Asklemmy

43901 readers

1514 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
!lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

Can someone ELI5 why often lights set up with a dimmer also flicker? (mander.xyz)

submitted 3 months ago by Mothra@mander.xyz to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

30 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Seen this in many houses, people upgrade their lighting setup and install a dimmer. Which works. But usually it also makes the lights flicker unintentionally, which is super annoying IMO.

Now, my understanding of electrical engineering is pretty rudimentary so I'd appreciate more something that explains the concept in a way that Cavewoman Mothra can understand rather than something technically accurate.

Thanks

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] demesisx@infosec.pub 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Hi Lazaro!

That’s not always true, actually. For example, Digital Sputnik lights (and some LED tape that I have that I use my current control dimmers on) utilize current control dimming. This alternative type of dimming allows them to work even with super high speed frame-rates due to having very little or even no perceivable flicker. It’s certainly unpopular in comparison to PWM but definitely not unheard of in the film industry.

I used to use the technique you mention with >2K tungsten lights for footage above 1000 fps. I figured out (in the absence of a budget that could afford a DC rectifier) that if I ran the same amount of lights on each of the legs of a 3 phase Delta style Gennie that they would effectively fill in each others’ pulses. I further enhanced that effect by shining all 6 5K’s (for example) on the same rag.

I used that technique here: https://youtu.be/w9-NoEnWSgk

[–] LazaroFilm@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That’s awesome! I love how deep we are going with this! I have to admit I don’t k or as much about cinema lighting as I know about cameras and Steadicam.

[–] demesisx@infosec.pub 8 points 2 months ago

I’m happy to share any experiences I have had as we’re likely the only two filmmakers in the whole fediverse right now!