LED darkroom lights

[trudee]

Want to change darkroom fluorescent lights to LED (around 5000K) lights. Some to light darkroom overall and one to light printed photograph, concerned about amount of lumens here.

 

[Willie Jan]

I bought a red led string from ebay which costs almost nothing. I tested it yesterday but it fogs the paper heavily.
Preflashed the paper to get a 18% gray paper, after that put it on the place where the develop tray is located and put some coins on the paper. leave it there for 10 minutes and after that develop it upside down.

Is there anyone using a led string which works fine??

 

[Kawaiithulhu]

(there was a url link here which no longer exists) some random LED talk that I had bookmarked and just happens to be from here Probably more on a forum search.

I'm pretty sure that you can "fix" LEDs with impure spectra by using Rubylith as a filter.

 

[stormpetrel]

Most white LEDs have a bad Colour Rendering Index ("bad white"). I would look for high CRI leds (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_CRI_LED_Lighting) to light your work.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

Want to change darkroom fluorescent lights to LED (around 5000K) lights. Some to light darkroom overall and one to light printed photograph, concerned about amount of lumens here.

I've never been able to verify manufacturers claims of darkroom-safe LEDs.no matter whatfrequency(nm) they had,their light intensity were too strong for the papers Iuse.always test with lightly fogged paper to check if the additional light may kill your highlights or destroy midtone contrast.

 

[stormpetrel]

This thread is about white 5000°K LED, not safe light....

 

[trudee]

Sorry guys.........wanted a light source to view photographs after they were fixed and dried, NOT while printing. And, LED lights to light darkroom when not printing.

 

[MattKing]

Sorry guys.........wanted a light source to view photographs after they were fixed and dried, NOT while printing. And, LED lights to light darkroom when not printing.

In Ralph Lambrecht's "Way Beyond Monochrome" he includes a recommendation for the intensity of a print viewing light. I would recommend a dimmable LED light source, so you can fine tune that.