does room lighting matter?

[lblongs]

I am relatively new to photography and was wondering what the optimal or ideal lighting conditions would be in the room I am doing my photo editing, if any. I am purchasing a color calibration system to help calibrate my monitor, but is it equally important to have just the right lighting or am I overthinking all of this?

Thank you!

[acedrew]

Mixed temperature or low CRI lighting is the one thing you can't fix in post. Get the light right. Mixing incandescent and strobe can produce some strange effects, as well as fluorescent and strobe. Knowing what type of light you have can go a long way toward being able to prepare for the shot.

Check out my blog series on different types of lighting: Continuous Lighting; The Pro’s best kept secret: Part 1

Andrew Rodgers
Perfected Perspectives -- Photography by Andrew Rodgers | Andrew Rodgers (acedrew) on Twitter | Login | Facebook

[acedrew]

Wow, totally misunderstood what you were saying! LOL yes, low glare and clean daylight balanced light do help with editing. I recommend 5500K CFLs, keep the lights low and ambient, unless you're also looking at prints.

Andrew Rodgers
Perfected Perspectives -- Photography by Andrew Rodgers | Andrew Rodgers (acedrew) on Twitter | Login | Facebook

[ttosifa]

In my experience, definitely. I once installed some sort of "natural light" bulb above my work area. The light was very red. After a night of editing pictures of people, I'd look at the pictures in the morning and everybody looked sunburned.

The problem is that your eyes will automatically neutralize an off-color light, so editing by eye can introduce the same color cast in your pictures. Alternatively, you can correct color by numbers (see Margulis' "Professional Photoshop") and it won't matter what lights you use. You just can't believe what you see.