How to tell if your bulbs need to be replaced, a Photoshop guide.

Discussion in 'Reef Lighting' started by Dr. Bergeron, Mar 21, 2010.

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  1. Dr. Bergeron

    Dr. Bergeron Peppermint Shrimp

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    Sometimes when your bulbs are getting old it's tough to tell. Here's a quick and dirty set of instructions that should help you determine if you need to replace them (provided you have Photoshop). This will probably work with MH as well, but I tested this on T5's.

    1. Take a picture of your lighting ballast.
    [​IMG]
    for your reference, from left to right lit bulbs are:
    10K daylight old
    10K daylight less than 3 weeks old
    10K daylight old
    old acitinic.

    2. In photoshop, go to layers->new adjustment layer->color balance.
    3. Add a new red layer with darken, click ok.
    4. Set shadows, midtones, and highlights all to 100% for Cyan.
    5. Apply, you should now bring out all the red wavelengths that your camera has picked up:
    [​IMG]
    As you can clearly see, I need to replace the 1st bulb badly, while the new bulb looks fine, and the 3rd bulb is starting to get red.

    Hope this helps anyone that thinks they may need to replace lights but isn't sure.
     
    13 people like this.
  2. Click Here!

  3. Robman

    Robman Great White Shark

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    That is awesome....I will try this in a couple of months!!! Nice Post.
     
  4. rdarris

    rdarris Feather Duster

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    that is one cool trick, ive never seen that before.
     
  5. inwall75

    inwall75 Giant Squid

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    Excellent

    +Karma
     
  6. CrazyA

    CrazyA Feather Duster

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    I'll try that method out, thanks for posting Dr.B
     
  7. elweshomayor

    elweshomayor Giant Squid

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  8. Click Here!

  9. Night-Rida

    Night-Rida Finback Whale

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    interesting! in deed., so how many vodka and tonic's did you drink before figuring that out.. lol its like a infared red camera!
     
  10. horkn

    horkn Giant Squid

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    That is interesting, but a lux or par meter will test the "accuracy" of this test.


    How old were the old bulbs?
     
  11. ingtar_shinowa

    ingtar_shinowa Giant Squid

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  12. missionsix

    missionsix Super Moderator Staff Member

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