Seem things continue to change at an alarming rate. Several years ago, maybe 12-15 to be honest, I bought some supposedly daylight balanced fluorescent lamps for the kitchen fixture. They put out this really annoying, kind of brownish light that I just could not stand. They were eventually banished to the garage where they finally burned out and were discarded. It was back to the old standard Cool White fluorescent lamps and that awful color cast they generate. Fast forward to our current world and I saw some information about a Compact Fluorescent (CFL) lamp that is 5,000k and touted to be Full Spectrum. Wow! Now that is more what I was looking for.
I bought a CFL lamp that is dimmable, 5,000k and Full Spectrum for another project I was working with. I was so impressed with the light that I searched out some four footers for the kitchen fixture. Once installed I was really impressed with the fact that the room no longer had that sick green/blue light I have become so accustom to from the run-of-the-mill Cool White lamp. The kitchen light looked so good compared to the ones in the darkroom, I knew they were next.
I did take the time to look at a few photographs under both lights and the difference is remarkable. It is always difficult for me to judge print color cast under fluorescent light. These new Full Spectrum lamps deliver a much more natural light that I really like. If you haven’t looked into these new generation lamps, you might just get a pleasant surprise.
Little else to say, other than the latest batch of Full Spectrum fluorescent lamps are impressive and I really do not want to go back to Cool White. . . Man!