After my last experiment with my straws I decided to see how the LEDs effect paint. If I’m painting a model it’s important to know how the color is going to look under certain lighting conditions. I have a normal desk lamp with a warm bulb that is suppose to replicate the sun’s color temperature and I use that a lot when painting. Most places I go will have lighting conditions that are similar to mine and it should always be fine. But when I take pictures of my work I throw the models into my LED light box. Through doing this experiment I realized I could have problems! I’m painting in one lighting condition and taking a photo in a different one! And if you look at the pictures below the difference is pretty striking! Look at that orange color and how different it is or even that brown second to the end. They almost look like two different colors. But not all is lost and of course I’m still going to be using my light box. The big benefit is I can change the color temperature on the fly and I can switch my lighting to make certain things pop. Like if I have a dark model with red accents I’ll put a little red light in there and usually the red starts to pop just a little more. I can also have the front light, side light and top light different; accenting different parts of the model and making them all look more appealing.

With the LED light box I really like how natural the colors are. The warm lamp makes the colors look too vibrant and to me not realistic. I choose to put my light box in standard white light which is (RGB) 200,175,100 (each LED has a max level of 255.) Now even with that what I perceive to be white light might be different for someone else! It’s a lot of fun to play with and I’m learning more each time I use it!