High CRI, warm white, cool white, is it all in the mind?

Thinking of sticking a couple of high CRIs in my lights to try them out. To be honest, I'm a photographer, and I still don't quite 'get it'. I tried a neutral XP-G and it looked YELLOWISH. Same with a Fenix E21 with neutral white, though it looked whiter. The only thing I noticed is browns and greens look a bit more natural.

I don't necessarily buy the "blue is cool" hype from the manufacturers. Actually, I haven't heard anything from them at all. White is good in my eyes. I love the pure white tints - we've been hunting these since I got into LEDs six years ago.

I'm wondering if, over the last six years, my eyes have somehow become so used to clear white LEDs that neutral is actually a disadvantage. In fact all my incans look yellow nowadays and I have to 'force' my eyesight to auto-white-balance the scene (and they do but it takes about 5 minutes). The default calibration for my eyes seems to be 100% white. I can turn on a 6000K LED and feel right at home. As a photog I white balance for 5200-5500K, not 4000.

Perhaps 'correct' color temperature, color rendering, is all a matter of perception? Am I generalizing by saying the incandescent people (especially those who have lived with incandescent light most of their lives, such as house lights) prefer warmer temps and folks like me who have spent their lives under white (flourescent, etc.) light prefer white?

About the only time I need superior color rendering is when I'm checking injuries (usually, me managing to get poked by something or something stuck in me like splinters. Nothing dramatic. I'm not a medic..)

I think I need to try the high-CRI's personally to get used to them. What emitters are you buying and where are you buying from? How much output am I compromising vs my standard high power white LEDs?

KevinL said:

The only thing I noticed is browns and greens look a bit more natural.

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This is why I prefer neutral whites outdoors, it improves green/brown contrast which is important for me. Indoors cool white is as good, but I'm fine with neutral white there as well. Warm white is a bit too much indoors for me..

Hi CRI makes skin look a lot more natural than either neutral or cool white leds. Outdoors it doesn't make that much of a difference for me.

So if I was still in the infantry and doing field injury treatment was likely I'd strongly prefer high CRI with neutral/warm white coming second and cool white a very distant third.

High CRI do not meant necessarily warm white. You would surely appreciate the "hard to find" Nichia NS6W183-H1 (CCT 5000-5500K).
Let us know if you succeed to find a source for this LED. :devil:

I do not believe that it is in our heads. The printing industry has been using "full spectrum" lighting for years. I know these lights are both incandescent and florescent. My experience in 20 years of printing four color process, dictates that lighting is everything.

http://www.leds.de/en/High-Power-LEDs/Nichia-High-Power-LEDs/
http://www.ledrise.com/leds/high-power-leds/f_2_nichia/

No two people see the same and everything works in averages.

I have both, a warm white and overly white regular, quark mini123, and I prefer the warm-white on my key chain even though the lumen drop is considerable.

The difference is there and we perceive it in our own way.

Its just light looking at a rainbow. One might say look at the pretty colors and another might see the rainbow as shades of gray. To me, thats the difference between the higher and lower CRI LED's.

And, the sun looks yellowy, orangey, reddish, and whitish to me depending on the time of day and time of year. So, an LED with a yellowy light is fine.

Anyone know what the CRI of moonlight is? or the color wavelength curve?

Our perception is of course all in our brain and subject to the information it receives. We all have preferences and these vary for any number of objective as well as subjective reasons. Personally I prefer CCT at a minimum of 4500 k and ideally about 5500k. I can quickly adapt to CCT below and above this preference though; within reason. Color rendering however is independent of CCT and depending on the light source and objects in view I can be misled as to the real daylight nature and color of the objects. This can be an issue.

If the health or nature of a subject is based on its color and we have learned to identify this color under natural light then we need an artificial light to render the color accurately. :shrug:

deadrx7conv said:

http://www.leds.de/en/High-Power-LEDs/Nichia-High-Power-LEDs/

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I was told (not officially by leds.de) that their NS6L183T aren't the high CRI version with H1 suffix but the H3.

palimpsest said:

High CRI do not meant necessarily warm white. You would surely appreciate the "hard to find" Nichia NS6W183-H1 (CCT 5000-5500K).
Let us know if you succeed to find a source for this LED. :devil:

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Nice

Perhaps I will wait for technology to evolve through a few more generations so that we can get XP-G class power levels with 90+ CRI, 5500K. I kinda like my 5500's - AND my 200+ lumens