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Improving post-processing conditions – Part II…

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Still remember this…let’s have another look at it.

So I went on a mission to improve the post-processing room (kitchen) since there were several issues that were bothering me with the setup you see above.

The first order of business was to paint the kitchen cabinet doors. Check out the previous post to see how they looked before.

The painting process was a pain in the backside, mainly due to old paint for the first round and generally just trying to get the surface smooth enough.

Thanks goes out to my parents for helping me with the paint job (and kicking me to go ahead with it).

This still lacks the print, which is going to go above the spice shelf since I never use the other three shelves for anything. I’ll post more about that later.

Next I went out and purchased a light fixture with two T5 daylight balanced fluorescent lamps in it and it provides direct and indirect light at the same time.

It was on sale, but no doubt it was the most expensive piece of this room modification.

The lamps in it are Viva Lite branded so they are not exactly meant for color sensitive work, but even after the modifications, neither is my room, so they’ll do for now.

One thing I noticed right away was the un-wanted glare effect on my monitor which was caused by the light coming down from the lamp.

I had pretty much only one option when it came to placing the light, so I had to solve the problem some other way.

Also the luminosity level from two 28W lamps was pretty high. This wouldn’t have been a problem if this was only my kitchen, but since I do my computer work here, such high luminosity isn’t necessary or even wanted.

Something had to be done with this, so I went ahead and voided my warranty by ripping the fixture apart, taking out the acrylic piece in the middle and applying a silver vinyl on it to stop the direct light from hitting my monitor.

All this could have been avoided by purchasing an indirect light fixture in the first place, but this was something I didn’t think until it was in use.

Next I tackled the led issue. I really didn’t like the flashing blue leds that were placed all over my desk, so something had to be done.

This is my router with a bit of black vinyl applied and no more flashing bright blue leds.

Only problem with these modifications is that sometimes it would be useful to see the leds for diagnostic purposes, but I think I’ll manage without them.

The speaker led no longer shines in my eyes thanks to another small piece of black vinyl.

The monitor led also got the same treatment.

The USB-hub was the only one I had to void my warranty on since there was no good way to stop the light coming from it.

There was a “window” on the bottom which could have easily been taped shut, but the three small light sources on top proved to be damn hard to tape off effectively.

And even after that the leds were actually shining through the USB ports, so out came the screwdriver and pliers.

There were a couple of surface mounted leds on the bottom which were destroyed with a pair of pliers.

And then there were three regular (but smaller) leds which were cut off by moving them back and forth so long that the feet broke off.

After that I applied a bit of vinyl on each of the three pieces of acryl on top (since they were blue and I didn’t like the look) and then I stuck them back in their places.

So now my desk is virtually led-free, only a bit of light coming from my mouse which is red and therefor not that irritating to look at.

I still wasn’t done after that since the biggest problem was still there, the big window behind my screen with yellowish curtains.

I spotted a good deal on darkening curtains a few days back and rushed to get a couple of them.

The bigger one covers the window and even though there’s some light leaking through the sides, it’s really not bothering me one bit.

There’s also a smaller (92cm wide) curtain, which is covering half of the big door frame on the left. It also extends all the way to the floor if necessary.

It’s there to block the light coming from my living room window, but it’s only necessary in the evenings when sun starts to shine through the window.

 

Final words:

 

The photo above doesn’t tell the whole tale, but all in all I’m really happy about this conversion.

The light in the room is really pleasing to the eye, no glares anywhere and the lighting pretty much stays uniform from dusk till dawn and beyond that.

The Wacom tablet can also be seen on the table and even though it is an addition more than a modification, it really does help with post-processing.

And that pretty much wraps up everything I wanted from this project.

Janne

05.07.2011 at 19:00

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