Room Lighting + led Lightbox = Blue Image?

[teslaa]

I am mounting a black and white image on a LED (embeded in plactic) lightbox in a gallery however the ambient lighting in the room is clashing somehow with the lightbox light and causing the image to be very blue in colour, the whites to appear electric blue, I just want the whites to be illuminated white.

 

This is a huge problem and any solutions no matter how silly would be sooooo appreciated!

 

Thanks!!!

[Just Some Bloke]

The trouble is that there is a wide range of colours all called "white" ranging from orangey white at one end to bluey white at the other. For instance, you can buy flourescent tubes in 'cool white' or 'warm white'. Your LEDs are obviously at the blue end of white and your room lighting at the warm end. Thus, against the warm room lighting, the LED light looks blue. Quickest fix is to get some new lamps for the room lighting which are a cooler shade of white. Look in a specialist domestic lighting shop for 'cool white' lamps that will fit in the existing fittings.

[stillwave]

The LED is the problem there.

most common white LED's are a cool white which are slightly blue, warm white LEDs exist but I'm guessing the LEDs are built into the lightbox?

 

I suggest either live with it or get an electrician to retro-fit a conventional lamp into the lightbox if it is possible.

 

edit: beaten to it! too slow!

[Tomo]

Need more details before anyone can help usefully.

 

1) What is the ambient light source? (eg Sunlight, fluorescents, tungsten, discharge etc)

 

2) What is the colour and colour temperature (usually given in Kelvin) of the lightsource inside the lightbox?

 

It is very important to realise that "White" is not a very specific colour.

There are a lot of very different 'whites', and the human eye will generally adapt to the ambient one, so a white with a lower colour temp than ambient will appear 'yellowy' and a white with a higher colour temp than ambient will appear 'bluer'.

 

Most 'white' LED sources have a very high colour temperature because that generally appears 'brighter' then lower colour temperatures, while actually emitting the same amount of light energy.

 

My guess is that some from of CTO gel in the lightbox may be needed to correct the LED backlight to match the 'white' of the gallery ambient light.

- Lee Filters and Rosco are the two big manufacturers of gel.

[Just Some Bloke]

My guess is that some from of CTO gel in the lightbox may be needed to correct the LED backlight to match the 'white' of the gallery ambient light.

- Lee Filters and Rosco are the two big manufacturers of gel.

Good suggestion. Something like some Lee 206 in the lightbox, although reducing the light output ever so slightly, should help a lot.

[Jivemaster]

Just the room lights are a warm white and the lightbox is a cool white so the difference is obvious! The lightbox is smaller so change that. Add some very light CTO or pale amber or pale straw or sort out a suitable mired shift by way of filters.