Projectors 101: No Bright Spaces

If I had a dollar for every time I had to talk someone out of trying to use a projector in a bright exhibition space, I’d have … uh … lemme see … I guess maybe $64. Huh.

Anyway, it happens a lot. Despite our peculiar optimism that it will work anyway.

Here’s why it won’t.

Projectors project photons, teensy light particles. They are stubborn critters: they hit the first thing they come to, reflect back off it, and then go through the hole in your eye.

If photons from a nearby light bulb — or God forbid, the big light bulb in the sky — also hit that surface, they make a second glowing shape in the same place. Those reflected photons hit your eye at the same time.

Quiz: If half the photons entering your eye are reflected from other sources, how much dimmer will the image seem to be?

Half. Which means it’s washed out. Black colors will look grey. Grey will almost vanish. Light yellow: gone.

So much for our groundbreaking night vision footage of a cheetah.

Here’s the thing:
Photons will be photons. Projectors don’t work well in bright spaces, regardless of our optimism.

Warmly,
Jonathan