h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Light from a matchbox - A700732
Author: Dave E Lamp - U182399

Should stimulate discussion, if not solution!

It took me some time to figure out that you're talking about things an LD would *want* to have, rather than about latest developments. Or am I mistaken?

"The physics of light can be very restricting as to what can be achieved by a television lighting designer and it would not be unreasonable for some effort to be targeted at overcoming some of the disadvantages of light."
Your opening sentence is a run-on. It should give an idea of what you're talking about. I found it very confusing, instead.

Thanks for the comments. I've rewritten the opening so hopefully it makes more sense of something that is not sensible to begin with!

I have to admit just skimming through this and I'm too tired to make proper comments. However, a couple of the paragraphs were *very* long and IMHO would benefit by being broken into smaller chunks.

I'll have another look tomorrow!

You can have strong light from something the size of a matchbox. I have a flat torch which sits in the palm of my hand. It uses a very small battery which powers three high power LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes). The light it slightly bluish, like daylight. You could hide numerous high power LEDs all over the set instead of using a huge bank of lights. High Power LEDs also run cool! You could have large arrays of these any size and shape and colour you desire. A 10 foot square array of LEDS would probably not cast shadows and if the array were mounted on a flexible board, it could be warped to provide numerous lighting effects. And, because LEDs run cool, you could shield various parts of the array with lightweight materials. You could also mount a smaller array in the back of a cardboard box and use the flaps as barn doors.

My mind is running away with itself here and I'm sure you too will experience the same if these ideas prove to be useful to you.

Slowing down light and even stopping it dead in its tracks is possible, but you wouldn't be able to see it. An alternative might be to experiment with polorisation filters. If you shone a beam of light polorised at a thin screen that only allowed light through polorised at 90 degrees to that of your light source, anything infront of the screen would be lit and everything behind would be in the darkness. Of course, anything behind the screen could be independently lit and would be visible from the front so long as the backlight was in phase with the screen.

You can't have new colours without performing surgery on the eye. The eyes has receptors for red, green, and blue. The brain "invents" the other colours of the spectrum. You must have noticed that coloured spots cast shadows of their complimentary colour. Look at a TV screen with a magnifying glass and you will see tiny dots or bars of red, green and blue. By varying the intensity of these dots, you can create all the shades of all the colours, but they are still only different intensities of red, green and blue, it's the brain that creates all the shades that you "see".

Forgot to mention that HP Leds run on low voltage DC so would be ideal for lighting remote outdoor sets; no big gennies to cart around, just a box of batteries.

More on HP LED arrays: Could have a hole in the middle to poke camera lens through and they would be light enough to clip on mic booms and any othet kit. Also no cables trailing over the floor.

I checked the power of my torch which has just two LEDS od about 6mm diameter mounted side by side about 4 mm apart. I took it up to one of my fields which is 1.37 acres in area. Standing in the centre, the light from those two tiny LEDS was of sufficient strength to make out the perimeter fences and 19 alpacas hunkered down at the top of the field. Ok, it was gloomy, but imagine what a 10 x 10 arrage could do to a subject 20 feet away! Incidentally, it goes without saying (I'm saying it anyway) that these little LEDs are extremely bright.

Hope this helps.