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Burnt out / faded lighting gels.


ladyjayne

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A project has come up for which I require several, as in 2 dozen, burnt (burned?) out or heavily faded lighting gels. The colours requested are mainly the darker ones, 106, 120, 126, 181 but really any of the dark reds/blues/purples from Lee/Rosco/Gam would suffice.

Does anyone have any that I could have or buy. they are to be used in par 56s and 64s that have been converted to take 120W par38 lamps.

It's for an Art Project.

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If they are saturated colours, is there no way you could actually chuck them in a couple Par Cans / Fresnels for a few hours? I can't imagine it would take too long to burn them out.

Thought of that and had some 181 on the go for two days, about 20 hours total. It's wrinkled in the centre and the workshop is nice and warm but the colour itself is still uniform.

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If they are saturated colours, is there no way you could actually chuck them in a couple Par Cans / Fresnels for a few hours? I can't imagine it would take too long to burn them out.

Thought of that and had some 181 on the go for two days, about 20 hours total. It's wrinkled in the centre and the workshop is nice and warm but the colour itself is still uniform.

 

what brand of gels where they? sounds a bit like the HT versions?

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If they are saturated colours, is there no way you could actually chuck them in a couple Par Cans / Fresnels for a few hours? I can't imagine it would take too long to burn them out.

Thought of that and had some 181 on the go for two days, about 20 hours total. It's wrinkled in the centre and the workshop is nice and warm but the colour itself is still uniform.

 

what brand of gels where they? sounds a bit like the HT versions?

Standard Lee 181, not HT.

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I've always found that the more saturated colours don't fade. They do burn through but do not fade.

I've always found this odd. L181 doesn't fade but L180 almost needs changing after every show.

Same with blues L119 and L120 fine. L202 and 203 fade terribly.

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Just an idea, but if you have any 1.2Kw Strand Catata 26/44's knocking around, try popping the gel in front of one of them, if you can work out a way of suspending a PAR frame in front of it.

 

I once made the mistake of trying to use a dark blue gel (probably 120 or 079 or similar) in a pair of these in our studio theatre. I turned both on, gelled and focussed the first, then moved to the other on the other side of the studio to do a symmetrical focus, and by the time I had got there and got up the ladder the first had faded to a much lighter blue!

 

Ian

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Generally speaking, it takes quite a long time for colour filters to fade. Several weeks, probably.

 

Burning out is another question ...

 

I was going to suggest contacting Lee or Rosco for advice, but perhaps not ...

 

Lomg long ago I worked on a show using scrollers on 2kW fresnels. There was a big issue with the darker colours on the scroll burning out, so the problem was solved by swappping out the fresnels for 1kW PAR64s with the widest flood lamp we could find. No further hassle.

 

So this would suggest that fresnels are better (worse) for burning out gel. I think the focus was spotted-down, but I couldn't swear to it after all this time.

 

also, pointing the lanterns up will help, as heat rises. The drawback of this is that the filter may melt all over the lens and be the very devil to clean off. (again speaking from experience)

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I may be able to get some, but do they have to be specific Lee colours? AFAIK they are generic blue, red etc.

 

Colin C

The colours requested are mainly the darker ones, 106, 120, 126, 181 but really any of the dark reds/blues/purples from Lee/Rosco/Gam would suffice.

If you could I'd be greatful, fading them myself over time just isn't cost effective.

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Gels dont usually burn out too fast in a PAR Can anyway. My theory is that its something to do with the distance between the gel and the lamp. As mentioned above, try a 1.2k profile or better yet a fresnel. A fresnel might be better because if you flood it right out, the lamp is only a few inches away from the filter. You might want to try removing the lens aswell, give it a bit more oomph! (although yiu may want to make not of the risks involved with this).

 

Failing that, it may be worth experimenting with a hot air gun (paint stripper). Theoretically this should work. Whether this gives you the effect you want or not I cant say however, it's got to be worth a punt. If it does work I'd imagine it would be a bit quicker.

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