It seems too blue to me. My wife has the light for sewing but it just doesn't seem accurate to me.
That's because you have become so used to standard incandescent lighting, which is too warm, in the yellow range of the spectrum.
The Ott light recreates light in the natural light range which, by comparison to normal indoor incandescence, would seem cooler, farther into the blue-green range.
the Ott light is not too blue, all of your other artificial lighting is too yellow. As in some other cases, "the rest of the world is wrong!" :^)
Fair representations of natural light used to be arrived at by combinations of florescent (too blue) and incandescent (too yellow) artificial lights.
Joannes', the fabric store, sells Ott light which simplify that concern by projecting the light in the right temperature range (not heat temperature) to mimic natural light , and people who work with fabric use them to assure true color matching of materials... Artists also use these , as the warm qualities of incandescent artificial lighting has grave influence on how one mixes and uses color..
The Ott light floor model 18 watt has a suggested retail of $169.... get your hands on a Joanne's 50% off coupon and buy one at a somewhat better price, or keep checking their sales fliers, like last (maybe this) week's price reduction of 30% for something like $129. Not cheap , but built well, and if it suits your needs for color correction, worth it.
Not all tyers may not be concerned about the subtitles of color differences under natural (used as a baseline point), incandescent, or fluorescent light.... ( and remember, lighting under water (the ultimate destination of "working flies") and perception of color by a fishes eyes, adds several more variables in regard to true color reproduction.)
What may be more important to tiers is the amount of light , allowing for better viewing of small details, dispersal of shadows, amount of "glare".....
For desk tying at home, I use and light the Giraffe style lamp and magnifier, and use a common incandescent bulb, but a 100 watt one.... the lamp allows directional aiming and good illumination. Amount of glare is often more influenced by the objects in the illuminated area.... imagine tying on a stainless steel kitchen table...
Nice results here are often obtained by using a white card or paper background, lying on the table. some vice or lamp attachment systems have such a white background device, but I think 2 vice "satellites" on goose necks is enough.
I use a good size piece of blotter paper on the desk under my vise and beyond. Choose a paper that does not have a coating or a "finish", and glare can be pretty much eliminated.... the reflective qualities of the white paper background further serve to nicely illuminate the fly and work area for better viewing of detail, and reduction of eyestrain.
For traveling circumstances, and tying in dimly lit hotel rooms and campground picnic tables, I have a couple other lamps, geared more toward compactness and brightness than anything else.... one is the McKensie which attaches to the vise stem, and I can't put my finger on the other one, but it is a halogen lamp (blue range lighting), has a pedestal of its own, and comes apart in stem sections which plug into each other... very nice, very bright.... But , again, correct color in these situations is of little concern to me, and not being able to have your "home system" when traveling, amount of light seems the most important thing.
sunday morning 2 cents
Splinta
