What lighting for new shop

[2018RegCab5.3]

As titled, I'm trying to decide what all lighting to use on my new shop and what variations. I am building a 40x50 shop for detailing. I have already decided (I think) that all of the interior walls are going to be painted a dark grey / black and the floor will be a white epoxy. So far i have 24ea 4ft LED Shop lights and also 24ea 4ft T8 shop lights. I plan on alternating 28 of the light on the ceiling of the shop, and mounting the remaining 20 lights on the side walls. Does anyone have any real professional experience with paint colors / lightings combos that are effective?

[GXPaycheck]

There’s some good threads on the subject over at Garagejournal.com. I’d try there. 

[pirahnah3]

Cant really comment on lighting layout without seeing the layout of the shop but most will tell you there is almost no such thing as too much light. What I would plan on esspecially with the dark walls is to get a fair amount of wall light coming straight at the cars, or some just above seated height with a slight down angle to help keep your shadow out of the way. Certainly need plenty from above as well. 

 

LED are going to be your best bet but watch out for the color temp aka Kelvin rating. Sunlight is around 5k and I would personally stick around that area as it will keep your eyes a bit happier even with all the light as it is more natural. You can certainly go higher in rating up towards the bright white/8k and up range and get some really almost blue white light but for me personally I dont like the color of it to work with regularly. 

[Captain Slow]

On 10/24/2018 at 10:11 PM, 2018RegCab5.3 said:

As titled, I'm trying to decide what all lighting to use on my new shop and what variations. I am building a 40x50 shop for detailing. I have already decided (I think) that all of the interior walls are going to be painted a dark grey / black and the floor will be a white epoxy. So far i have 24ea 4ft LED Shop lights and also 24ea 4ft T8 shop lights. I plan on alternating 28 of the light on the ceiling of the shop, and mounting the remaining 20 lights on the side walls. Does anyone have any real professional experience with paint colors / lightings combos that are effective?

The dark grey/black walls are a winner. In our facility (wholesale optical laboratory) we have a black background with bright lighting for inspection purposes. We cannot find flaws against a light colored background as they get lost in the light. The contrast with a black background means there’s no place for swirls, scratches, pitting, contaminants, etc to hide.

 

I learned when I had a white Cadillac ATS4 to polish with all the lights off in my garage except for the pedestal work light. This provided me with all the contrast I needed to see what needed fining or polishing. This also worked great when coating the car, no missed spots and no missed high spots.