View Full Version : using filters to make special spectrums with existing lights
Cakes
04-06-2007, 01:20 AM
High temperature filters are pretty cheap. Preformed sleeves for fluorescents are a bit more at US$12 each. Generally they use these filters for stage lighting. They have pretty specific nm capacity and come in LOTS of shades and also you can get them custom made.
These pictures were taken using sunlight supplemented with a regular fluorescent and by putting the colored filter in front of the digital camera.
control photo unenhanced for comparison.jpg
a filter meant to change daylight (4300K) to 3200K.jpg
filter to change 3200K to 4300K.jpg
filter with sucessive peaks of 625, 675 and 775nm.jpg
filters used for two previous photos held up in front of a computer monitor, the 'daylight' filter and 'sunset red' filter.jpg
two darker filters taped on a flashlight with no light leaks and a leaf placed on top of the filters. this one is worth clicking on.
gorilla
04-06-2007, 02:26 PM
:hmmmm: ummm?
wakka
04-06-2007, 03:12 PM
ummm, I've listened to this a couple of times, and I can't wrap my head around it. do you have more information dude?
hey wakka,
looks like high temp color filters that slid on a shop light to change the color temps of your light...
from blue to red or even a custom color like a mix of :)
hope that helps dude
eyeseaire
04-06-2007, 04:09 PM
for some reason I can't really wrap my head around it either, even though I understand they change the wavelength of the light.
How is this useful? can you maybe like use blue spectrum part of the day if you have an hps, and wanted to add blue spectrum? Or maybe to correct wavelength of incorrect lamps? could this mean using any bulb, and type of light as long as you can change the color sleave, is possible? Does it decrease light intensity, and how much?
I always thought these things would be too narrow of a band to be used, but you know what they say about assuming.
eyeseaire
04-06-2007, 04:10 PM
or maybe I missed the point entirely and your talking photography.
Cakes
04-06-2007, 06:02 PM
No I'm not talking photography. although they HAVE been fun to play with. and yes I think all of those things you said are possible.
I became intensely interested in using colors to grow with when I saw a grow report where 660nm got used. That is about the color of a red laser sight on a gun. She uses an LED array. And the psychoactive properties of the herb changes. Some strains get short highs that are kind of tryptamine like and some develop massive body stones that last twice as long as regular herb. The grower is reputable and has duplicated those results.
another person i respect tells me he gets joints that burn twice as long when he uses wide spectrum blue oriented HID with oppositional red cfls during budding.
Green may increase brix level and yield in melons, grapes and/or other crops.
Red may increase ripening in tomatoes and instigate budding in cannabis.
Different chloroplast colonies are said to thrive in different, specific and very narrow spectrums. And also that some may want a spectrum that oscillates from one specific wavelength to another specific one and then back again in a two part cycle.
I will get a sheet of 660nm stuff. The color used for the pic with the leaf. and I will use the free swatches from the company to make a rainbow filter for my halogens/tungstens. they also sent me swatches of reflecting material. I will attach a pic. The smooth ones give images almost as good as a mirror.
To make your own filter it might work to use transparent acrylic paint like the little jars sold for painting model airplanes. that's what the craft folks have told me should be the best bet for glass that will be at high temperatures.
Cakes
04-06-2007, 06:34 PM
oh sorry. So how much light do they emit and how much do they block?
it might vary from company to company or from one kind of glass to another but with these swatches, the material they are made from blocks about 12% of the light and then after that it depends on the color of the filter. The chart shows the 660nm coming in at 85% of 100.
Dooby420
04-06-2007, 11:44 PM
Could be a good investment. :D
Elephunt man
04-06-2007, 11:53 PM
I like it....what about a spinning circle under the light with 'pie' peices of each color?....make sense?
gorilla
04-07-2007, 08:38 AM
I like it....what about a spinning circle under the light with 'pie' peices of each color?....make sense?
Sounds like my fiberoptic christmas tree.
Cakes
04-09-2007, 04:58 PM
ha ha. and your Cannamas Tree even has it's own snow crystals.
I talked to the tech guy from where i got my swatches and he says the high temerature filters are good to 536 F/280c.
Cakes
04-09-2007, 05:12 PM
well we don't want to unknowingly buy filters that are rated something different now do we? so i guess since i referenced a spec like the one above, it would be unsafe to not say exactly what product can take those specific temps. The high temperature filters that i was talking about are manufactured by 'leesfilters'.
Cheeseburger
05-07-2007, 04:56 PM
Have there been grow experiments with this? Is the filtered light usable by the plant?
Cakes, you mentioned the LED array earlier.
I have a friend who used florescent through veg then ADDED quite a few LED arrays with larger LED bulbs. The arrays were about 10" in diameter, full of red LED's placed around the plants during bloom.
from what he told me, it was a large improvement in the "fruit'ness", but I didn't see.
Advantages of LED bulbs: they are relatively inexpensive, they use a fraction of the energy ANY other bulb uses (very efficient), and they do not produce heat
It would be interesting to experiment with LED bulbs of different colors of the spectrum. As far as I know, white bulbs are intense blue spectrum, which might be good during veg. Hopefully I have the time and the chance to experiment some day.
Cool filters though, but honestly, all they will do is block out the rest of the spectrum from your lamps. they don't add anything, all they do is remove... so you probably wont see an improvement. just my thoughts... let us know how it turns out:D
Cakes
06-26-2007, 05:04 PM
we shall see about the results, indeed. I have not read of any grow tests done with filters. What they ADD is the ability to have a very specific set of spectrums available without much cash outlay. but it IS possible that they also filter out something that the plant needs, so we shall see indeed.
:)
i actually forgot about this post but have been thinking about the filters.
the only filter on a light that I would want is a green one :D
that would be the best. i don't know if normal green bulbs are actually filtering enough of the other light out. if there was a green filter, that would be ideal for night viewing. do they make a green one?
Cakes
07-03-2007, 05:20 PM
...and come in LOTS of shades and also you can get them custom made.