I just installed the LED strip lights under our cabinets as well as using them for up lights. I used the tape variety. They come in two versions the low intensity and high intensity. I used the warm white high intensity, which is not as warm as a regular bulb, but not as ugly as cool white and nothing beats a good old fashioned incandescent bulb. LED's also come in a packaged unit (this looks just like the fluorescent styles) that has all the parts need to run them off of line voltage 120v. The one thing I did not like about those was they had switches built into them which you could use to dim them as well. I just wanted lights all the time. You can dim LED's as long as you use the correct driver and electronic dimmer switch. They are more money for both, and it depends on how many LEDs you are going to use will dictate the driver used. The dimmer switch could also decrease the output (have an on going issue with this on a chandelier that has xenon lights that are dimable). Also the switch cost me $140.00. After getting quotes of over $1000 for the electrical contractor to install, I did it myself for about $300. Luckily I know how to run the wire myself and do the electrical hook up. I had the electrician use a switch to power up an outlet which was over my upper cabinets. We have 9' cabinets and much higher walls so this was not an issue. It can be if you need to use up cabinet space to install the driver/s and wiring. As for glare with under cabinet lights, all lights will add some glare to a point. I found going to a cabinet display store and looked at what they had helped a bit. There are three main types of under cabinet lights. LED, Fluorescent, and halogen other wise called rope lights. Halogen runs the hottest of the three and draws more power. I also do not like the look of fluorescent bulbs. All light creates a glare on the surface of the counter when you walk up to them. For example since I have a polished counter top when you walk up to the counter and look into it you can see the strip lights in the reflection. You will get this with any lights you use. Unless you have honed counters. As for changing the look of the counter I would recommend you try and hold up different types of bulbs to your counter and see what you think. Most light should not change the color of your granite, but stranger things have happened. We have white quartzite counters so are less likely to see a change in color. We have all of the unders on one switch, but then again we only needed about 5' of lighting. Not much upper cabinets here. With just the unders on we have more than enough light to be task and it works for ambiance as well. If we really want it bright we turn everything on, recessed, pendants and unders. Fluorescents are now dimmable but it would cost more just like the LEDs to do this. As for cost you would have to add up the wattage of all the bulbs to see. The LED strips use 2.6 watts for each 12" strip. I have 7' of them being used, this adds up to 18.20 watts. That is about the middle of the fluorescent bulbs for one. Since we are in CA we had to use fluorescent recessed as well. we have 9 cans and each one has a 26 watt bulb in them. When they turn on we are using 234 watts for those. Best way to see how much power you might use is to add up all the light wattage and see. Power is based upon kilowatt hours, which is a 1000 watts. Hopefully this helps a bit.

I do not have mine installed yet, but I did see them turned on when I purchased them. The neutral white ones ares almost twice as bright as the warm white. They would be plenty bright. I was being very particular about the color of the light and decided to give up some brightness for color. I took my granite and stone with me, and I felt that the nuetral white cast a tiny bit of a blue glow on my gold stone. Therefore, I went with the warm white. My thinking was that if it ended up not being bright enough, I could add a second strip of them. (I know $$$, but at this point in a remodel, who's counting anymore!?!) I think is is really your preference and they way you use undercabinet lighting. I have bright recessed cans and pendants over my island, so I wasn't too worried about a very bright under cabinet light.

For food photos go for the highest CRI (color rendering index). This is different that the K value (warm vs cool) or the lumens (brightness).

We have a vent with a fan up in the skylight; it’s how the house came and it has worked alright these past 8 yrs. It’s not super strong but it’s acceptable, and we cook only a few times a week. We did agonize over whether we should’ve put in a hood, but in the end we didn’t want to lose natural sunlight from the skylight, don’t cook that much, liked how easy it was to reach the pots and pans for short people, and ran out of money. It’s a small kitchen so short-people-accessible storage is highly prized. Also I was afraid of spending a lot getting something customized for that challenging venting situation and then not liking it/it working no better than original. Maybe when our resources replenish and we cook more we might revisit the question. Good point about the shade next to stove!