A while back here, someone posted a method of measurement they devised for helping others see and understand CRI better. Full disclosure, I thought it was pretty bad because it relied on peoples own perceptions of colors based on where they currently are on their LED & tint journey. But that doesn’t help others in different places in their journey, only people that are exactly in the same space they are, and even that’s debatable because it requires descriptions of personal impressions for it to work. Anyway, the positive was that I guess it made me want to put forth what I had already been imagining that potentially “could” help others see or understand what we/you are seeing, as well as a good way to show others online. And also a way that they could test their own lights and clearly compare to. The idea is to try and have universal white balanced at different CCT’s so we can get a real world idea of what to expect, even online.
The white balance is a great way to give some real-life perception to the actual color of a tint. I’ve had an idea for a while about creating useable visual data/pictures and helping others see what CRI & Tints can look like in a way that everyone can understand while only requiring inexpensive “equipment” that all can use to verify and compare for themselves.
Basically, it’s like a Tri-CRI/Tri-Tint Standard of sorts.
The idea is to find 3 standard lightbulbs that are cheap and accessible anywhere for everyone. We can all help choose the best bulb choices. Those with the most consistency, likely incandescent bulbs or just pretty well-standardized LED bulbs like Philips or whoever.
If we all use the same 3 bulbs as a white balance next to our lights, it could theoretically give a pretty good standardized idea of what all other emitters and tints could look like. Standardizing what we all put our lights next to in our pictures seems like it’s kind of overdue. Tints will probably even be easier to verbally describe when compared to those 3 standard bulbs that were selected. Instead of how we do it now by trying to describe it compared to other lights of ours that others may or may not even have. Or if they do, then could vary based on different things. Even without words, we “should” be able to tell what kind of “Rosy” or “Yellowness” or “orangy” glow emitters have a little easier just from the 3 separate controlled pictures.
Jon Slider made the great point to me that Beam shots are best displayed when next to a sunny window because of a constant and reliable white balance. That has proven awesome for comparing differences in multiple tints. By expanding on that idea and creating 3 constant white balances for the whole community, we may be able to properly & accurately relay a real-life look of a tint to others in photos.
The idea is a 2000k-2700k Warm bulb, a 4000k-4500k neutral, and a 6000k-6500k cool bulb. I figure if we all have the exact same bulbs/base tints available for testing, everyone from all tint preferences can get a real idea of what other peoples lights actually look like. And it even gives us something to compare lights they have, with our own, while never having to actually have everyone else’s lights in hand to compare ourselves. Things like reflectors and TIR’s all affect tint, so having standard base tints like a sunny window but in different CCT’s so we all can get to know as a baseline, seems somewhat promising.
Anyway, haven’t fully fleshed it all out, but in my head it sounds like a promising way to standardize (or attempt to somewhat standardize) what we’re all seeing in our own environments, in a way that still relays valuable info to others about what to expect if they were to get that same setup.
Anyway, thoughts? Am I missing something like making sure everyone still locks their WB? Are bulbs also too inconsistent for this? Is this all just as bad as I said the other persons attempt was? Ah well, I tried.
Edited: Because I was cluelessly being a DICK about the other persons system. Apologies.