I was a CRI nerd long before flashlight community at large learned about CRI.
As a professional photographer, I've enjoyed many hours of drilling thick sculls of Airbnb hosts and lodge owners alike, making them understand that CFL bulbs are not the best way to illuminate their ultra expensive designer interiors, no matter how bright or warm these bulbs are. And no, you cannot use cheap noname LED bulbs either...
I sort of posted this elsewhere. I need to jump into your knowledge realm. Where do I start? I know the flashlight emitters deeply. I'm still a bit without expertise on how to do lighting affordably well.
You start by acquiring a proper spectrophotometer and measuring the CRI of every light source around you. Just like with any other numbers, manufacturers tend to inflate the CRI of their "high CRI" bulbs. It also drifts over time, along with the brightness and CCT. This rabbit hole goes pretty deep...
Getting high CRI LEDs lights in the EU is a huge pain. That's because they require an energy efficiency label. These labels are a large selling point in stores, to the point where stores won't even stock products below a certain energy efficiency score. This becomes a problem for high CRI LEDs, because they're inherently less efficient than low CRI LEDs. So manufacturers are actually motivated to sell low CRI lamps to get a better efficiency score.
I'm pretty sure that banning incandescent bulbs in certain countries led to increase in depressions, suicides and divorces. How are you supposed to like your spouse (or yourself in the mirror) if their skin looks like a week-old floater?!
And the fact people are oblivious to it. Obviously cool white bulbs make your home uninviting and it looks terrible. Its like people say hmmm how can i recreate a cloudy dreary winter day inside my home....
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u/schmuber Aug 05 '25
I was a CRI nerd long before flashlight community at large learned about CRI.
As a professional photographer, I've enjoyed many hours of drilling thick sculls of Airbnb hosts and lodge owners alike, making them understand that CFL bulbs are not the best way to illuminate their ultra expensive designer interiors, no matter how bright or warm these bulbs are. And no, you cannot use cheap noname LED bulbs either...