How to illuminate RR portraits?

Do they have glass/plastic coverings? On some of mine in the basement I get bad reflections from the overhead lights. You might consider the lights made to fasten onto the top of the picture frame that way they can be set up for each individual picture.

Mike, fantastic man cave!  Type and specs of your bulbs?  I do have a mix of glare and non glare glass.  I can see how some of them will need glass change.  Thank you.

Any glare effect differential between halogen, LED or other bulbs?

Certainly not for everybody, but an alternative.  Powered by a 12vdc wall wart, I use a buck converter for dimming to desired brightness.  This works just as I intended, unusual for me...  

Tom,

Yep, any gloss "glass" will reflect the light source at some viewing angle. I'd go with a dimmable LED as a light source and we found at least 3 different white color ranges, Warm, Bright, and Daylight. 

Mike does have a really nice set up!

LED lamps do not emit any UV so they will not fade your pictures over time. Stay away from fluorescent lamps.

Dale

My son installed recessed LED can lights in our last house, they did a angled illumination on my wife's art works, and made them look much better, if you check your local Home Depot or Menards or Lowe's, they carry some but a dedicated lighting store would have the canes. If you want numbers, let me know and I'll ask my son, who does this for a living, what he uses and if available to non contractors through his supply houses.

I got concerned after reading the comment above.  Presently I have sixteen 4' 6500K  bare naked T-5 tubes about 200 degrees exposed in a 13" X 20' room wherein are hung the pictures.  Is the comparative time frame mentioned below reasonable?  Should I replace the lights?  How long would it take to see fade? As an older person I am betting observed fade against replacement cost  over life expectancy. 

3. Fluorescent Lights Give Off Ultraviolet Light

Ultraviolet emission Fluorescent lamps emit a small amount of ultraviolet (UV) light. A 1993 study in the US found that ultraviolet exposure from sitting under fluorescent lights for eight hours is equivalent to only one minute of sun exposure.

You can replace the 4' tubes with LED direct replacements pretty simply.  If you don't mind removing the ballast from the fixtures, it's pretty cheap, less than $10 a tube.

If you have electronic ballasts you dont have to change them. Just use your cell phone to take a picture of the fluorescent fixture and if you see waves in it you have the magnetic type and it has to be changed if you don't have no waves you're good to go

However, unless you have a high quality fixture, those electronic ballasts won't last that long!  I had a bunch of them in my old house, and half of them failed in less than two years!

If you buy the LED that's compatible with a ballast, then you can't use it without, so you'll be stuck putting an undeeded ballast in for an LED bulb.  Better to simply buy the direct power LED bulbs, they're cheaper and you just hack out the ballast, a very easy job.

I am well into the typical retirement age and still have a lot to do on my RR. I carefully pick and choose how to spend my time.  

At this stage, is a day or two and $$$ spent worth upgrading 30 fixtures / five dozen tubes? 

Just pondering.......

Replacement of the complete fixture is also an option. This flat LED panel is available, can be purchase for $60 or less.   We have done a lot of upgrades with these.  Most new construction has this type of fixture.   There is no repair, to these fixtures, usually an extended warranty, may be 5 to 6 years, they are throw-away/replace with new.  

Yellow cord/plug in cord end was added as a demonstration fixture. A lot of our customers want to see this light fixture.   

A complete light fixture change-out generates a fair amount of recyclable material.  Some suppliers will provide the containers and pallets for the removed fixtures, at a cost. 

Big box stores have an assortment of LED trims that will adapt to most existing recessed can fixtures.  There are some fixtures that can be cut into an existing ceiling without any additional electrical boxes.  Amazing what you can do with light fixture, when all that heat, that was generated, is gone. 

gunrunnerjohn posted:

However, unless you have a high quality fixture, those electronic ballasts won't last that long!  I had a bunch of them in my old house, and half of them failed in less than two years!

If you buy the LED that's compatible with a ballast, then you can't use it without, so you'll be stuck putting an undeeded ballast in for an LED bulb.  Better to simply buy the direct power LED bulbs, they're cheaper and you just hack out the ballast, a very easy job.

See John you learn something new on this forum everyday. I did not know that they made Direct power tubes. I'll be on the lookout for them thank you.

Here's one of many, first one that comes up in my search.  FWIW, I bought from this company similar bypass bulbs, and they worked great, and I didn't have to be concerned the crappy ballast was going to give out.

4 ft. T8 LED Tube - 1800 Lumens - 12.5W - 5000 Kelvin - 120-277V

Ballast Must Be Bypassed - Single-Ended Power Must Use a Non-Shunted Socket - LifeBulb LBP8F1750B

Thank you very much John. I'll look into it. I appreciate it