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Thinking about this today.....Love to see it photochopped on my car.....hint hint.
Voila!
... I did them in "smoke" too, just for the hell of it
... Yellow or smoked headlights is something I was considering before as well, but in the end I decided against both. The problem with the yellow headlights is that IMHO they only look good on full on "race cars." Evidence:
^You need at LEAST an aerokit & lowering for the yellow to look good, otherwise they just looks oxidized, or like some vandal pissed on your headlights, hahaha.
...As for the smoked, I decided against them because of my car/wheel colors, but they'd look great on your car Ed.
They are great for protecting the lights from rocks. In order to find out if they are street legal check with the whichever dept. does the annual car inspections e.g. DMV. They will know better than the police. In NJ anything covering the headlights are illegal, but the police have never bothered me about them. I remove them prior to the car inspection and reinstall them afterwards. Also, by definition the tinted ones filter the light so be aware that the reduction in brightness may affect your night time driving, even with the brighter HID lights. I have a set from www.xpel.com. Thicker than regular clear bra paint film; 40 mil thickness (about 10 sheets of paper).
Thoughts on how much impact on light output would a yellow film contribute?
I've worked in the television/broadcast industry for more than 25 years which involves intensive study of studio lighting and colored filters. These yellow headlight films are nothing more than translucent sheets of dyed polycarbonate film or what we called in the studio as "colored gels". Normally, a colorized film like what's shown in this thread should not affect light output (measured in lumens) very much. The most common in racing is yellow or 600ish nanometers. People claim that colorizing to the yellow spectrum is more pleasing to the eyes than say a bright blueish gel. There are many reasons why race cars use yellow headlight films, but it seems the longer wavelength of the yellow spectrum is supposedly "safer" and potentially more effective for visibility when driving in inclement weather.
But to answer your question about light output... It's a hard question to answer without measuring equipment like a light meter. The light output loss depends on the design of the actual colorized film. In-studio lighting, our gels are numbered depending on color temp. and radiant power or light output for all colors in the spectrum. For example, you may have two colored gels of the same color family, one passes 100 lumens and the other passes 1000 lumens. Another factor to consider is the light output of the actual headlight. Are you using halogen or Xenon bulbs- big difference in light output and color temperature. Halogen type bulbs usually produce around 3200 Kelvin light vs. 6000+ Kelvin of Xenon bulbs. And then again, light output measured in lumens is an additional factor.
That being said, I would expect a lumens drop to be between least 5% - 10%. That's a wild guess.
I've worked in the television/broadcast industry for more than 25 years which involves intensive study of studio lighting and colored filters. These yellow headlight films are nothing more than translucent sheets of dyed polycarbonate film or what we called in the studio as "colored gels". Normally, a colorized film like what's shown in this thread should not affect light output (measured in lumens) very much. The most common in racing is yellow or 600ish nanometers. People claim that colorizing to the yellow spectrum is more pleasing to the eyes than say a bright blueish gel. There are many reasons why race cars use yellow headlight films, but it seems the longer wavelength of the yellow spectrum is supposedly "safer" and potentially more effective for visibility when driving in inclement weather.
But to answer your question about light output... It's a hard question to answer without measuring equipment like a light meter. The light output loss depends on the design of the actual colorized film. In-studio lighting, our gels are numbered depending on color temp. and radiant power or light output for all colors in the spectrum. For example, you may have two colored gels of the same color family, one passes 100 lumens and the other passes 1000 lumens. Another factor to consider is the light output of the actual headlight. Are you using halogen or Xenon bulbs- big difference in light output and color temperature. Halogen type bulbs usually produce around 3200 Kelvin light vs. 6000+ Kelvin of Xenon bulbs. And then again, light output measured in lumens is an additional factor.
That being said, I would expect a lumens drop to be between least 5% - 10%. That's a wild guess.
I learned a bit of that while working in studio car photography.
I've worked in the television/broadcast industry for more than 25 years which involves intensive study of studio lighting and colored filters. These yellow headlight films are nothing more than translucent sheets of dyed polycarbonate film or what we called in the studio as "colored gels". Normally, a colorized film like what's shown in this thread should not affect light output (measured in lumens) very much. The most common in racing is yellow or 600ish nanometers. People claim that colorizing to the yellow spectrum is more pleasing to the eyes than say a bright blueish gel. There are many reasons why race cars use yellow headlight films, but it seems the longer wavelength of the yellow spectrum is supposedly "safer" and potentially more effective for visibility when driving in inclement weather.
But to answer your question about light output... It's a hard question to answer without measuring equipment like a light meter. The light output loss depends on the design of the actual colorized film. In-studio lighting, our gels are numbered depending on color temp. and radiant power or light output for all colors in the spectrum. For example, you may have two colored gels of the same color family, one passes 100 lumens and the other passes 1000 lumens. Another factor to consider is the light output of the actual headlight. Are you using halogen or Xenon bulbs- big difference in light output and color temperature. Halogen type bulbs usually produce around 3200 Kelvin light vs. 6000+ Kelvin of Xenon bulbs. And then again, light output measured in lumens is an additional factor.
That being said, I would expect a lumens drop to be between least 5% - 10%. That's a wild guess.
Thank you B3! That's some interesting background info.
In my case, I'm upgrading my halogens to Retrofit Lab 996 projectors with 4300k bulbs for max lumens.
I love the endurance look of the yellow headlight films, and happy to know it doesn't kill my overall desire to improve the lighting system. I'm also considering installing a set of aux. LEDs under the front license plate (square housing with four cree LED's - yellow cover).
11-15-2009, 04:51 AM
