Thread: LED Strip Lighting

Q: Does anyone have experience-with or knowledge-of LED strip lighting?

I finally discovered that it's the shadow thrown by my over-the-counter kitchen cabinets that gives the photo-white background of my SOTD shots a distinctly bluish tinge. I've read that under-cabinet LED strip lighting will "banish the blues".

If anyone's got what to share about this, now's the time to do so. Linda Richman says "Talk among yourselves" -- but please... do it here.

It's not that I {d|w}on't do my homework. I've been reading-up on this stuff (not so much the hands-on photography stuff -- if you can find it, but the LED strip-light stuff -- of which there's lots), and have found this item (among dozens of others). I especially like the 45mounting capability.

If your camera will allow it, you might need to adjust the color balance to correct the blue for taking your razor pictures, but you'd probably need to change it back to the original or auto setting for other pics.

Try doing a search for adjusting the color balance for your particular camera.

Hope this helps.

Check out the "smart" strip lights by LIFX. They come with 3M backed adhesive tape, or you can attach them with double-sided tape if you prefer.

They come in 1m strips (you can buy pre-set packs) and I believe now they have "corner" piece attachments to make turning corners easier (I looped mine in the corners to avoid bending them too far and breaking them).

They connect to your WIFI. The beauty of them is that you can, with an app on your phone, change their colour and brightness, create a colour palate along the length of the lights, you can even have animations (I like to make mine do the "Knight Rider, AKA The Cylon" for those of you old enough to remember those two shows.

They are not cheap compared to other strip lights, but IMO they are awesomer and worth the price. Here's some I put under my benchtops in the kitchen.



James.

I got these and love them. We bought power strips so we didn't lose a plug and bought 3M dual lock to attach. I think commercially dual lock has a different name, but it is like hefty/more permanent velcro. Holds the lights, power supply, and power strips.

https://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-Lin.../dp/B07VTQSDFL

I think too get rid of blue you will want something in the 1200k range and not 5000k. Look for "daylight" to get less blue led lighting.

You can probably do the color balance thing either on the phone or with photo editing software (freeware, probably). But if you cook or work on the counter you will probably love the leds.

Back in the day of Color Film 99+% of film was 'Daylight Balanced' for about high noon. So when you took a picture early morning or late evening your pictures came out on the yellow side as the high noon sun was more of a blue. However you could get specialized film that took normal looking pictures in the evening however if you used it later or earlier in the day the pictures came out bluish.

Maybe this link will help:
https://www.photographymad.com/pages...ur-temperature

Originally Posted by cudarunner

Back in the day of Color Film 99+% of film was 'Daylight Balanced' for about high noon.

Thanks for the link. As we used to say: "Film at 11."

I have the Philip's system. It's expensive but very reliable and you can change colors at will. You can see it on Amazon.

Ways to get rid of the blues, adjust the white balance in your camera is #1, correcting the color in photo editing software is #2 and balancing the light at the source is #3.
Balancing the light can be tricky you need the correct color temperature and intensity. My experience photographing under LEDs has been less than successful without adjusting the white balance in my camera.
All that said installing lights over your counter tops might make working on the counter tops more enjoyable and might decrease a blueish cast.
I have repaired or replaced my LED strip lights every couple of years. I grow plants under my strip lights and expect a consistent quantity of light. Most of the strip lights I installed in 2015 will be replaced this year.

LED lights are great for giving extra illumination on kitchen worktops and for low level lighting without the main lights on but they are not always a good light source for photography. They can give strange colour casts in general due to gaps in the spectrum emitted and would also likely be a different colour temperature to the other lighting in the room so you could still end up with a bit of a challenge potentially from a photography point of view. No problems from a using it as a kitchen point of view.
If it's just a question of getting more light in the photos aluminium foil or similar could make a simple and effective reflector. What sort of lights are in the kitchen already?