Lighting tips and discussion

[girlracer]

I have rented a lot apartments and am really sensitive to light (I dislike almost all overhead lighting) I have found a really cheap and easy solution is running little white Christmas lights around ceiling.

I have something like this in my house, only its outdoor globe bulbs (got them at target they are like 25ft long and around $13). I would get that its not for everyone though.

[Central Scrutinizer]

I put a giant black blanket over my window so it's constantly dark in my room and there is no glare.

It also makes the room ideal for taking naps at 4PM.

[Xeogred]

Thanks for the replies so far, meant to get back to this earlier.

Ive found that putting a light BEHIND the monitor helps with eye strain. Also you are going to want alot of softlight if you are having eye strain. So something like a china ball over the bare lightbulb would help alot (Ikea sells all sorts of softlight lamps. Honestly a picture would make this alot easier.

That seems to be similar to setting up LED strips on them, I saw some articles recommending this.

I did get some strips setup on both my monitor and TV, I do think it helps a little bit in combination with the glare reducing glasses I got. But I don't think it'll work out for my TV with how I've got it setup, I've got it turned a bit on the stand and it's like one foot away from the wall on one end, and maybe two feet on the other end. So I tried the LED strip on the TV, then tried my shelving, but it's just too "open" and blank behind it all I think, so the lighting is just really unbalanced and weird. I'm guessing these setups are more ideal if you've got your monitor or TV much closer to a wall behind it or have it "enclosed" in shelving.

What do you guys think of these?


I saw some pictures suggesting putting one of these next to a TV can help. I was thinking that or maybe getting a smaller one I could fit on the corner of my desk.

What kind of bulb are you using in that lamp? Those kinds of floor lamps usually take a 3-way bulb, which has 3 different brightnesses. 40w incandescent bulbs are pretty dim. Also, white light sucks. That's why you'll wanna stay away from compact florescent. The standard (yellow) incandescent is what you want, non of that soft white bull shit. And the 3-way bulb will give you three brightnesses (low, medium, full/high) to choose from.

As for your ceiling light... it's just a bulb? Like this maybe? How cheap! That's definitely no good! I would replace it asap.

If you're unsure if your lamp can control a 3-way bulb, here's an easy way to figure it out: If your lamp just has a slider switch to turn it on and off, then it does not control a 3-way bulb. If it has a switch that you turn in a circle motion, then it probably does. If turning the switch with a regular bulb has two off or two on positions (clicking it goes off, off, on, off off, on, etc or vise versa instead of just on, off, on, off, etc) than you can use a 3-way bulb in there. If it can use a 3-way bulb, I suggest you get one for it. Either that or get a dimmer for it and the max watts the lamp specifies it can use.

That is exactly what my ceiling fixture is, heh. That and just a giant annoying big bulb. I know they said we can get ceiling fans installed if we wanted, so I'm guessing I can mess with it if I want.

Pretty sure the lamp I got is adjustable. Not sure how to explain it but like you said the clicking kind of gives it away, it's two similar clicks, then "off". The bulb I got was some basic 40W / 490 Lumens Soft White, if that even helps... it was pretty cheap and nothing fancy, came in a four pack. Little did I know I shouldn't go cheap on this stuff haha. It doesn't have adjusting levels at all. I really wonder if replacing that light will make a big difference.

Would you recommend full spectrum lights? I saw a lot of articles suggesting those.

And this would be going high budget from what I've seen, but any opinions on the "sun" lamps and such out there?

I actually thought of the Christmas lights setup idea as well, haha.

EDIT: Alright took some sloppy fast pictures. The floor was a little messy so I tried to avoid that a little and get some of the corners, also ignore the posters alert! lol

For the rest of the pictures, I turned the lamp off so the ceiling light is the only thing on (you can see I've got the monitor backlighting on too)

- I figure a lamp on either shelf would maybe work (once I buy tools I can work on my frames and classier videogame posters heh)
- scorching bright!
- this is a little bit where I like to sit and game
- this is that but with the LED strip on, I've got it on the back of the top shelf... either way there or on the back of the TV, it just wasn't happening
- the weird gap between the shelves/wall and TV
- older but accurate picture of this corner, I think if I get a lamp for my desk I could maybe move the standing one to the corner with the small shelves (next to the Transformers poster)

[Xeogred]

I'm overthinking this so much I'm sure, but I picked up two different 3-way bulbs today. So it'll be interesting to see how they are tonight.

One is a Daylight (bad choice?) 30/70/100 3-way Sylvania bulb, just normal white and the other is one of those weird twirling ones like this (and re-reading Ziggy's post makes it sound like I need to stay away from these CFL's?...)

So confusing, lol. I think the max the lamp can do is 150 though, but I wasn't sure since everything I saw was lower. So I went for the 30/70/100 bulb. Right now I have the more standard one in, and the twirling one turned out to be a bit too big... pokes out a little from the top of the lamp shade, but I'll have to see how it is tonight.

[Ziggy]

Ah, OK. The pictures help a lot. You have a stucco ceiling. That affects lighting a lot. The way you usually want lighting to work is have it bounce off the ceiling and down, which is why most ceilings are white. Being stucco like that, or popcorn or heavily sanded or whatever it is, changes the way the light bounces off of it.

That's how your floor lamp is designed. It's very high (usually above your head) with no cover on the bulb. That's to allow the light to bounce off the ceiling and no where else. In my experience, you can't rely on them alone, but they can supplement other lights really well. The 3-way bulb should definitely help.

Yeah, the 3-way bulbs can be a little taller than standard bulbs. So it pops out the top of the lamp? That's OK, so long as you can't see it when you sit down.

The compact florescent bulbs (the twisty ones) aren't too bad, but there's a few things I don't like about them. First off, they have a "warm up" time before they reach full brightness. In my old room, where I had just one lamp, I hated this. If I walked in and flip the light on it'd be really dim for a few minutes until it reached full brightness. It always drove me crazy. The other thing I don't like about them is you can't dim them. Yeah, yeah, they made the ones that are able to be dimmed but they more expensive and don't work that good. I also just don't like the color light they put out compared to a standard incandescent bulb. Then there's the fact that they contain mercury, a poison.

I'm really surprised they grew in popularity the way they did, but it looks like they'll be fading away and LED bulbs will replace them. I say good. I haven't used an LED light bulb, but they should take care of most of the complaints I have with compact florescent.

I forget what your main complaints were with the lighting, but I still stand by my suggestions. I would replace that ceiling fixture with something like this. I like the kind that house two bulbs, as oppose to just one. Like I said, just put the max wattage in there and get a dimmer switch. That way you have full control over the lighting. Standard incandescent bulbs is what I use. Maybe because I'm use to it, but it's definitely what I prefer.

[Xeogred]

Cool, yeah I saw a fixture like that at K-Mart today (going out of business) for ~$15 I think. I might go back and get one. Not totally sure what measurements I'd need though, if that really matters.

Since my room is so big and oddly shaped I think I might consider buying a second lamp like the one I have for the other side. But maybe it's not necessary if I got that fixture. Either route will be cheap which is nice lol.

I have the new bulb in at medium (70w) right now, it's dark outside now, and wow the difference is huge. I also don't feel like it's got this weird irritating burning sensation in the corner of my eye either, like the 40w bulb I had in did. Even the glare/reflections off the wall and posters don't seem bad. So it's good so far on all accounts heh.

The normal bulb I have in now doesn't pop out, but the twisty ones does and yeah, I saw the mercury warnings on it lol. Might just throw that one out since the one in now seems really good.

It's funny I hear a lot of bad about LED's too though, lol. Especially for people very sensitive to light and stuff. Maybe it's just via TV's that it shouldn't be ideal for humans, but I dunno. Turning the backlighting down a ton and messing with other settings seemed to fix things for me.