LED Aesthetics: What do you really think of your color?

[kgoldy]

Ill give this a try. So adjust white balance to make the sand look white then switch lights I want on, and take pics? Nothing else? No switching to raw or anything like that?

 

 

Yep, that's what works for me. I'm still too much of a photo noob to edit properly, so I stopped shooting in raw.

 

Only thing I adjust from picture to picture once I set the white balance is ISO to get the right brightness.

[gabe_j]

yeah since i don't have sand i take a white balance shot of a cool white led right on the lens of my camera, then i just shoot the tank as needed. post edit i just auto balance the color, contrast and brightness to match what my tank looks like in person. its not perfect but with leds producing a part of the spectrum that most cmos chips don't pick up very well you have to post edit. or atleast i do with my piece of sh*t.. err i mean point and shoot.

[Machupicchu]

basically just bump the yellow waaaaaaaay up in post edit. Or set it to your highest manual kelvin value if your camera has it, if not than set it to cloudy. You will most likely still need to adjust in post.

[Machupicchu]

Heres what you want to do

1. put your camera on a tripod!

 

2. stop all flow in the tank

 

3. if you can make sure your camera is in raw format, shooting in anything other than raw will ruin your blacks and dark segments of the image.

 

4. if you can shoot in spot metering mode, this will tend to make your blacks blacker and meter from the lit areas of your image.

 

5. underexpose the shot by up to 2 whole steps unless you are working with t5s or something other than LED or halide.

 

6. shoot in the highest possible kelvin rating your camera has, if you can adjust it manually turn it way up, if not set to cloudy.

 

And heres a screen shot of post editing. Just the general stuff.

 

Also, do not shoot with a high blue to white ratio. If you do make sure to under-expose your image to make up for the color correcting you will do in post editing. Like this, shot with very high blues and low whites. Notice how dark it is.

[mmcguffi]

those are both incredible pictures! great job!!

[Machupicchu]

Thanks! Just sharin the wealth. Unfortunately these might be hard to pull of with a point and shoot.

[mmcguffi]

when you say shoot with the highest possible kelvin rating what do you mean exactly? I shoot with a g11 at the moment--the only color adjustment I know of looks like this:

 

would that be the lower left-hand corner then?

[mmcguffi]

also what iso and shutter speed do you aim for?

[Machupicchu]

OH! Very important i forgot to mention. ISO under 600 is best but under 1000 will do. I shoot in aperture priority so whatever the shutter speed turns out to be at 600iso at f8-f11.

 

As for white balance, the higher the kelvin value, the bluer the light, so since most reef lighting is in the higher kelvin ratings 16-20k you want to turn your cameras white balance as blue as it will go, in my case 10000k, which still needs adjustment in post. As for your settings, after reading thishttp://gdlp01.c-wss.com/gds/6/0300002536/03/PSG11_CUG_EN_03.pdf

 

It looks like you want to set it far right, and maybe a little towards the top, if you look at the temp, and tint on my setting screenshot, its the same thing except your red is actually amber or yellow.

[Yreka]

Quick question on terminology translation.

 

Throughout the thread, the terms Cool White, Neutral(Natural) and Warm are used. I understand these to be references to the general color ranges, however as stated there can be a big spread between mfgs, models, etc

 

Im getting ready to put a kit together w/ bridgelux led from aquastyle, im a bit confused on the whites..

 

On the site, ( for white ) they list 10k, 6500k, and 4500k.

 

I am assuming based on what I read, these 3 dont represent ( CW, N, W) rather really cool (10k) cool (6500k) and Natural being (4500k) with the "Warm" not being listed (3-4k?) ? So assuming I wanted to use "Natrual" whites as discussed and shown in this thread ( I understand most use CREE) I would order the 4500k ?

 

Just want to make sure im on the right track, and not ordering what people are referring to as the "Warms"

 

TIYA -J

 

oops, link added for reference: http://www.aquastyleonline.com/categories/...D-Lighting/LED/

[Milad LEDGroupBuy.com]

Quick question on terminology translation.

 

Throughout the thread, the terms Cool White, Neutral(Natural) and Warm are used. I understand these to be references to the general color ranges, however as stated there can be a big spread between mfgs, models, etc

 

Im getting ready to put a kit together w/ bridgelux led from aquastyle, im a bit confused on the whites..

 

On the site, ( for white ) they list 10k, 6500k, and 4500k.

 

I am assuming based on what I read, these 3 dont represent ( CW, N, W) rather really cool (10k) cool (6500k) and Natural being (4500k) with the "Warm" not being listed (3-4k?) ? So assuming I wanted to use "Natrual" whites as discussed and shown in this thread ( I understand most use CREE) I would order the 4500k ?

 

Just want to make sure im on the right track, and not ordering what people are referring to as the "Warms"

 

TIYA -J

 

oops, link added for reference: http://www.aquastyleonline.com/categories/...D-Lighting/LED/

 

4500K would be a neutral white but there is a big difference between a "bridgelux" white and a CREE white so you may or may not get what you expect.

[blasterman]

So assuming I wanted to use "Natrual" whites as discussed and shown in this thread ( I understand most use CREE) I would order the 4500k ?

 

Hmmmm, a reluctant yes. My experience with cheap Chinese neutrals is they have terrible color uniformity in their illumination circle and aren't balanced real well (tend towards too much green), but I haven't seen the LED's first hand from aqua style.

 

I'll stand firm that any LED higher than 6500K or so is basically retarded and sold on the premise the buyer isn't very smart in terms of how LED's are binned. If you want more blue in your color balance, then turn your royals up, but by all means don't use whites higher than 6500k as a base because you're just limiting your options.

[Paleoreef103]

So here is my situation. Right now I have 14 - 3 LED clusters with 60 degree optics running at 700 ma (1XP-G NW:2 XP-E RB) and a small string of 4 XP-E CBs running at 350 ma without optics (just for a small bit extra color rendering running across the length of my fixture I love the way it looks and I'm hitting 200+ PAR on the sandbed, but I'd like to have a bit more pop from warmer colors. I'd like to hear some opinions on how to upgrade my fixture over my 40 breeder.

 

I'm debating on the best way to upgrade my fixture to accomplish this. My thought is to take the string of 4 CBs, do a bit of rewiring, and add 3 deep reds and 6 420 TV to the string and up the driver to a 4th 700 ma driver. I still wouldn't have optics on this string. Thoughts? Anyway to improve on this further? I'd rather keep the total number of LEDs added below ten so I can put any additional LEDs on the same driver as my cool blues.

[DaveFason]

Add a few more Blues and 3-4 deep reds. I have not found that the TV to do much.

 

Hope this helps!

[SnakPak]

I'm considering buying the 36 dimmable kit from Aqua Styles and using a cluster arrangement. Would a cluster of 1 NW, 1 RB, 1 TV give good color? I would put the whites on 1 dimmer and the RB and TV on another dimmer.

 

Edit: On second thought, running 36 leds over an 8.5" deep tank is probably way overkill. Same goes for all the TV LEDs. I think I might try a 2:1 ratio of RB to NW first, and add or swap as needed.

[Trick]

I'm considering buying the 36 dimmable kit from Aqua Styles and using a cluster arrangement. Would a cluster of 1 NW, 1 RB, 1 TV give good color? I would put the whites on 1 dimmer and the RB and TV on another dimmer.

 

Edit: On second thought, running 36 leds over an 8.5" deep tank is probably way overkill. Same goes for all the TV LEDs. I think I might try a 2:1 ratio of RB to NW first, and add or swap as needed.

 

I would add do 50/50 ratio of nw to cw.

[emora]

...

I'll stand firm that any LED higher than 6500K or so is basically retarded and sold on the premise the buyer isn't very smart in terms of how LED's are binned.

 

This may be true for LEDs manufactured for general lighting and this was the norm until recently.

 

CREE mass produces LEDs for general lighting then classifies to different bins. This practice is what gives them uniformity. Other manufacturers just mass produce and don't even bother binning.

 

When the only option is mass produced LEDs, your statement is correct. However. LED manufacturers are becomming more sophisticated and the market is evolving to meet the needs of many different applications beyond indoor and outdoor lighting.

 

LEDs that are manufactured to specific color temps are measured (specified) on the chromaticity curve. In these cases the manufacturers mix phosphors to achieve the requested color. My company has LEDs custom manufactured to specific color temps and if they do not meet the spec of the contract (checked by independent quality inspection), we do not take delivery, the factory does not get paid and they pay the costs re-inspection.

 

Today, we can pretty much have anything we want manufactured for us... as long as we have enough quantity.

 

If you purchase from a reputable vendor that stands behind their products, you can get consistent quality at specific color temps.

[emora]

...However, LED manufacturers are becomming more sophisticated and the market is evolving to meet the needs of many different applications beyond indoor and outdoor lighting.

 

...

 

Hang on. Let me correct that statement

 

"LED manufacturers have become more sophisticated and the market has evolved to meet the needs of many different applications beyond indoor and outdoor lighting. "

 

It is still evolving, but as I said, today LED manufacturers are already producing specific manufacturing requests.

[rndmcnflct]

Anyone know where I can get violet (~420 nm) and deep red (~660 nm) LEDs without 60 degree optics? I'm doing a build and I want these colors but I'm going optic free close to the water... I want the natural 120 degree spread.

[Tyron]

You probably don't want to use the 660nm deep red. It will definitely cause algae to grow. We use those in algae scrubbers now. You're probably wanting to use a red orange. Check ledgroupbuy, ledsupply, rapidled

[jfarabaugh]

Anyone know where I can get violet (~420 nm) and deep red (~660 nm) LEDs without 60 degree optics? I'm doing a build and I want these colors but I'm going optic free close to the water... I want the natural 120 degree spread.

 

http://www.aquastyleonline.com/

[rndmcnflct]

/\/\/\ thanks!

 

You probably don't want to use the 660nm deep red. It will definitely cause algae to grow. We use those in algae scrubbers now. You're probably wanting to use a red orange. Check ledgroupbuy, ledsupply, rapidled

I see rapid LED has 660's (which I want for my scrubber), thanks!

[jfarabaugh]

You probably don't want to use the 660nm deep red. It will definitely cause algae to grow. We use those in algae scrubbers now. You're probably wanting to use a red orange. Check ledgroupbuy, ledsupply, rapidled

 

All the new Radions have 660 deep red LEDs, my tank has had 660 deep red LEDs for almost 2 months now as well as numerous other tanks on this thread. I have seen no reports of the radions causing algae outbreaks and it is sure not happening in my tank nor has anyone else reported on here of that issue. Yes if you use nothing but 660s you will most likely have an issue.

 

I have seen some very interesting growth pattern differences since adding the 660 to my tank. Corals seem to think they are in shallow water and I am now getting rapid growth sideways.

[Tyron]

Yea i wrote that kinda quick, without developing my thought. But the radions use those osram hyper reds. They're not like cree deep reds

[land_lubber]

I have brought a 36 diy dimmable from Aquastyles and wanting to know what everyone thinks of this design? are the too far apart? will I get a spotlight effect? or will the colours mix well? also should I use the 60 degree optics that come with the kit or use none? the dimensions for the heatsink are 7.1"X0.9"X11.9" with a total of 18 LEDs. 8 x RB, 8 x CW(10,000K), and 2 x True Violet. They are 1.3" apart width ways and 2.3" apart length ways. The blue dots = RB, green dots = CW and red dots = true violet.