It's not like I don't know my way around a color wheel, but I think I might be over-analyzing my problem, so I thought maybe you all could give me some insight.
In the master bath of my new abode there is a light well for daylighting over the vanity. Someone in their infinite wisdom decided to paint the inside of this channel a bright sunflower orange/yellow. In and of itself it's a nice color, but it's a bit strong and unflattering for applying cosmetics. (hey, I'm a girl, these things matter) Add to this the strong clear southwestern light and the row of hollywood lighting at the base of the well right over the mirror and you have a pretty harsh view!
I have considered changing to GE Reveal bulbs but I think I'll just end up with a green light versus a yellow one and that would be worse! Painting is really out of the question. It would be a horror to do and I'd have to change it back in a year or so once we buy a house. Covering the light fixture is also out as I do need the light and just doing that won't really fix the problem any way.
I have a lighted dressing mirror, but it's a tabletop type and there's no place to sit down as there was in my former home. So otherwise than putting on my face at my dining table and hauling the stuff back and forth each morning, which is completely silly, I can't think of what else to try. It's not like I put on a ton of junk, but I do want to apply it nicely and not over correct for the color all the time.
HELP!
Blue + yellow = white, not that it matters
You won't get green from combining blue and yellow light... But the Reveal bulbs aren't particularly blue anyway, so that doesn't matter.
The spectrum of a Reveal bulb is just like any other incandescent, except there's a deep notch at yellow wavelengths and another one in a portion of the red. The light output is very white; it only looks blue by comparison to other incandescents.
I'd try the Reveals. They're not expensive, and even if they don't fix your problem entirely, I can't imagine that they'd make it any worse. The only problem with using Reveals in one fixture is that you may like it so much that you'll want to replace the bulbs in all the others, too.
Is there
always the same kind of daylight at the time that you use the mirror for makeup ?
Do you ever need to reapply in the evening ?
It may be that electric lighting alone won't make up for the paint color, or won't do so consistently. How about hanging white fabric or cardboard over the paint, for the limited time that you will be in the house. Pieces of white cardboard could be held in place with spring sticks -- pieces of light molding or dowels cut just the distance across the skylight well, with the thickness of the board making the necessary snugness. Not the prettiest solution, perhaps -- though I know you'd do it neatly -- but who looks up ?
Then you could stick with one kind of lamp, and be done with it.
Your idea wins SDR!
And I'm sorry Fastfwd, but blue and yellow do make green. Maybe you're confused by pigments versus wavelengths, but I'm talking about pigments. As in the paint pigments reflecting yellow and Reveal bulbs giving off a blue shifted light due to the phosphor coating, which is a pigment. Anyway yes, putting the Reveal light will create a greenish tinge. Trust me, I've been here before and I know of what I speak.
SCR, I think I'll color correct by mounting lavender colored panels up in the well. That ought to cool the light down considerably. I knew one of the clever DA folks would have a good suggestion...and you're cleverer than most!
The
walls of the bathroom are white, and only the skylight well is yellow ? I guess if you made two of the four walls of that well lavender, and left the other two yellow, the resulting mixed reflected light that falls on your face in the mirror might be color neutral. . .unless direct sunlight falls only on the yellow OR the lavender surfaces, and not some of both ?
We are indeed talking additive light rather than compound pigment, here, aren't we ? It is the light that bounces off the painted surfaces, and from the tinted lamps, that we are trying to modify. . .if I understand correctly.
http://www.joyousworld.com/qabalah/color/index.html
Exactly, Barragan.
Ricardo Legorretta who designed this development studied with Barragan. He uses the saturated color thing in similar ways to that of his mentor.
SDR, you have it correct. Only the light well is yellow-orange. And yeah, I'm trying to neutralize this color. Pigments absorb all other wavelengths except for the color that we visually perceive. So I have an excess of an unflattering tone. If I use the complementary color to yellow-orange, blue-violet, I should be able to mellow out the overly warm tonality. Logic there being that the direct comlement would absorb more wavelengths in the range of it's opposite. At least that's my hope. Or I may just live with it. I don't plan to be here more than a year or two.
My worries with the Reveal light bulbs is that I'll create an additive effect rather than a corrective one. We all know how much light tonality affects color perception.
Interesting problem,
good solution!
I visualize their is a forth wall surface in the bay that is not seen from the
approach into the room. Or even when you are at the counter without looking
up and back? A lavender/magenta poster board on that surface?
Cheap and easy enough to test anyway.
Good thinking SDR.
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