The Mystery of my LED Christmas Lights

[Sheilawisz]

Hello everyone.

After being very disappointed by a series of Incandescent lights last year, I decided to get a series of LED lights to decorate my bedroom this season. Some of you know that I live obsessed by colors, and I never lose the opportunity to place colorful lights everywhere.

The Incandescents were weak and prone to failure last year, but now I have a completely new problem with my series of lights...

I hope somebody here will be able to solve the mystery and explain what is happening!

The LEDs in my series come in a variety of colors which includes blue, green, red and yellow. They all are super bright and look very intense and beautiful, however... I know this is going to sound strange, but despite the different colors in the series they make my room look powerfully blue.

I mean, you can see the colorful series shining and at the same time everything looks blue just like every single LED was blue. It's something very surreal and disconcerting, I would even call it eerie... And I don't like it, because it's too weird and I miss the beautiful shades created by my old Incandescent series.

Also, when I point my digital camera at the LEDs they look in the screen very different to what I see with my eyes, like all the colors are lost except for the blue.

What the heck is happening here?

 

[ThinkerX]

At a guess, a wavelength issue. LED's in a different wavelength than incandescent bulbs or sunlight.

What we take as a given color is not always the case. Something 'blue' here on earth could very well appear to be a different color on a planet with a different (and likely toxic) atmosphere.

About six months ago, there was a sort of controversy touching on this: a dress that different people ascribed different colors to. Some actually watched the dress change colors.

 

[Sheilawisz]

Hi ThinkerX.

Thanks for your reply. I was thinking something similar to that, and then I talked to Chrispy about it in the chat. He explained that it's all about the frequency (which is the same as wavelength, I think?) of the light involved here.

Incandescents start with white light, which is then filtered by a coating in order to produce certain color. In the other hand, LEDs work by producing one single frequency like a musical instrument that makes a single wave. Apparently, LEDs are more efficient but they offer a much more limited range of shades.

Also, it turns out that I must be much more sensitive to the blue light than to the others so a part of this effect is inside of my head or my eyes.

I am really starting to hate my LED Christmas Lights! They look beautiful, but they simply lack the magic and charm of my old Incandescent series. They are efficient, but soulless and dead... They brighten up the place, but now everything looks weird and unnatural and the Christmas shades are just not here anymore.

In case somebody else has a different or a more complete explanation about this phenomenon, I would be delighted to hear about it.

 

[Miskatonic]

I guess you'll have a blue, blue blue blue Christmas.

 

[kennyc]

I guess you'll have a blue, blue blue blue Christmas.

Ha! Love it!

Elvis Lives!

 

[Sheilawisz]

I have no idea what you are talking about.

Anyway, I have already discarded the LED Christmas series. Today I purchased Incandescent series with a total of three hundred light bulbs with a very nice variety of colors, so I can forget about the eerie blue atmosphere once and for all.

Now I am not sure what to do with the LEDs...

Maybe they'll end up at the big Christmas Tree this weekend, or I'll just give them to my sister if she wants them. The good side of this story is that I am not the only person that dislikes the light effects created by LED series... I researched a little last night, and it turns out that many other people still prefer the old fashioned Incandescent lights.

What about you? Do you prefer LEDs or Incandescents for your Christmas lights?

 

[Miskatonic]

Blue Christmas is a famous song by Elvis Presley.