Thursday, November 18, 2021
The art and science behind dichroic filters
et cetera...: High End Systems has been making dichroic color filters for the live event industry for over 30 years. But what is a dichroic filter, how is it different than gel, and what are the benefits of using this stunningly beautiful glass that’s also found in artwork, jewelry, architectural accents, and furniture around the world?
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This article referenced reflecting heat, and that was definitely confusing as I did not understand how that can happen? Is the light for these lenses not pushing through the lens to get that effect of a new color when it comes out the other end so where is the distinction between these and gels in that respect? MY understanding for these is that they are just better than gels? They can keep lights brighter, get closer to white which is something we learned in our mini that was difficult to do, but my guess is that the counterpoint to them being better in terms of use is that they are much more expensive to get something that lasts that long, or perhaps delicate or not suited for traveling, because often we go back to broadway productions or productions where money is no object and my question is are they used there, and why wouldn’t they be if they simply do the jobs of gels but better? Gels seem to be the industry standard, and is it now just too built in to the nature of the lights’ frames themselves to easily use them?
Dichroic glass filters are so interesting. I have been fascinated by them since before I knew their uses in the theatrical lighting world. I remember several years back seeing an art piece made using several laminated and layered pieces of dichroic glass all encapsulated in a cube resulting in a mesmerizing chunk of glass with very colorful, shifting patterns of color. The dichroic layer is so thin that it is essentially invisible when viewed from the side, so the color just disappears when you look at it right. When it comes to the lighting side of things, I knew that dichroics are often used in lighting fixtures, particularly moving lights, in both the color chips as well as the mixing wheels. What I did not know, though, is that the dichroic layer not only reflects the light, but the heat as well. I knew gels burned out, but I never really considered the fact that I have never noticed a mixing wheel or color chip lose its color and get burned out. This is obviously very beneficial to the light, and it is the exact reason why this technology is used, but still very interesting to learn about.
I have been really interested in dichroic glass actually. During this whole semester I have been doing a lot of repairing of moving lights in our lighting department and a lot of the work I have been doing is on the color modules of the lights. Our equipment in the lighting department is a bit older so many of our fixtures use CMY subtractive color mixing and have these pieces of dichroic glass that mix the color. On the first fixture, I had to separate out all of the dichroic glass discs to repair the inside of the module. It is really interesting how when you hold the glass up, you can’t really tell what color it is until you are able to look through it or shine light through it. I really enjoyed reading more about High End Systems actually manufactures these glass discs and the actual science behind them and how they are used in a lighting fixture.
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