What are some of your lighting setups for painting and taking pictures of your finished models? I typically paint in ambient light, then realize in brighter light how much surface I missed. I have 3 lamps which I use somtimes, but they are all either CF or LEDs, so they don't really seem to help all that much unless they are in my face. Do you all just use high temperature (K) incandescent bulbs? How many sources of light do you use? I am asking this in regards to both painting and picture taking as you all have very well lit pictures.
I paint with a 4ft light above my desk and then have a lamp on my desk both have daylight bulbs, no windows so this is my only light source.for photos i have two small lamps with daylight bulbs and a light box.
my lighting set up is not ideal, but i just havent come round to fixing it. I just have an desk lamp with a 18W (i think) daylight bulb. My desk is directly under a window but the sunlight here (Central Turkey) is way to bright so usually the blinds are closed.
Here's a picture of both my painting and photography set up: Still, it always feels like there's not enough light.
I use a sun lamp. It's the equivalent of 150W but is cool to sit in front of and gives full spectrum lighting so you see the same colors you will see if you take into direct sunlight. Often painting under florescent/halogens makes the pigments appear different than they will in the sun. Here is an amazon link, they sell for a fraction of a hobby light and are exactly the same thing (same replacement bulb).
Two lamps located to either side of you, as Caprasauridae shows in his pic, gives you an ideal illumination for projects if you are not using natural daylight. This gives you the most lumen exposure and eliminates the maximum amount of shadows that may occur.
Wow... I use the exact same one, great lamp. Sometimes I also use a 150 watt incandescent desk lamp when I'm working on big terrain projects. (also it doubles as a heat lamp) oh and I'm working under a 2 bulb CFL ceiling lamp as well.
They make lightbulbs now that look like normal incandescent bulbs but they are LED lights. Bright, but not hot, low power consumption. This brand has a clear silicone over/wrap on top of the glass. If you drop it, and it shatters, the shards are auto-bagged.