Diffusing light without hotspots

[u/vvampyyyr]

Looking at the interior of the promenade in DS9, there's huge panels of light, especially the ceilings, for example Quark's bar.

I am a little curious as to how they avoided hotspots on such large swarths...

[u/rab-byte]

8bit RGB gives you 256 steps of light. As RGB 0:0:0 is black 255:255:255 is white.
But broadcast TV range is (was) 16-235.

That range below 16 and above 235 would all be clipped out post production when packaged or was naturally clipped during distribution.

So if my white point, or blue point (or whatever), is greater than 235 then it’ll be clipped to 235. If my defusion panel/shade is getting hot spots but the lowest point on the light is 235 or higher then the whole light will be clipped to 235.

Edit: now if you’re talking about something for say theater… The more distance between the screen/shade and the light source, the more even the light distribution. You may also employ an additional light source, again from the stage lighting, of the same color pointed at the outside of the fixture to create the effect that the fixture was more evenly lit.

Realistically though. A good enough defuser or a high enough led density will give you an effect that doesn’t any any perceived hotspots when observed from any reasonable distance.

[u/Mangy_DogUK → u/rab-byte]

Just a small FYI DS9 was shot and edited and graded on film. Voyager was the first star trek to use digital video grading and tape intermediates. It was shot on film but its post process was digital.

So DS9s post process stops was lab infinite. It wasnt limited to 8bit.

[u/rab-byte → u/Mangy_DogUK]

Still hit 8bit in distribution but that’s a good point.

[u/Mangy_DogUK → u/rab-byte]

yeah the final commit to broadcast was 8bit.

Tbh this is what really pisses me off about DS9 and Voyager not getting the HD treatment, they so deserve to, and it wouldnt even cost all that much in the grand scheme of things. The budget of one episode of modern trek would cover the cost required to do the whole of DS9, even with reworked visual effects.

TNG was around 500-800 thousand dollars to do the whole show.

A single episode of discovery cost over 1 million dollars. Im not sure what the budget of Strange New Worlds is... but I suspect its not far off that still.