Shop lights

[Dave Bagwill]

The fluorescent tubes the shop are counter-productive to my taking pictures of the gits or making vids.
What I have are 40 watt T8 tubes, but they cast a bluish light that detracts from colors and tones in the wood.

Now I've read a bunch of conflicting opinions about the 'color warmth' that is best for woodworking, so yeah once again I'm confused.

If I stick with the T8 tubes, do you have any recommendations?
Kelvin range below 3,000 or above 5,000? I'm looking for warm natural colors.

[John Parchem]

If you want warmer colors go with 3000K as 5000 is pretty blue. You can also get 3000K LED replacement tubes that work with the ballasts in fluorescent fixtures or rewired to work without the ballasts. What I have found nice with the LED is they do not degrade. With fluorescents I always kept them in to long as the room got darker and darker.

[Dave Bagwill]

I purchased and returned some LED replacement bulbs from Home Depot. Could not get them to work correctly in the fixtures I have at hand.
So I returned them for a couple of T12, 40W, color code 3000 fluorescent bulbs and they give good, warm light. I'm happy with them, and the price is good as well.
I'm glad to have the blue-tinged bright whites out of the shop.

[Dave Bagwill]

Note: by '3000' of course I meant 3000K (Kelvin). A nice warm light.
Not to be confused with 'lumens' which are a measure of brightness, not of warmth or coldness.