[softgrow]

I built a very bright light source using a lamp stand from Ikea and the brightest, narrowest beam LED reflector I could find from my big box hardware store. The project works and gave about 10,000 lux but had a few drawbacks. After reading a book for a while a got a headache. The slightest imperfection (read dirt) in the arms of the armchair becomes super obvious. When I look at my right arm holding the book, it's so bright I'm sure I can see veins and arteries. I ended up getting a lamp less bright and that's great for sewing/electronics/fine work but there are limits for how bright you might want to go indoors. I kept the too bright globe for demonstration purposes.

[greg9381]

Why did you want a very narrow beam? It seems like the opposite of what you would want from a lamp but I think I'm misunderstanding. And do you have the name of the less bright lamp you got?

[jannyfer]

The headache could have been from LED flicker. I bought a corn cob LED bulb and it had some high frequency flicker that was visible when using a camera with no anti-flicker compensation.

[mr_toad]

Sunlight can be 3-10 times that bright. No wonder the outdoors looks so dirty.