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How to improve your WFH lighting to reduce eye strain

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Re: How to improve your WFH lighting to reduce eye strain

#231

Post by esafak »

amarcheschi wrote: post #102
toddmorey wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the history of LED lighting, it took quite a bit of work (hybrid phosphor technology, etc) to get them to emit warm color temperatures. The exact color temp can be a personal preference, but I think a lot of people aren't privy to the difference the color temperature of "white" light can make! I want to go on a guerrilla campaign around my neighborhood and replace porch light bulbs with warm equivalents.

Along light temperature there's light cri as well, which measures how faithful to real life a light is. New standards such as Tm30 came out recently as well

It's hard enough to get the CRI out of manufacturers. I've never seen any other measure of light quality reporter ever.

Re: How to improve your WFH lighting to reduce eye strain

#233

Post by mmcconnell1618 »

If you do a lot of video calls, you can also consider how to light yourself so that you show up well on camera. The traditional three-point lighting setup is a good place to start. A key light which is the brightest, main light source, a fill light which is from the opposite side to soften shadows and a backlight to help you stand out from backgrounds.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-point_lighting

Re: How to improve your WFH lighting to reduce eye strain

#234

Post by bmelton »

BenoitEssiambre wrote: post #154
BenoitEssiambre wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in a basement and had fairly good success with certain "led shop lights" to make the space feel more like it has natural light (though I could improve things further). I do find however, that using diffuse lighting and minimizing shadows is what makes lighting feel artificial. Natural sunlight has very parallel rays that create very evenly lit surfaces with very sharp shadows. Whereas most artificial light has ra…

What I'm trying to achieve is lighting a bit like in these "Artificial Skylight" concepts: https://architizer.com/blog/practice/materials/let-there-be-... They claim their technology is about "Rayleigh scattering" but I think that's mostly marketing mumbo jumbo. Sure that might add a bit of diffuse blue but their main secret, I would bet, is parallel rays which explains why their fixtures require so much space above…

I'd wager they're pretty good. If you can leverage a parabolic reflector at a light's focal length, you can get them to collimate in a way that approximates the sun by appearing to be pinned near-infinitely far away. The reflector is generally what takes up the space, but it's necessary(ish) -- you could approximate the effect by using a fresnel lens at the light's focal length, but it yields a smaller light with rainbowing effects.

[This video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bqBsHSwPgw&t=843s) does a good job of showing how to make your own, as well as illustrating how good the effect is, while also demonstrating why space-hog implementations are likely to yield good results and slimmer ones not.

Re: How to improve your WFH lighting to reduce eye strain

#235

Post by thepratt »

Great set of suggestions.

I experience a fair amount of over lighting on some calls due to my monitor (a 42" Dell thing, maybe sitting 50-60cm away). Most things I use have dark mode, but when someone shares their screen and it's pure white I end up looking like an apparition. Does anyone have any additional suggestions where the monitor itself is the cause of the excess light? Is distance a helping factor (someone else mentioned 1.5m away from their 85" TV)?

Re: How to improve your WFH lighting to reduce eye strain

#236

Post by neves »

mattclarkdotnet wrote: post #157
DavidVoid wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not OP but look into "computer glasses". Usually they're optimized for distances a bit closer than 1.5 meters, but I'm sure that can be changed.

The magic words I think are “occupational multifocals”, which have a small area at the top for distance vision and the remaining 75% set for whatever your occupation is. You need to be very specific on the distance setting

Yes. This is the better solution.

Some expensive lenses like Zeiss, Varilux, and Hoya make you an extra pair when you by one. I tought that the extra pair must be equal the first one, but it isn't necessary. I could have asked for a general one and one with a greater area for medium distance.

Re: How to improve your WFH lighting to reduce eye strain

#237

Post by davidmurdoch »

gehwartzen wrote: post #132
toddmorey wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the history of LED lighting, it took quite a bit of work (hybrid phosphor technology, etc) to get them to emit warm color temperatures. The exact color temp can be a personal preference, but I think a lot of people aren't privy to the difference the color temperature of "white" light can make! I want to go on a guerrilla campaign around my neighborhood and replace porch light bulbs with warm equivalents.

I just went through this with my car. All the OEM overhead interior lights were horrible 6000k+ type bulbs that not only made the interior feel like a hospital room but completely ruined my night vision turning me into the classic “Jesus!! You’re going to kill someone!” dad whenever my kids would fiddle with them at night. I cannot overstate how much of a difference it made switching them all to 3000k warm whites. Of…

This is the level of obsession I aspire to reach one day. I love it!

I own a 90s BMW and the interior lighting looks phenomenal in that car. Not great for passenger night reading or applying makeup though. Haha

Re: How to improve your WFH lighting to reduce eye strain

#238

Post by davidmurdoch »

esafak wrote: post #231
amarcheschi wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Along light temperature there's light cri as well, which measures how faithful to real life a light is. New standards such as Tm30 came out recently as well

It's hard enough to get the CRI out of manufacturers. I've never seen any other measure of light quality reporter ever.

Waveform lighting publishes their reports.

Re: How to improve your WFH lighting to reduce eye strain

#239

Post by neves »

stevenAthompson wrote: post #62
neves wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I made a glasses with the focus optimized for 1.5m. A lot easier on my eyes for working than my progressive lenses.

How did you go about that? Can you just take your prescription someplace and have them made?

Yes. You can have reading lenses or lenses for medium distance. Measure the distance from your seat to the screen. Get a max, minimum and most common distance in your different seating positions.

Re: How to improve your WFH lighting to reduce eye strain

#240

Post by bongodongobob »

walterbell wrote: post #140
bongodongobob wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to work in the optical industry, that's not what computer glasses are, they are just blue blocker lenses.

Any lens can be customized for desired focal length, including distance, intermediate (e.g. computer) or closeup/reading.

Right. It's an industry term though and doesn't have anything to do with focal length.
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