LED candle/ warm tint 'mod'

I still think candle light very pleasing. Very warm color (orange), which I like:



Recently I decided to filter my cool white LEDs so they more approximated a warm light source. Not a diffuser nor a simple color filter, no.. I chose $5 sunglasses



Don't laugh, this worked quite well. If you're willing to waste a lot of light you can completely resculpt the LEDs spectrum this way. These orange/rose tinted glasses block a lot more blue light than red. Exactly what you want to tame the excessive blue in the LEDs spectrum.

I simply cut out a disc from the sun-glasses and then attach this to the flashlight using a rubber band.

Here are two Cree based Fenix lights. The white one is on low, the warm one (right) is on high. I estimate you loose 90% of the light this way (100 lumens becomes closer to 10).


I used my Aeon on low way and went for a hike. It worked quite well. The filter reduced the output from 10 lumens to 1-2 lumens. However it was enough to walk by. The light output is less obtrusive with much less glare after filtering.

Here's the output on low. On left is Aeon, filtered from 10 lumens down to 1-2. On the right is an 'Ion' (both Muyshondt lights), 2-4 lumens.


This technique has a few advantages over using a warm LED. It completely filters most of the blue from the spectrum. This may have advantages in bad weather conditions (fog, smoke, etc). A warm tinted LED still has a lot of excess blue in its spectrum caused by the LED itself. It's easy to take the filter off and switch back to more efficient cool white.

Candle in the bathroom:

You might as well swap in a Rebel PC Amber.

I really could not be bothered with all the messing about.

It seems that finding a way to attach custom diffusers/filters to the light is the hardest part.

I wonder if something like just the tinted film would work well for this? At first I was thinking of those weird old sunglasses they used to sell that rolled up in a tube and then i was thinking something along the lines of the tinted film you can use on your car windows. Something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000630DDA/?tag=cpf0b6-20

how much light do you think that would lose though?

All sorts of things work. Just a matter of getting the tint you're looking for w/out too much overall attenuation. I definitely think blocking out a lot of the blue light was part of the effect I was after.

Other than that, it's all in how you attach the filter. Rubber band works and is shoe-string, however there are other simple cap options that can be fashioned without too much hassle.

Point is there's no need to purchase warm tinted LEDs when you can get the same effect using a cheap filter/screen.

It'll be much cheaper and easier to get a sheet of CTO gel at a film supply company. It's easier to work with and allows more light to pass through it.