This is exactly what we do here , we have a dimmer with tungsten lights to view our exhibition prints ,, we find out lighting of the shows and look closely that way , Bright room lights are just put on for checking for artifacts and such.
For every print we usually do a slight variation to give the photographer a choice.
Regarding viewing prints ..... I do all my dodge and burn judgments in the developer now.. I watch for emergence times of various areas of the print and make a mental note which areas are slow to show themselves and what areas are too horny and come up to fast.
The room lights are for quick and I mean quick assesment of contrast which in my case is a % of hard and soft light on the print. Once printing I rarely switch the basic soft and hard filters... usually 1 and 5 and base all judgements on time of each.
Also I do not keep any test strips or prints laying around , they go immediately to the garbage, the only prints that are in the water rinse trays are those that are considered for the client to purchase.
So in my case , all important details are done before the lights are turned on and for sure I want to consider where the prints are going over looking at the prints in darkroom florescent lighting.
I like the Thompson lights as well as they can be adjusted for mood and lighting in the darkroom.
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Originally Posted by df cardwell  Ages ago, I met a wonderful printer who had a viewing light on a dimmer, to examine a wet print, and because she only printed with one or two papers, was able to adjust the lux for whatever she was printing. Besides that, if she knew where a print was going to be placed, would visit the site and measure the viewing light. She examined her dry prints at THAT level. It was very simple to accommodate both techniques. When I started using a Thomas safelight, it was easy to adjust the safe light light to the be close to the wet viewing light. Of course a few papers didn't like that, most did, and sometimes a the restrainer needed to be adjusted in the developer.
Back in the '90s, didn't Howard Bond talk about a wet light on a dimmer ? Can't remember.
Anyway. Point is, we DON'T have to work in the dark, however we work.
LOPAKA: Joe Clark, a great guy.
CALLOW: where's the beer ?
ERIC: The Ilford trick snuck up on me, I was drinking beer and printing and listening to a really good hockey game. It gradually sunk in what was going on, but it was too late to do anything about it so I just sat down, opened another pop and listened to the rest of the game.
Everybody, I've got the COOLEST picture of Suzanne working in her studio.....
But, umm, its d*g*t*l so I can't show ya !
Matt: hiya ! Salmon running in Iowa ? |