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How the color temperature of your light affects your craft.

“The right color temperature lighting can help you easily see things that used to be difficult.”

We covered the importance of adequate lighting in our last post, but it’s equally important to figure out what color temperature works best for you.

Color Temperature

Measured in Kelvin degrees (K), color temperature ranges from cool (over 5000 K) to warm (2700-3000 K).  Cool bulbs, such as fluorescent lamps, emit blueish white light, similar to very bright midday sun.  Warm bulbs, such as incandescent lamps, emit yellow or reddish light, more similar to soft, late afternoon light (Source: Wikipedia).  Popular and energy-efficient LED bulbs are available in a variety of color temperatures, as the Energy Star site explains in their Color & Mood post. The color temperature in your work area can affect not only your productivity but also your general mood and energy levels, so choose wisely!

CraftOptics Magnifying Eyeglasses & DreamBeam Light

Award winning quilt artist Judy Beskow working with CraftOptics Magnifying Eyeglasses & DreamBeam Light

If color and composition are important to your work (which they are to most of CraftOptics customers), you will most likely want to stay within daylight range of 5000+ K.  If you go much lower or higher than that, those red and blue tints can really change the color of whatever material you’re working with.

DreamBeam Light

We designed our high-intensity DreamBeam Light (now rechargeable!) to illuminate your work at a daylight balanced 5650 K.  Because the DreamBeam attaches right to your CraftOptics Magnifying Eyeglasses (right between your eyes), it follows your line of sight exactly, offering shadowless light and all-day comfort.  And because the color is daylight balanced, you’ll see accurate tones and shades in your materials, whether they are for sewing & other needlework or jewelry making.

What does all of this really mean? It means you will be able to easily see things that used to be difficult: dark on dark stitching, multiple shades of dark blue or purple beads & thread, or subtle color differences in stones.

Marcia DeCoster saw a vast improvement in her work with the help of the DreamBeam: “I can bead for much longer stretches of time without getting that tired feeling that I would attribute to being tired and not to having weary eyes. The clarity with which I can see makes the beadwork so much easier.”

Margie Deeb says, “I was wondering how good the light could be. I’ve purchased so many lights that claim to be really bright and they aren’t. This light is perfect–bright enough, and not too yellow or too blue. AND no shadows to work around…I’m in heaven!”

CraftOptics magnifying eyeglasses and light

Jewelry artist Scott Patrick working with CraftOptics Magnifying Eyeglasses and DreamBeam light.

CraftOptics helps artists magnify and light their work. Whether your passion is quilting, jewelry-making, beadwork, needlework, sewing, miniatures, woodwork or any fine detail activity, CraftOptics will help you see amazing detail AND do so with good posture to help eliminate eye and back strain. More here: ABOUT OUR PRODUCTS

To learn more about color temperature in filmmaking and photography, check out this interesting article from Adobe: https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/video/discover/color-temperature.html

Sources:

http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=cfls.pr_cfls_color

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_temperature#Lighting