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Thread: What color is best for laser projection screen?

  1. #1
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    Default What color is best for laser projection screen?

    I want to make a giant screen by sewing together some bedsheets or tarps. What color is best? Black? White?

  2. #2
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    I suggest white

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    what material is the best to use for a Laser display screen??

    werner

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    Hi carmangary,

    White is the most reflective colour (you will get the most light back), but it is also the most visible. It depends what effect you want.

    Sometimes in theater and low-light environment I have seen black or dark grey screen used, because the screen is not visible, the contrast is very high and the image appears to float in mid air, however of course a lot of the LASER power is wasted (absorbed by the screen, not reflected).

    So you can trade-off between the image brightness and contrast using the screen colour in this way.

    Also, whichever colour you choose, I find a fine close weave cloth has the same contrast as the coarse open weave cloth, but the image brightness is much better! I am not sure why this is, I think it is the reflection property but I can not understand why. You can experiment for yourself.

    Kind regards,

    sonaluma

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    Thanks. Maybe I will go with gray as a compromise.

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    Some paints made for retroreflection have a crude corner-cube effect, they return light to a cone angled toward the source. If you use something like that you might be able to place it so ambient light hits it from too shallow an angle to reveal it well, yet have an awesomely bright return from the laser. It would be opaque, so no fun tricks like multiple sequential screens in the beam path with that one.

  7. #7
    mixedgas's Avatar
    mixedgas is offline Creaky Old Award Winning Bastard Technologist
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    I go with a 4% gray in theatrical situations. I just helped with a flight simulator at 7% gray and it worked good.

    If you can get it, there are special paints made for screens, that are expensive. A good compromise is barium carbonate mixed in a flat binder, or if you can get them, the tiny glass beads used for road paint. My lab got a gallon of the beads for free from the local road paint comapny, 3M makes them and they are post mixed with the paint, ie right before the paint is sprayed.

    Steve

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    Thanks for the tips. I'm just going for some cheap bed sheets or tarps or whatever for backyard/garage viewing so I won't get too fancy.

    I kind of like the idea of using black because I will be displaying in relatively small spaces and black will keep the room darker. Or at least, I think it will.

  9. #9
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    clandestiny is offline Eleventy-Billion Watt Ar/Kr >:)
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    if you have room to project from the rear, go to your local home crackpo and get a roll of pool patio screen. they come in some big sizes. it is a low cost answer to a theatrical scrim which is by far the best effect for graphics shows.
    If you are going to project on cloth, remember that black is easy to set fire to depending on how much power you are using-
    go big or go home

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    Underground?.................................................. .............

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