I have a lot of stainless steel furniture in my loft so when the limited edition stainless side table became available I impulse bought it, rolled my eyes at myself, and then sold my black metal side table to a friend. As one does. Every time I walked past the new table I found myself thinking, "Wow, the lights are really bright!" I wondered if there were different LEDs on the table but then I realized that the stainless steel ring is far more reflective than the black one was. Was that the difference?
"Hey Patti, tell me you're a nerd without telling me you're a nerd."
I designed a simple experiment to figure it out. I removed the ring, wrapped half of it in black gaffer tape, then put it back on the table. I took a few photos during the day but realized there was a large window nearby, and while the light was somewhat diffused it could still affect the results.
Once it was dark I turned off or blocked every significant source of ambient light. I leveled the sand manually, ran an E10 to create deep ridges, then put the ring back on the table with the gaffer tape on the left and the dividing line at around 12:00 from where I was sitting. There's no glass top on the table. After that I tried a variety of colors at roughly 1/3, 2/3, and full brightness and took pictures. To prove that my results weren't based on unevenness in the table LEDs I rotated the ring 180 degrees and took a few more shots. My phone camera didn't do an excellent job under these challenging conditions but the results are pretty conclusive-- he stainless ring definitely changes the brightness of the light. It doesn't do so evenly, and the edges get more additional light than the center. This seems intuitively obvious but it was fun proving it.
Does this have any practical ramifications? A few, I guess. I could even out the light on the stainless table by painting one side of the ring matte black. If I had a black table and wanted to reflect more light I could paint one side of the ring white or silver. I haven't really thought too much about it but there might be interesting opportunities for adding texture with reflectors or prisms. If nothing else I know that I should run the new table at a lower brightness to get the same results as before.
The attached photo has a fair bit of ambient light but it's one of the best illustrations of the difference because it was easier on my camera. Here's a full album of photos showing all of the ones I took during the day and at night.
Thanks for sharing your great sleuthing, Patti! Indeed, your observation is confirmed. It doesn't surprise me, given the spread of light coming from the LED's - a portion bounces off the underside of the ring and adds to the field's illumination. Clearly, the stainless reflectivity is higher than the black finish of our regular rings. Though your pics show a difference, I would call it fairly subtle. On the small number of large scale installations I've done (3m in diameter), I made the LED shade ring from multiple pieces of wood that interlock around the entire 30+ feet of circumference, and painted the under-side white to increase the illumination. It's a long way to the center of those monsters!
@Bruce I imagine there are lots of complications as the size grows. Do you make the rings flat on the underside of enormous tables, or are they angled to direct the light farther?
My side table is both subtle and not-subtle. The difference jumped out at me every time I walked past it, and I run the stainless one at about 1/3 less brightness than I used for the black one.
@Patti - I get it - I don't want things I like to change either, particularly with the Sisyphi in my home. Let me talk with the shop guys. If the stainless ring is the same size (almost certain it is), we can ship you out a black ring for you to go back to. You could also try stacking them, but pretty sure it will be too high for the glass to sit properly. We also might be able to laser cut something thin and opaque. Will get back to you...
@bruce Oh, sorry, I was unclear. I'm not complaining! I'm observing, and thinking about ways to play with the difference. If it bothered me then I'd cover one side of the ring in something black and not reflective. I might do that anyway just so I can switch between the two effects.
@patti OK - but let me know if you change your mind. I've confirmed that the stainless ring is the same size as the black.
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