5 January 2019

LEDs for lighting a retouching room? YongNuo YN360S light wand

As for lighting a retouching workstation, I've already written a lot about it. Today I'm returning to the subject from a slightly different, highly subjective angle: using LEDs as room lighting, or more specifically, describing a particular lamp with good LEDs and adjustable brightness and color temperature. Even now, I still consider linear fluorescent tubes excellent lighting for a computer room. Their long shape makes it easy to light a wall evenly, and their length softens the light very nicely even without a modifier. Combined with a louvered fixture, you can control where the light falls, and the result is almost ideal. One major drawback is that brightness and color temperature normally aren't adjustable. Their lifespan is short by today's standards, and good fluorescent tubes have never been easy to find where I live (though that isn't a problem in Poland).

Before I begin, I should mention that I'm sensitive to even lighting around a retouching workstation. I couldn't go back to working where it's bright around the monitor but completely different half a meter away within my field of view, even though I used a computer that way for years. I realize plenty of people have that setup—or worse, darkness everywhere—so a narrow beam of light won't bother them as much as it bothers me. Most of us supposedly didn't mind sitting in a dark living room in front of an eye-searing monitor set to 160 nits either, but few would want to go back to that…

“LED bulbs” with the best diodes still aren't cheap, and because of their size, you need several to get diffusion comparable to a long fluorescent tube. You can light a room nicely with them, but it wasn't quite that simple. There are also smart “bulbs” such as Philips Hue. I've written before that I use them throughout my apartment except, specifically, in the retouching room—even though in theory they'd work very well there because nothing else provides that much control over brightness and light color. Their CRI won't impress anyone, but that doesn't matter for retouching itself as long as you avoid color casts. That's usually difficult with a low CRI, but Hue offers enormous adjustment range. Even so, I preferred a fluorescent tube because of the diffusion I mentioned. Another option is certain high-CRI lights designed for video. They offer adjustable brightness and color temperature, and that's what I'll discuss today. But I know their design will rule out mounting them in normal rooms for many people, unless they're placed behind the monitor.

Almost-square lights didn't work for me

A few years ago I bought my first video light—a YongNuo YN600L (there's now a newer version) with fairly good LEDs. I briefly tested it in the computer room, but quickly returned to the fluorescent tube, and the LED light remained useful only for videos. The nearly square shape of the YN600 didn't allow for even lighting. That's more important than ever in my current computer room because the unusual wall behind the monitor requires soft light (the acoustic treatment gives it a somewhat “pyramidal” shape).

Above, you can see the workstation lit by two YN360S lights. The YN600L produced a much worse result. Because of the acoustic treatment on the wall, the light is behind me rather than above the monitor.

If you have a normal flat wall (which probably means everyone except me), the result will be better, but still nowhere near a linear fluorescent tube. You can obviously try to soften the light further, which I did, but the fluorescent tube still worked better. Equally important, unlike the video light, it didn't have an audible fan. With a standard PC using a stock cooler, the light would be inaudible, but with a quiet computer, it was the loudest thing in the room.

Also, when I used the diffusion material I had on hand, the light—even using only the white LEDs—became too yellow relative to the monitor's D65 white point. I stopped trying other materials because nothing I used would produce the result of a fluorescent tube over a meter long.

YongNuo YN360S

Somehow I missed the launch of this light, but recently Marcin “Czornyj” Kałuża linked to it, and I found it very interesting. Unlike the YN300, the 360 doesn't have the usual nearly square rectangular shape. It's long like a sword, so it would work much better for me and for people looking for a light to place behind a monitor. For them, the YN360S may be almost ideal (I use mine near the ceiling).

I didn't think about it for long and ordered one right away. My setup required two of these lights next to each other, running at lower power, to diffuse the light strongly; two lights at full power would provide far too much output. I've used them for three weeks so far, but there's no point delaying the write-up because everything was clear within the first few minutes.

There are several versions of the YN360:

The S versions are the most interesting in terms of value. I paid the equivalent of PLN 320 for two YN360S units, including shipping and power supplies (from our Chinese friends). As is often the case with video lights, many stores sell the power supply separately. These lights are less demanding than the YN300 and need only a 2A power supply. You can also use them with batteries, but I doubt anyone needs that when working at a computer.

Unfortunately, the S version is shorter than the standard model, but it's much cheaper. Even two cost less, and two S units are considerably longer than one standard unit. The S model lacks the additional RGB LEDs, but they're unlikely to be useful here. I bought two lights for the computer room not because one would be too weak, but because I needed the maximum possible diffusion, as mentioned earlier.

The manufacturer claims a CRI of 95+. When looking for a particular model, check the description to see which LEDs it has: only 5500K, or 3200K + 5500K (5500 is often labeled 5600, but it's the same light). I think even the version without orange LEDs will work very well for many people. You lose color-temperature adjustment and are left with 5500K light, which might theoretically be too cool. In practice, though, the white is very close to 5000K from CRI 95+ fluorescent tubes. With the white walls I have, it matches my monitor set to D65 very well, which is the whole point. One white S model has 148 LEDs producing a total of 1,480 lumens. The 3200–5500K light has 74 orange and 74 white LEDs, so only slightly more than half the white version's output will be usable because the orange LEDs make the light too warm very quickly.

UPDATE: After publication, I received many messages from people who use these lights, and none of them turn on the orange LEDs, so it looks as though my theory holds up.

On the other hand, if someone wants to spend a lot of time at the computer outside of retouching, under very dim light, the version with orange LEDs will definitely be the better choice. After enabling Night Shift or Flux, or simply changing the monitor's white point to a strongly orange setting, the light can be adjusted to match.

I also bought these lights for video because their shape is excellent for use as a rim light. I no longer sit at the computer at night, so in my case the white-and-orange version ended up in the cabinet with my video gear, while the white version went into the retouching room. Of course, everything depends on your walls. If they're a very cool white, slightly warmer light may be useful even while working. Many materials used to soften light also warm it slightly, so that's another way to make a subtle color adjustment. Quite a few lights have passed through my hands in recent years—not only the ones I own. Usually, and perhaps always so far, lights rated at 5500/5600K were actually several hundred Kelvin warmer, at least according to the i1 Display Pro (which isn't particularly suitable for such measurements), but also according to cameras, which clearly didn't produce neutral white with WB fixed at that temperature. For a retouching room, it's good that the white doesn't shift blue at all. Remember that with the monitor's white point set to D65, the room needs to be around 5000K for the white to look similar. At 6500K, for example, the light would be far too blue.

Light construction

A little more about the construction: the light is surprisingly light, weighing only 320 grams. It has no fan, so it doesn't make even the slightest noise. In addition to the power switch, there are buttons on both sides of the housing for adjusting the brightness of the orange and white LEDs:

Interestingly, the white version also has four buttons, and all of them work—naturally, they adjust only the white LEDs because there are no others. A display on the back panel shows the current output level:

The base has a 1/4-inch thread, the same type used on light-stand studs.

Wireless control

The YN360S can be controlled wirelessly with a phone app. Don't expect too many features. The app is as simple as possible, but it's fine for basic brightness and color control.

The arrows adjust brightness. They do the same thing as the buttons on the housing. There's another app that offers the same controls with a different design based on two sliders:

One more feature was very important to me : after the power is disconnected completely, the light remembers its settings and automatically turns on with them when power is restored. This matters because you only need to set up the lights once. Instead of switching them on and off with the control on the back, you can connect the power supply to a smart plug—or simply anything with a switch. That makes operation much more practical than reaching for the light every time.

Alternatives

As I mentioned, I needed two of these lights for greater diffusion. A light as long as a fluorescent tube, but with LEDs and brightness control, would be even better for me. One unit would solve the problem. Stores are full of LED “fluorescent tubes,” but they have no adjustment and terrible LEDs, so they're a waste of time. Film lights are another matter, although there are few fluorescent-tube-shaped LED options… I'm no expert on these lights, but I searched for a long time once and found nothing worth considering. Apparently, the situation has now improved. I came across the Quasar Science Q-LED T8 5600K — a very promising film light that can be fitted with a dimmer. Unfortunately, it's expensive, and I don't know whether its LEDs have the correct color temperature out of the box or whether a gel would still be necessary. I'm mentioning it only in case someone is looking for good LEDs in exactly the form of a fluorescent tube.

I may have to contact YongNuo one day. This is yet another product of theirs that's so inexpensive for its quality that it's hard to believe, and another one I've written about.

P.S. I recorded a video showing my retouching room with the YN-360S light wands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yC8wybwwXgA