The Photon Eater

We attended a theater performance the other night, got bored and slipped out of our first ring (balcony) seats during the first act. We exited into a very dimly lit hall which runs around the rear periphery of the auditorium, separated by doors from the auditorium and the main lobby. The walls and ceiling were painted or papered an extremely deep and dark red and the carpet was the same color. We were practically the only people there and since the lights were very dim I felt my Flashaholic gene stirring.

I decided to work through my EDC starting with the keyring ARC AAA whose beam appeared almost nonexistant. Next came my trusty LSH-P whose light almost disappeared into the strange red darkness. I was reaching for my L4 when my long-suffering and now embarassed girlfriend grabbed my arm and tried to drag me toward the lobby door. I told her to wait in the lobby if she must but please take an exit at the end so she wouldn't destroy my night vision.

Out came the L4 and I was shocked at how little impression it made. Finally I was ready to deploy my big gun, Nascar's great P61/E2E mod. This time the light clearly but not very brightly registerd and provoked a distinct reflection from what I now realized was actually a subtle "eggshell" finish on the walls and ceiling. Remarkably, even 120 lumens of well projected power (fresh Surefires) was not enough to overcome this strange light swallowing hall.

I read a CPF post about Flashaholics exploring "lava tubes" and having a similar experience but I remain puzzled. In the pitch blackness of a moonless country night even the Little AAA ARC seemed plenty bright but that hall was having lumens for dinner. Of course darker colors absorb light but that hall was nowhere near black and the way it nearly neutralized light was almost uncanny.

Brightnorm

Part of this is likely the fact that it was dark red. Luxeons have very very little red in them. I am not sure about 5mm Nichias.

But then wouldn't they show up more strongly having a different, lighter color?

BN

[ QUOTE ]
Saaby said:
Part of this is likely the fact that it was dark red. Luxeons have very very little red in them. I am not sure about 5mm Nichias.

[/ QUOTE ]
The white Nichias have a dip in the red part of the spectrum too, so they'd also appear darker than usual.

No. White light is because Red, Orange, Blue, Green, etc. goes out from your flashlight and mixes in your eye. If you shine it on something white than all the colors bounce off that, mix in your eye and you get white. Red absorbs all colors except red, which it bounces back. Well if the LED isn't producing much red than there isn't much to bounce back at your eye.

Next time try an E2E or something like that... very rich in the red spectrum.

David <><

[ QUOTE ]
Saaby said:
No. White light is because Red, Orange, Blue, Green, etc. goes out from your flashlight and mixes in your eye. If you shine it on something white than all the colors bounce off that, mix in your eye and you get white. Red absorbs all colors except red, which it bounces back. Well if the LED isn't producing much red than there isn't much to bounce back at your eye.

[/ QUOTE ]

Interesting; that would explain it.

BN