Hi all
This is my first post to the forum so hello to all you forum folk!
I play a lot with lights (with very little tech knowledge though). I make thousands of lantern lights for parades and various bespoke (shonky) lights for my long exposure light painting photos. However I have become stumped with a project I have on at the minute…
(All the ramblings below add up to this: I need a 500 (ish) lumen 1 smd light source in order to cast strong crisp shadows. Ideally something I dont have to build myself)
The project:
I’m making laser cut steel panels with botanical designs cut in to them. These will be sconces/shades fixed to an exterior wall through which I want to shine a light so that the cut out pattern will be projected on to the floor. Essentially they are big steel lampshades, likely to be around 60cm x 40 cm. They will be around 10-15cm from the light source.
The link below will show you an example of the effect I’m trying to create. (Couldn’t hotlink and show it here for some reason)
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/KK…4-h930-tmp.jpg
My problem:
I need the smallest pinprick of light of the highest lumen output in order to cast a crisp shadow. It needs to be suitable for exterior use too. There are many light sources that will give me a blurry shadow, but very few that make it crisp. It really needs to be a tiny, naked light source, as far as I can tell. I would love to find some off the shelf product that would suit, but would also consider building something - or working with someone experienced who could make something bespoke for me.
Close, but no cigar:
The closest I have to a solution is this:
It’s a festoon bulb to fit car number plates or reading lights. It claims to be 250 lumens and is in fact incredibly bright. The tiny single emitter means that there is almost no blurring of the shadow on the floor. I can house it in a waterproof case and use standard car bulb fittings.
However, I need a bit more oomf! I think that I could really do with 400-500 lm.
The only things that seem to be able to do the job are the cree xlamps. However I can’t seem to find that in any consumer product (such as a car bulb) as a single smd.
What I’ve tried:
Cheap chinese Creee Q5 torches give me quite a nice light and crisp shadows, but I obviously cant hook this up to the mains.
0.5w strawhat led. Perfect light - way too dim
10w COB floodlights- Perfect brightness. Weatherproof. Unfortunately, they cast a fuzzy shadow.
3030 superblock 1.4w 120 lumen module. A bit fuzzy and a bit too dim.
Can anyone help with a solution or suggest alternatives?
Any help of any sort would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Andy