Lighting a peninsula

[MVW]

First time dealing with layout lighting, and I could use a little guidance.

My around-the-walls layout will also have a central peninsula, which is what I'm working on at the moment.. I'm using a series of 16” LED under-cabinet lights for illumination. Said LEDs will be mounted to a 1x3 or 1x4 that's attached to the ceiling. Valances will be either hardboard or foam core board attached to the 1x3 or 1x4. Layout height is 56.5 inches.

I haven't had a chance to experiment much yet, but it seemed like using a single row of LEDs above the center of the peninsula would result in shadows on the sides of cars facing the aisles. (The peninsula is 30 to 36 inches wide.) So, it appears that a better course would be running two rows of LEDs.

Am I correct in assuming it's best to position each row of LEDs slightly outside the layout edge, to better illuminate cars on the outermost tracks? And if I do run two rows of LEDs, is another valance going to be necessary to keep the lights above the far side of the peninsula from shining in your eyes?

I plan on mocking something up over the next few days to see how it works, but thought I'd get some idea of best practices first. Thanks for any input.

Jim

[Scottl]

I have been planning something like this, and my tests suggest that lighting needs to be at the edge looking inwards to avoid shadows.   I'll will mock up my new lighting plan when my LED strips arrive from Hong Kong.

[conrail98]

Scott's correct, you want it along the outer edge of the benchwork and angled, if you can, otherwise prime/paint white the inside of the valence, towards the backdrop,

Phil

[peteski]

I have under-cabinet LED lights installed .... under the kitchen cabinets.    What I would be worried about when using these for layout lighting is the multiple and distinct shadows being cast (each for each point of light in the strips).  While that is not a big deal in the kitchen, that might just look really odd on a layout (especially when taking photos).

[robert3985]

I have under-cabinet LED lights installed .... under the kitchen cabinets.    What I would be worried about when using these for layout lighting is the multiple and distinct shadows being cast (each for each point of light in the strips).  While that is not a big deal in the kitchen, that might just look really odd on a layout (especially when taking photos).

In addition to the multiple shadows, you also get multiple hot spots in any shiny surface such as windows, gloss finishes etc., which can really be a problem if you're wanting to take photos using layout lights.

I'm plenty happy with no lighting valence and cheap white drafting lamps with 23W 5,000k cfl's in 'em attached to the tops of my skyboard every three feet.  These allow me to position them for varied lighting for photography, or get them down close to the track or scenery for detail work or repairs.  Since they're the equivalent of 100W incandescents as far as brightness is concerned, they illuminate my 3' wide benchwork quite effectively.  Since they're 5,000k, they emulate middle morning, middle afternoon daylight, which is very good for the auto color balance on my DSLR as well as my eyeballs.

Because they're spaced 3' apart, I don't have any "weird" shadows or hotspots/highlight, except occasionally...and because the lamps swivel and go up, down, forwards and back...they're easy to position for either operation or photos.

Just sayin'...

[MVW]

Funny. I only have two lights to play with, but I'm not getting the multiple-shadow thing. I imagine that could change as I add more units.

I'm not overly concerned with photography, Bob. (If my work looked like yours, I might feel differently.  ) Being able to take some decent shots would be an added bonus, but I'm primarily interested in operation. If I ever decide to become a shutterbug, I'm willing to provide auxiliary lighting for photography.

I didn't feel like letting "perfect" become the enemy of "good" here. A guy could spend days researching this topic (I have), and not be any closer to getting the layout lit. I don't mind research, but the lighting in the layout room is horrendous. I need to get something up and running, and this is a relatively easy (and hopefully, satisfactory) way of speeding that along.

I'm sure hindsight will be 20/20. This is just one of those cases where I'd rather learn by doing than relying on the written reports of others' experiences.

Wish I felt a bit more certain about the arrangement of valances and baffles, though ...

Jim