A lighting reproduction apparatus for illuminating a subject includes a reproduction light optical source that generates reproduction light. The optical source includes a plurality of light emitters, each characterized by an individual color channel. There may be nine different color channels. A driver drives the light emitter color channels with intensity values at which a substantial spectral match is achieved between the reproduction light and the desired illuminant, so that the subject appears to be illuminated by the desired illuminant. These channel intensity values may be determined by solving a minimization equation that minimizes a sum of square residuals of the reproduction light spectra to the desired illuminant spectra. The output reproduction light may be metamerically, matched with the desired illuminant, with respect to a particular camera's spectral response. One or more spectral reflectances of the subject may be measured and incorporated into the optimization process.