Question for the photo geeks... errr gurus

[Aaronw]

I'm planning on building a display case for models, and I am looking for lighting ideas. Since photography is very concerned with lighting I though you guys would be good ones to throw ideas at. I'm looking at a case about 2 feet x 4 feet and a display area 2-3 feet high (it will sit on a pedestal to bring the display portion to a comfortable viewing height) with glass full size shelves and large areas of glass on 3 sides.

Incandecent lights seem to be the preferred choice for photographing models. I don't really want to use incandecents in the booth because of the heat, halogens are out for the same reason.

Many people seem to dislike flourescent lights because of the color shift they can cause. I have used daylight flourescents in the house and office and they have a much more natural color. Flourescent lights are also fairly easy to fit into a booth since they are fairly small and lie across the top.

I'm seriously considering going with LED lights since they are small and bright, run cool, last forever and would be easy to locate where ever I want light so I'm not just limited to light from the top. I have no idea what the quality of their light is or the effect on colors. Most that I've seen seem to run more of a blue / white like flourescents not the yellow light of daylight or incandecents.

So any suggestions for my lighting?

[Gregg]

LED's are very good, you can get daylight balanced ones too, but I think they are pricey and hard to find.

I would go with daylight flourescents, that is what I use throughout my house as well

They give a slight blue glow, but I am used to that.

They have them in standard sizes, and I have seen them in the shorter sizes.

These could fit in the case in the smaller 18" fixtures.

I will see what I can find for the LEDs.

I had a source, but I lost the bookmark.

[Aaronw]

Thanks, I'm leaning towards daylight flourescents but I do like the small size and put anywhere aspect of LEDs so if you find that link it would be handy. This is probably a summer long project so I have plenty of time to do more research on lighting.