[Closed] Budget Gallery/Studio lighting? Would this work?

From the pics - I think that works fine. Soft and warm - not a lot of glare. Should work with your paintings. Try hanging a few and have a look?

Post night ride bump.

Halogens work reasonably well for that sort of thing - as a wash across/down the wall - you could even have them on PIRs if the space is only occupied occasionally.

If the work is behind glass then the key consideration is getting the light position right - pretty much above the viewer so that the light is bouncing off the glass and down to the floor rather than lighting across the room which means the visitors just see themselves in the glass.

Is the front going to be glazed? having all that glass at the front is good but you might find some sort of diffusion on it will spread the light around a bit. Try get the space as white as you can - floor as pale as you can keep clean easily and if you can the ceiling too (although often galleries will have an off white ceiling to stop things looking too sterile).

The main caveat to all that - halogens are a bit of a devil for setting fire to things - they get very hot and I've had a few near misses with crew leaving work lights unattended when we're doing film set builds and coming back to find things burning - so a bit of care with placing them is important.

Cheers Mac. I'm going to leave the roof structure open so the heat build up shouldn't be a problem. I've got one more coat of lukewarm to apply in the already coated space. The lime wash has unified all the surface texture underneath. The floor fir this space will be a recycled gymnasium floor. We think it's Oak, so it will be dark. The other space will be with new flooring which I want to keep as pale as possible. The panels under the arch will be glazed. The middle space will be a glazed door. I will try and glaze the arc above the horizontal rail too. In summer more light will find it's way into the yard. In winter the sun sets much further to the west and the yard is mostly in shadow. Come summer the sun will find it's way in. On the south facing side, it will get the lions share of natural light even with the trees.

. It should be possible to easily mount the lights to the rafters projecting downwards.

Just a suggestion, you could mount the lights to a scaffold bar and suspend that from the joists at any angle you wish as a mock up lighting rig you wee in music venues.
The type of light is going to look industrial, so the scaff bar set-up would fit in.
It would also allow you to play with the lighting without drilling too many holes in the joists too.

3 or 4 of these 10W LED floods would do the job and cost peanuts to run.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10W-20-30W-50W-High-Quality-sensor-LED-Floodlight-Cool-Warm-White-Waterproof-/111195166558?pt=UK_Light_Bulbs&var=&hash=item19e3bf975e

Alternatively you could go for something more directional like these

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Garden-Spike-Twin-LED-Spotlight-3W-Warm-White-Day-White-RGB-Flood-Light-IP65-SMD-/190899437677?pt=UK_Garden_Lighting&var=&hash=item2c727e406d

You could go for the ones with the spike which could then be mortared into the pointing between the stone.

Being this setup might be temporary you could then use any of this lighting for future outdoor builds 😀

I'm also using those cheap-as-chips halogen lights at the moment.
I've always loved halogen light. I've never found another type of bulb to match it.
As you don't think heat is a problem, I don't see how you can go wrong.

(heat is a problem for mine as they'll eventually want to go next to the plastic roof).

I've never tried the LED floods but I've found a lot of LED replacements for conventional bulb types frustrating - they don't wash/diffuse enough. I was staying in a hotel last week which had LED replacements for dichroics - you could have all the lights on but it was just gloomy - not because they weren't bright but because the light didn't spread.

Looks like those ones are cheap enough to buy one and try though.

The house of Moont is turning in to your own Little Sparta. All you need to do now surround it with tank traps, [url= http://ihf.tumblr.com ]raise your own vigilante art army and declare war on the arts council[/url]

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3 or 4 of these 10W LED floods would do the job and cost peanuts to run.

Isn't the warmth of that light going to affect the look of your painting? I would have thought you'd want something quite neutral.

Are your paintings susceptible to UV? Halogens put out quite a bit.
Filters are often used for sensitive objects.

My understanding is that Tungsten Halogen is still the standard which LED are trying to reach for colour accuracy for museums/galleries.
The reason for switching is usually cost-efficiency (although they do perform much better for UV/IR), but the accurate LEDs are more expensive and less efficient, meaning the gap narrows.

I would have thought for a situation like mcmoonter's LED is not worth the hassle.

You'd need 3 of the 50W ones (£120) to match one £5 halogen light.

That was my thought too.

The house of Moont is turning in to your own Little Sparta.

....only more combustible. I have a friend who was IHF's PA.

Isn't the warmth of that light going to affect the look of your painting? I would have thought you'd want something quite neutral.

I think it would only be an issue if I were trying to photograph them under such lights.

I'll go for the Screfix halogens, if things work out and I feel the need I might get something better. I think their industrial look will go well with the agricultural space.

I had a show in Marseilles a while back. It was an international group show. Some work was shown in a fancy converted pristine gallery space. A group of four of us were hung in an swiftly converted 19th century warehouse. They had temporary lighting, rustic plastered walls and simply swept distressed floors. The paintings looked wonderful there. I'm hoping this will have a similar vibe.

Edit - Alex, the paintings wont be hung there for long, it's really just a temporary hanging space for the occasional visitor. As a business venture it's probably doomed, I'd be better sending paintings down to the London gallery.

 

This was just a quick test with the £5 Screwfix lights. I could fit about eight to light up each of the angled spaces in the room. They could be angled a little for more of a flood light. The ambient reflected light is very good and will help a lot when I hang some paintings. I always glaze them so reflections can be an issue. I've ordered some more lights so we'll see how it goes.

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Rigging position looks quite steep and good for a textured piece. Will you not get a big shadow from a picture frame though?

Moving them out from the wall would get a flatter front fill.

Another way for a softer light would be to bounce the halogens off a white painted board. Doesn't need to be too big.

I like the scaff bar idea for flexible rigging positions too.