Garage lighting what should I do? Please help

[lombardigarage]

I’m building a facility in my garage for my boys, I painted the walls flat black which I think was a mistake so I may change it to a light gray because of lighting.

I removed the lights that were originally there and put in new cam lights. Here

FYI I know nothing when it comes to lighting, I’m just a dad who’s winging it and probably sending too much money doing it the wrong way.

My problem is with the new lights I’ve added to the garage. Now, it looks foggy and blurry, if that makes any sense. It’s way too dark in the corners and different spots. I have a total of six lights, which I know isn’t enough. The lighting is just very uncomfortable to the eyes. I’m not sure if I should go with a different lighting system, but my question is: do you have any recommendations for what I should do for the garage, which is about 650 square feet with 9-foot ceilings? Is there any way I can position the lights so they’re not so harsh on the eyes? Do you recommend placing them elsewhere or using a different lighting source. I’ll attach a before and after but keep in mind the after photo looks like there’s more light than there really is cause the camera adjusting. Thank you in advance for any help and suggestions.

 

[cybrdyke]

Good lighting relies on reflectance to bounce light into spaces so that it fills in where it's not directly lit. Black doesn't reflect light. Neither does astroturf, so you've eliminated all of that. In order to make up for that lack of reflectance, you'll need more fixtures to direct light into those areas, but that would make your glare problem even worse. A white ceiling and light color walls is probably your best solution.
The fixtures that you used, commonly called wafer lights, are notoriously glarey. You have a bunch of light emitting from a small disc that's flush with the surface. A 9' ceiling puts these lights right into your line of sight, which is annoying. You can get similar lights that have the lens recessed into the fixture. That takes the lit surface out of your view and reduces glare. The deeper the recess, the better.
Hope that helps a little.
CD

 

[whitesco]

I can’t add to the lighting discussion, but nice job on the “kids space” garage. Different than the usual garage setups we see here a lot; working on that Dad of the Year nomination maybe?

 

[four.cycle]

BLACK eats light.
Change the color.
Buy as much LED as you can afford.

Last fixture I purchased (for the dance studio) was a 48-inch replacement for a 2-tube fluorescent fixture. It used "LED strips" - worked great.

 

[zendriver]

^this

IMO make no other changes, until you repaint to a hopefully much lighter color.

That might be enough.

 

[lombardigarage]

Good lighting relies on reflectance to bounce light into spaces so that it fills in where it's not directly lit. Black doesn't reflect light. Neither does astroturf, so you've eliminated all of that. In order to make up for that lack of reflectance, you'll need more fixtures to direct light into those areas, but that would make your glare problem even worse. A white ceiling and light color walls is probably your best solution.
The fixtures that you used, commonly called wafer lights, are notoriously glarey. You have a bunch of light emitting from a small disc that's flush with the surface. A 9' ceiling puts these lights right into your line of sight, which is annoying. You can get similar lights that have the lens recessed into the fixture. That takes the lit surface out of your view and reduces glare. The deeper the recess, the better.
Hope that helps a little.
CD

Thank you so much for the detailed reply

 

[lombardigarage]

I can’t add to the lighting discussion, but nice job on the “kids space” garage. Different than the usual garage setups we see here a lot; working on that Dad of the Year nomination maybe?

lol thank you im trying!

 

[four.cycle]

I feel your pain.
When I was 16 I painted my bedroom marijuana-leaf green.
Truly awful and I was lucky to have not gone blind.

 

[nadogail]

There are many considerations involved in making a lighting plan for a workshop.

The colors of the ceilings, walls and floors all interact. The color temperature also makes a difference.

 

[ez-duzit]

Exceedingly poor choices so far.

Here is what my shop looks like with the lights (mostly 4' LED and fluorescent) on.