ProSoundWeb Community

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Color mixing on reflection in RGBW pinspots  (Read 2110 times)

Eleanor Saitta

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 6
Color mixing on reflection in RGBW pinspots
« on: August 20, 2018, 09:51:26 AM »

Hi!

I run a small private venue in Helsinki, and I've got a few RGBW pinspots bounced off a mirrorball.  Unfortunately, in the reflection, you can pretty clearly see the LED elements, instead of getting a single, uniform color.  I had the ADJ Saber Spots in, and I've just swapped them for the Cameo Q-Spots, which are better but still not great.  Is there anything on the market in a relatively cheap (<€200, ideally) RGBW pinspot that actually does proper color blending?
Logged

Eleanor Saitta

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 6
Re: Color mixing on reflection in RGBW pinspots
« Reply #1 on: August 20, 2018, 10:31:49 AM »

(I'm happy to hear suggestions about ways to tweak the lights I've got so they reflect more cleanly, but short of opening them up and shoving a bit of diffuser between the LED chip and the optics, I don't think there's that might to be done)
Logged

Paul G. OBrien

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1393
« Last Edit: August 20, 2018, 11:35:15 AM by Paul G. OBrien »
Logged

Dave Garoutte

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3386
  • San Rafael, CA
Re: Color mixing on reflection in RGBW pinspots
« Reply #3 on: August 20, 2018, 12:22:17 PM »

I've experienced the same thing.
I don't think there's much you can do with the lights you have.
If you diffuse them enough to blur the colors, you will reduce the brightness and sharpness of the reflection enough to defeat it's purpose.
I think you're stuck with finding other pin spots.
Logged
Nothing can be made idiot-proof; only idiot resistant.

Events.  Stage, PA, Lighting and Backline rentals.
Chauvet dealer.  Home of the Angler.
Inventor.  And now, Streaming Video!

Jeff Lelko

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2017
  • Cape Canaveral, FL
Re: Color mixing on reflection in RGBW pinspots
« Reply #4 on: August 20, 2018, 12:41:13 PM »

If you diffuse them enough to blur the colors, you will reduce the brightness and sharpness of the reflection enough to defeat it's purpose.

Exactly.  A mirror ball basically reflects an image of the light you shine into it, which is why you're not seeing mixed colors in the beams reflected off the ball.  You can try a bit of light diffusion, but it's going to be a compromise.  The old school approach is to just use difference colored pinspots for each color you want.  The 90s approach is to use an intelligent light with a color wheel (which can be had pretty cheap these days).  By the 2000s CMY wasn't that much to ask for.  2010?  Point a Showgun at it and call it a day.  And now the approach is to either do as you've done with LED and call it good enough or pull on a solution from the past.  My vote is for a cheap moving light with a color wheel.  Additive mixing won't help you here.  Good luck!
Logged

Eleanor Saitta

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 6
Re: Color mixing on reflection in RGBW pinspots
« Reply #5 on: August 20, 2018, 01:31:08 PM »

Just for kicks, before I gave up on these, I figured I'd see what they looked like inside.  Here we go:



Because it was so easy to get direct access to the chip, I figured I'd try a little diffuser:



Turned out that since I could get it behind the lens, I actually didn't get that much more light spread after all, nor lose that much brightness:



These have ad-hoc tophats on them, but they already needed that, because they fall off into the field far more slowly and broadly than I'd like.  With the diffuser, there's a touch more of that, but not much.  It's still not perfect in the reflection, but it's not bad — it's a bit better than even this photo makes it look:



Thanks much for the suggestions!
Logged

ProSoundWeb Community

Re: Color mixing on reflection in RGBW pinspots
« Reply #5 on: August 20, 2018, 01:31:08 PM »


Pages: [1]   Go Up
 



Site Hosted By Ashdown Technologies, Inc.

Page created in 0.027 seconds with 24 queries.