and preference now towards LED for colour rendering.

Hope these links may be of help.

8 Tips for Lighting Art: How to Light Artwork in Your Home | Architectural Digest
From layering to LEDS: how to light your artworks | Christie's

Many good points in the articles. If you want good color reproduction the most important things are said in the second one, chapter „Chose the right LEDs“. CRI - Color Rendering Index of the produced light should be at a level above 95 ... or what I also heard at least above 90. Look at what reds are produced if you have only standard CRI 80 light available. You‘ll immediately recognize and understand what is talked about.

Some detailed info on this topic you get here and there. Of course the internet offers much more.

[jawsy]

The print looks great in bright daylight but dark on our living room wall where we'd like to display it.

For home display just adding light makes a huge difference. The preceding posts have some really good advice. Remember to use non-reflective glass in your display frame. It costs a little bit more but is a must when you have light being directed towards the print.

[BarryE]

For home display just adding light makes a huge difference. The preceding posts have some really good advice. Remember to use non-reflective glass in your display frame. It costs a little bit more but is a must when you have light being directed towards the print.

Maybe not always non-reflective glass as it can kill contrast. The very expensive versions are better, but you may need to remortgage ...On this front, I tend to boast the brightness a little for each print if I know it's going to be under glass as the deadening of any glass can be disappointing.

The angle of both viewing and the light source is key. So experiment.

As has been said colour temp and CRI are worth considering. For a night scene, the standard 5500K and >95%CRI may be OK, but you may need to experiment by using a lower colour temp to match the night scene. Alos, using the 'wrong' colour and CRI may offset any PP/calibration errors. It's obviously subjective.

Intensity of the light will be key, as well as the angle, as mentioned.

Galleries spend considerable money and time working on these problem - it may go towards explaining why they charge 50% plus commission :-( so it's not OCD

[slartibartfast01]

Hi all, I've had a 5'x3' print made of a night scene photo I took a couple of weeks ago

Just had a Spinal Tap Stonehenge moment and read that as 5 inches by 3 inches.

[bschriver11]

As far as the glass goes the angle of the light on the photo in respect to the viewer makes a huge difference. Look at where it is displayed and try lighting from different angles til you find one that produces the least reflection.

[rangercarp]

If you are thinking about installing lighting specifically for the display, it may be cheaper and easier to reprint the image. I once had a local lab print a 20x30 print for me that came back way too dark. This was from film, so it was not a monitor calibration issue. They reprinted it for me free of charge, but they did not appear to be very happy about it. I should not I did not argue and press them to reprint it, I just told them it was way to dark and showed them a 5x7 print that had been made prior at the super market film drop.


Over the years I have had trouble with different labs occasionally doing producing prints that were too dark. The one time I complained they told me it was probably a monitor calibration issue. I found a different lab.

[fehknt]

Re: glass -- there's two types of glare reducing glazing (both glass and acrylic). The one you're more likely to see advertised to consumers (lower price) is a matte finish where the surface is acid etched or similar and is typically called "anti-glare." Between the matte coating and the glare, I'll usually take the glare, as the matte coating just robs prints of their crispness (exceptions: prints where the softness is the driving factor). The expensive stuff is anti-reflection coated, typically called "anti-reflection," like our lenses... obviously, the optical AR coatings cost a heck of a lot more, but they just give an amazingly clear view of the artwork, and that's what museums use.

For a print that big, I wonder if some sort of long bar of high-CRI LEDs makes sense... seems like it may end up more even than tracklights which may lead to hotspots without a whole lot of them carefully positioned. Something like 6-7' of diffused lighting in/on the ceiling to provide even light all the way across the image? I've never used these -- just presenting an example -- but something like a pair of these end to end with the frosted diffuser? Corner Mount Aluminum LED Light Bar Fixture - 1,440 Lumens | Super Bright LEDs might be worth trying and appears to be not too terribly much $$$ (though it does start to add up with a power supply and a dimmer and wiring and all that).

[othar]

If you are thinking about installing lighting specifically for the display, it may be cheaper and easier to reprint the image.

I don't think it's a printing issue because the image supposedly looks good in daylight, just the intended spot on the wall seems to get too few light for a favorable display.
But yes, if the print is not far off in brightness it could be done a tad brighter.

[bhbrake]

I have a 2'x3' shot I took of the Tetons on aluminum plate above my hearth in the living room and I have a similar issue- I had seriously considered putting in dedicated gallery lighting when I did the addition as I knew I would be hanging pictures there, but I got lazy and cheaped out ( I was doing construction). I may go back some day and add it as not having sufficient light levels in the evenings really makes the image kind of flat.
The temperature of lighting can have a huge affect on the color and vibrancy of the image, as stated above in reference to the gallery costs. If you are really want to make it look great, either a very compact track lighting setup or direction cans would be the way to go and then you can select the appropriate temperature of lamp. Track lighting has very much fallen out of favor in the trending residential market, but it does serve a purpose...

[BarryE]

Just an idea. You can buy rolls/strips of cool white LEDs that you might be able to fashion into a suitable light. You could buy a 5m roll, inexpensively and pin it to the underside of a batten/shelf, at least to experiment with intensity, position, colour etc

[acoufap]

Just an idea. You can buy rolls/strips of cool white LEDs that you might be able to fashion into a suitable light. You could buy a 5m roll, inexpensively and pin it to the underside of a batten/shelf, at least to experiment with intensity, position, colour etc

That‘s something similar I‘m thinking about. Some time ago my research lead me to the following LEDs with very good CRI above 90 ...

LEDs.de: MultiBar44 LED-Streifen, warmweiß, 732lm, 44 LEDs, 50cm, 24V - LED-Streifen (starr) - LED-Streifen & Module and
LEDs.de: Nichia NFCWJ108B-V2 COB-LED 5000K, R95 - Chip-On-Board LEDs (COB) - LEDs & Komponenten

But until now I didn‘t have time to dig deeper. Maybe some day I‘ll start a build LED lighting project for my pictures. But at first I need to learn a bit about the technique.

[ChrisPlatt]

Galleries spend considerable money and time working on these problems...

Sounds like a great excuse to go visit some galleries - to see how they cope with these challenges.
You might even see a few inspiring images as well!

Chris