Eyestrain and Recommendations for Full Spectrum Incandescent Light Bulbs?

mtbvfr

mtbvfr

mtbvfr

Associate
Joined
24 Jan 2011
Posts
9
Hi Everyone,

My eyes are most comfortable during the mornings up to mid-afternoon when the room gets bathed in natural, but indirect, sunlight.

In front of my monitor (Dell ST2220T) and I is a section of wall about 5 feet wide. To the right is a window which is 3' tall by 2'3" wide. To the left is a window which is 3'7" tall by 4'6" wide.

The walls and ceiling are painted white.

Which Brand/Model of, and how many of, Full Spectrum Incandescent Light Bulbs would you suggest I buy to mimic such lighting for the later hours of the day and night time?

Thanks,
 
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First up I wouldn't be looking at bulbs to sort your problem.

It sounds like the light levels of the day work well for your screen, but as the light lessens of an evening the screen is left too bright.

Firstly, calibrate your screen for this evening level of light, use it for a few hours and see how you get on, I suspect your problem will go away once things like brightness are properly set up.

This will replace your current problem with a new one during the day that your screen will likely be hard to read during bright sunlight. So it's either time to use your screen with the blinds/curtains drawn, or just up the brightness during the daytime to useable levels.

We do exactly this and it works out great.

If you are still after full spectrum bulbs after all this, then I can recommend looking on the bay at 6500k rated photography bulbs, they'll cost around £15, are fairly large and will consume about 30w of actual energy and be rated for about 170w of light. A couple of these will bring daylight to your room if you use them in a lamp and ceiling set up.

Hope that helps, i'd definitely do the monitor calibration first though!
 
Fars said:
First up I wouldn't be looking at bulbs to sort your problem.

It sounds like the light levels of the day work well for your screen, but as the light lessens of an evening the screen is left too bright.

Firstly, calibrate your screen for this evening level of light, use it for a few hours and see how you get on, I suspect your problem will go away once things like brightness are properly set up.

This will replace your current problem with a new one during the day that your screen will likely be hard to read during bright sunlight. So it's either time to use your screen with the blinds/curtains drawn, or just up the brightness during the daytime to useable levels.

We do exactly this and it works out great.

If you are still after full spectrum bulbs after all this, then I can recommend looking on the bay at 6500k rated photography bulbs, they'll cost around £15, are fairly large and will consume about 30w of actual energy and be rated for about 170w of light. A couple of these will bring daylight to your room if you use them in a lamp and ceiling set up.

Hope that helps, i'd definitely do the monitor calibration first though!
Click to expand...

I don't have a calibrator.

I am using the configuration from TFT Central.

Would the lagom.nl test pages be sufficient for night time calibration?

Can you explain in detail the "lamp and ceiling set up" please? What kind of lamp and where and how should it be positioned? Likewise, the ceiling light?

Would the following be suitable?

http://cgi.ebay.com/5-Bulbs-set-6500K-45W-Photography-Studio-Bulb-PB45-5P-/390299585446

Thanks,
 
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You don't need a calibrator for your problem imo.

If your screen is so bright it is causing eye strain just lower it until it doesn't.

The point of screen calibration is to get colour accuracy as high as possible, if you're not working in the industry (which without a screen calibration device, or access to one, you're not) then you don't need to worry about being too precise. Any settings you've pulled off the net for your screen are just as likely to be no better than default settings anyway, as each and every screen is so unique.

You, the user should define your settings, and in this case, if you're happy with the colour set up i'd be lowering my screen brightness asap.

With regards to bulbs, you don't need to get the colour temperature perfect here either, a simple cheap 11w lamp within peripheral of your screen should help.

However, for reference, the bulbs we have is this in our lamps:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/36w-UMBRE...ight_Bulbs&hash=item2a11d241cf#ht_1694wt_1196

and this in our ceiling light

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Daylight-...ight_Bulbs&hash=item2312087ac8#ht_3697wt_1139

It's literally daylight in here with these things on. But we don't use them as much anymore, we now use a pair of 11pence energy saving bulbs in a pair of lamps about a foot each side of our screens.

This softer light means we have to raise screen brightness on very bright days to make the screen useable, but evenings are where most of our system use is these days and the screens are a pleasure to use during these.

I really can't recommend enough that you adjust your screen, pulling someone else's settings off the net and hoping they are right for you is like trying to wear my socks and wondering why they don't fit, it's such a personal thing.

Someone else's settings are great for your day time, possibly these settings were made in a very bright testing office, but you'll never replicate a screens nuances and a set up environment, this is why calibration devices get used every time you move your screen or change the time of day you use it, or even after a few months as the characteristics of the electronics will have changed.

Hope that helps you out, sorry to bang on so much, just learned a fair bit about this over the years.
 
Fars said:
You don't need a calibrator for your problem imo.

If your screen is so bright it is causing eye strain just lower it until it doesn't.

The point of screen calibration is to get colour accuracy as high as possible, if you're not working in the industry (which without a screen calibration device, or access to one, you're not) then you don't need to worry about being too precise. Any settings you've pulled off the net for your screen are just as likely to be no better than default settings anyway, as each and every screen is so unique.

You, the user should define your settings, and in this case, if you're happy with the colour set up i'd be lowering my screen brightness asap.

With regards to bulbs, you don't need to get the colour temperature perfect here either, a simple cheap 11w lamp within peripheral of your screen should help.

However, for reference, the bulbs we have is this in our lamps:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/36w-UMBRE...ight_Bulbs&hash=item2a11d241cf#ht_1694wt_1196

and this in our ceiling light

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Daylight-...ight_Bulbs&hash=item2312087ac8#ht_3697wt_1139

It's literally daylight in here with these things on. But we don't use them as much anymore, we now use a pair of 11pence energy saving bulbs in a pair of lamps about a foot each side of our screens.

This softer light means we have to raise screen brightness on very bright days to make the screen useable, but evenings are where most of our system use is these days and the screens are a pleasure to use during these.

I really can't recommend enough that you adjust your screen, pulling someone else's settings off the net and hoping they are right for you is like trying to wear my socks and wondering why they don't fit, it's such a personal thing.

Someone else's settings are great for your day time, possibly these settings were made in a very bright testing office, but you'll never replicate a screens nuances and a set up environment, this is why calibration devices get used every time you move your screen or change the time of day you use it, or even after a few months as the characteristics of the electronics will have changed.

Hope that helps you out, sorry to bang on so much, just learned a fair bit about this over the years.
Click to expand...

Hi Fars,

You can "bang" away as much as you like mate. I need all the opinions and help I can possibly get with this problem.

I was born (1960) with a lazy left eye that also has a strong astigmatism. Hence, my right eye has always been dominant but is now very strained and tired and now pretty myopic. This is because I have been using a computer almost constantly since 1988 in my profession as an Analyst Programmer/Application Developer etc. I never wore glasses much from about 11 or 12 onwards.

Well back to the topic.

2 nights ago, I started calibrating the monitor using the lagom.nl site. I have been using the Custom (RGB) mode of my monitor. When I got to the Sharpness page (http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/sharpness.php), the image was not appearing as it should. So, I moved onto the Gamma page and then went back to the Sharpness page to see what effect the Gamma changes had made. Not much! I believe I have the Sharpness set correctly. So, whilst I was on the Sharpness page, I started changing the RGB settings. I lowered each channel to 50 and the Squares started to blend in but still a fair way from being completely blended in. I have to get a long, long way from the monitor for that to happen which I suspect should not be the case. However, the effect on my eyes was pretty dramatic. This really reduced the strain and pain I was feeling but white isn't really white although the colours appear pretty uniform. So, what's the explication for this? Why has lowering the Gamma (RGB Channels) significantly reduced the strain on my right eye?

Thanks,
 
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