What do people use for indoor lighting?

[botticelli1972]

I had no Idea that iodine only was even slower than Becquerel. I always just assumed that it was somewhere in the middle. Well, that would explain why the few Iodine only mercury dags I have tried did not work out. I will try one this weekend and see if it works with added time. Good to know-Larry

[photolytic]

Larry, What you say is true only for Becquerel plates iodized to the first yellow color with a 30 nm coating. According to Irving Pobboravsky’s excellent thesis, which is posted in the resources selection, he found that Becquerel plates iodized to the second yellow color (110nm) are more than 16 times slower. He found the opposite to be true for mercury plates. Mercury developed plates with a 30nm coating (1st yellow) were found to be 6 times slower than Becquerel plates but mercury plates with a 110 nm coating (2nd yellow) were actually 4 times faster than Becquerel plates with that same coating.

Development Coating thickness Yellow Relative speed

Becquerel 30 nm 1st 100

Becquerel 110 nm 2nd 6

Mercury 30 nm 1st 18

Mercury 110 nm 2nd 25

My own measurements of the relative speed of mercury developed, iodized plates vs I/Br plates, which can be found in my article “The Light after the Bromine” in the resources section ,indicated that iodized plates were 60 times slower than I/Br plates.

[corey r]

Ok, off to see the kooky tinkerer at the local lighting store tomorrow, but again curious to see what others are using for indoor dag lights. Anyone getting times < 5min with 2nd cycle Becquerel dags? I want to shoot studio work this winter as santa cruz stays fairly rainy for a good portion of the winter, greatly decreasing the days I can get out to shoot.

Two 500w halogen work lights are only giving me an EV (@ iso 100) of about 9.8, 4 feet from the lamps. My full sun readings depending on humidity and atmospheric haze usually range from ev 14.9 to 15.4. Thats a good 5 stops away still. I’m not terribly interested being stuck shooting only still life compositions for the next 6 months (but will certainly do some). As long as i can get the exposures under the 5 minute mark (I’ve got some very complacent models to work with) figurative work is still an option. If I can get say, an EV of at least 14, I thin I’ll be able to do it

Anybody got ideas here?

[jgmotamedi]

At a workshop I taught we were using two big banks of photoflo lights three feet from the sitters, and were getting exposures around 3:00 at f2.8 with first cycle Becquerel plates. In my experience halogen lights are a waste of time and energy. They are just the wrong color light for Dags.

[RonF]

I finally got a 100 Watt Halide lamp and it is very effective for the becquerel process. I bought the cheapest one, which was designed to disperse light, then I made a reflector out of a disposable aluminum roasting pan. I had an exposure time of 15 minutes with a lens of about f 3.3 (a projector lens, not too sharp, seeing what I can do for speed right now).

In comparison, I got nothing out of a 500 W halogen, I don’t remember the details of that experiment but I gave it as mush time as I would with a few compact fluorescents.

Does anyone know where I might find a reflector of the type that goes along side a bulb? I didn’t find one at Lowe’s or Home Depot.

A tip for anyone buying a Halide lamp: at least one maker sells a 75 W lamp that includes a 50 W bulb rather than a 75 W bulb. And of course read the related posts re: burn hazards and Klieg eye.

Another question: how much of a risk does my 100 W lamp pose for skin burn or klieg eye? I am proceeding cautiously but I feel like perhaps 100 W may not be a huge danger as long as I don’t look at it or get it very close to my skin. Also, can you get Klieg eye from the light hitting your eyes at an angle, or is it just from looking into the light?

[corey r]

Ron,

Do you have a color temp rating for that bulb you just got? How much high spectrum light does it put out?

A year ago I never would have though I would be so worried about color of light.

[RonF]

Hi Corey-

The bulb’s color temp is 4200 K.

The fixture I bought, which included the bulb, is a Premium Area Light, Home Depot # 100652893.

I always have felt that color temperature must not tell the whole story. I know from physics that most bulbs must have spikes at many frequencies, so one number can’t tell the whole story. Perhaps you agree and that is why you also asked “How much high spectrum light does it put out?”. I don’t know how to answer that question.

It may be the case that (in spite of what I said above above) as long as we are talking about bulbs that put out visible light, the higher the color temp the better. I am not sure. I just feel that in general, halides are used for growing plants, and dags tend to like the light that plants like.

Of course in researching this just now, I learned that halides can vary quite a bit in color temp. This is consistent with the one simple rule regarding making dags: nothing related to making dags is simple.

I am happy with my new light. I have a dag developing now and I can see it was properly exposed. The exposure time may be no shorter than when I was using 2-3 compact flourescents (daylight type), but it is much easier to position one halide light. Of course now I want more of them.

* (added 10:15 PM) I just fixed and dried my dag and I now see that the 100 W Halide is providing much more light than I was ever able to get out of 2-3 compact fluorescents. An overesposed plate but an excellent day, my first dag on a home-made plate! I will be posting some comments re: plating tomorrow.

[Bakody]

I saw, this topic is about 2 years old, but I hope someone is already found the right lamp for indoor lighting (not for development).

Because the weather is cloudy now in here, it’s difficult to reach good exposure time and the exposure time is changing randomly during exposition, so I’m thinking about an indoor light as well to make Becquerel dags.

How strong is sunlight in Watt on the Earth? (is it 1000W?) So about how strong (Watt) the light source have to be to able to measure about 14EV from 1m or 2m from the lamp?

Some of the fluorescent lamps can be good in nm, but they are too weak, need to use a lot from them.

Anyone using LED?

How about metal halide lamps? I was searching for metal halide lamps and I found Marine Aquarium lamps:

http://www.ushio.com/products/petcare/aqualite.htm

http://www.marinedepot.com/400_Watt_10000K_%28CWA%29_Metal_Halide_Bulb_German_Ushio_Mogul_Base_400_Watt_Single_Ended_Metal_Halide_Light_Bulbs-Ushio-MB8418-FILTBUMHSEFW-vi.html

 

I was looking for the 10000K one and it’s possible to buy a 400W and 1000W from it. What do you think about them? It can be working?

 

and this one? http://www.ushio.com/products/generallighting/mh-ultraarc.htm

 

Have a sunny day! 🙂

Máté

 

http://daginhun.blogspot.com/
 http://www.facebook.com/DagerrotipiaDaguerreotype

[daniel]

Any grow shop will sell mogul base 300 watt 6400k CFL lights. They are easy enough to get online and on ebay for cheaper. If you get three or four of those and you will be in business. I have a monstar3 fixture that uses 3 mogul based cfl lights at 150watts each rated at 5000k. I recently bought and added one of the 300 watt lights and it is way bigger than the other lights and puts out a much brighter blue light than the other two. I have been shooting collodion for over 2 years now using these lights and they work great for me. Living in Seattle, the winters are long and the summers are short so I shoot indoors for the most part. I am new to making daguerreotypes and have much to learn but I think the lights will also work for daguerreotypes. I have polishing issues and there is the simple matter of getting the right amount of iodine and bromine on the plate so the fact that I was able to get a portrait using an 16 inch lens at f4 made me pretty happy. The image attached is a 1/4 plate and was exposed for 20 seconds using the fixture described with two 150w and one 300w cfls and a reflector.

 

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[Pobboravsky]

Hi Daniel,

A very powerful portrait;congratulations.

Excellent suggestion to use high-wattage CFL bulbs at 6400 degrees Kelvin.

Irv

[Bakody]

Thank you for the answer! I will try this kind of lamps.

http://daginhun.blogspot.com/
 http://www.facebook.com/DagerrotipiaDaguerreotype

[daniel]

Thanks Irv! I will take that compliment 🙂

I just spent half the day with Ken Nelson on Sunday getting priceless information on fuming plates by inspection. It was great day!

Anyway- Bakody, here is a link to the fixture I am using.

 

http://www.interfitphotographic.com/Lighitng/Product%20Pages/Monstar.php

 

here is the light. It is huge and gets a bit hotter than the 150watt light . I have seen them go for cheaper on ebay. expect to pay around $100 or less.

 

http://www.lightbulbsurplus.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=622_7_80_123&products_id=250

 

I managed to tweek the light to take one of the 300watt lights so I have two 150w and the one 300wat lamps. The 300 watt lamps are much larger and heavier but considerably brighter and it will take some fussing to get three of those big lamps in there. I have considered making my own light bank consisting of 3 300w 6400k lamps and 150w 5000k lamps in one fixture. Mogul base sockets are easy and cheap to get but I have not had the time to hash it out just yet.

 

Here is the wet plate process explained by the talented Alexey Alexeev and there is an image of his light fixture and set up. I don not see why this same set up would not work for daguerreotypes.

 

http://www.alternativephotography.com/wp/processes/wetplate/wet-plate-collodion-process-ambrotypes

 

I am very comfortable working with these types of lights and hope to apply what I have learned with wet plate to my daguerreotype work. Continuous CFL lighting is much cheaper than strobes and way cooler and than metal halide or other HID lamps.

 

[Bakody]

Hi Daniel,

I saw your picture on flickr what you made on this Sunday (about the bicycles). The change in the tones and colors are visible. Good!

Thank you for the link and about the informations. I will search for those lamps and I will buy them soon.

Thank you!

http://daginhun.blogspot.com/
 http://www.facebook.com/DagerrotipiaDaguerreotype

[daniel]

Here a shot form last night using the one light consisting of 1 300watt 6500k bulb and two 5000k bulbs and a reflector.

this is a 1/4 plate-lens was the dallmeyer pentac at 2.9 for 9 seconds

 

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[Pobboravsky]

Hi Daniel,

LOVELY!

Irv

[Author]

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