Pearl Clear Coat Trials

**Tiddler** · **07-22-07, 07:16 PM**

Quote:

benven wrote:

Doesn't this hotspot? That's alot of pearl paint and satin poly.

Also, in experimenting with the Folkart Metallic White Pearl, I'm having a hard time figuring out if there are any pearl flakes in this paint??

If I take the lid off the bottle and squeeze the the paint to the top I can see the pearl flakes in the white base. When I mixed it in the matte poly and rolled it on the flakes were very visible in the clear liquid.

It is funny that the Rs-MaxxMudd did not appear to have any gloss when I used the Behr UPW #1050 and Minwax Clear Satin Polycrylic. I think my first attempt I used the enamel #1850 and i did seem to have a gloss. The second try I used the #1050 and it was not glossy at all. It actually felt quite rough and you could see the flakes in the surface.

I think Benven and I are in agreement that using sheen or gloss as a gain booster is problematic and unless only allowed in very small amounts it usually results in hot spotting and in the case of rolling there will be sparklies due to the sheen and texture.

It is that reasoning that has lead me to the idea of a final matte poly top coat regardless of optical coating employed. However there may be one case that will allow for simple additive to the matte poly. In a 1xPearl (ie 1 2oz. bottle of white pearl or pearlizing medium added to a quart of matte poly may be matte enough to forego the final matte poly top coat.

**Tiddler** · **07-23-07, 11:23 AM**

Pull Back and Refocus!

I think it is time to take a breather and decide where to go from here.

To recap it looks like the Folkart Pearlizing Medium produces more gain with less color shifting than the Decoart Pearlizing Medium. Most of my efforts have been centered on the Folkart Pearlizing Medium. This raises the question of using the Decoart Pearlizing Medium if you can't find the Folkart Pearlizing Medium. It also raises the question of the difference between then white pearls and pearlizing mediums. In theory the pearlizing mediums should have less whitening effect due to the lack of white pigment, but . . . if the pearlizing medium has more pearl flakes then that is also a significant difference.

Pearl Clear Coat Screen Variables:

White Pearl vs Pearlizing Medium
Folkart vs Decoart
1xPearl, 2 Coats Matte Poly Carrier
1xPearl, 3 coats @Glaze+1Poly carrier, Matte Poly Top Coat
2xPearl, 3 coats @Glaze+1Poly carrier, Matte Poly Top Coat
Neutral Tints (listed bellow)

List of Near Neutral Tints:

Quart Custom Tints based on a (5:2) ratio of Lamp Black : Yellow Oxide.
These tints assume a Behr UPW product or similar "Pure White" base.

0 10 0 Lamp Black
0 04 0 Yellow Oxide

0 7 1 Lamp Black . . . . Dark Gray
0 3 0 Yellow Oxide

0 5 0 Lamp Black . . . . Medium Gray
0 2 0 Yellow Oxide

0 2 1 Lamp Black . . . . Light Gray
0 1 0 Yellow Oxide

0 0 0 Lamp Black . . . . White
0 0 0 Yellow Oxide

The problem I am faced with right now is that if I try to produce all the possible combinations of base coats and clear coats there will be just too many. Therefore I think it best to produce a full set of what seems to be the best overall approach and at some point in that range I will create cross comparisons. So given 4 lightnesses of gray, 2 brands of pearl products, 2 types of pearl products, 2 different concentrations, and 1 1/2 Application techniques, there would be 48 samples to make up. Like I said that is just too many to consider.

So what I am thinking is that I should make up all 4 lightnesses of gray with what I think will produce the best gain boost. My reasoning for that is I have a friend with a Sanyo Z2. It is not terribly bright and the blacks are not terribly black. It would be great to have a set of different shades of gray with a reasonable gain to try with his projector. This would also provide some useful results for the folks over on LumenLab with low power projectors.

That leads me to think I should make up samples of the four gray bases, each with a four layer 2xPearl clear coat. The four layers consist of 3 coats of 1 Quart Behr Faux Glaze + 1/2 Quart Behr Matte Polyurethane + 4oz. (2 bottles) of Folkart Pearlizing Medium. This is then top coated with one layer of just the Behr Matte Polyurethane to kill any sheen from the medium and glaze. This is the multi layer pearl clear coat application technique. The other pearl clear coat application technique is simply pearl in matte polyurethane, but no more than a 1xPearl concentration to minimize the sheen effect of the medium.

From this we could then make up comparisons at one shade of gray to see what happens as we change one variable at a time. I think I need to put together some sort of table of these comparison variations. I'll do that and then post it.

**mechman** · **07-28-07, 10:51 AM**

Todd,

You still busy at this?

mech

**Tiddler** · **07-28-07, 09:23 PM**

Quote:

mechman wrote:

Todd,

You still busy at this?

mech

I've been down with the flu for a few days, but I'm poking away at it.

**mechman** · **07-28-07, 10:41 PM**

Quote:

tiddler wrote:

I've been down with the flu for a few days, but I'm poking away at it.

This is the worst time of year to get that! Get well soon!

mech

**wbassett** · **07-29-07, 12:36 PM**

Sorry to hear you're not feeling well and hope it's almost gone now.

**rcarlton** · **07-29-07, 05:02 PM**

Get well soon!

**cynical2** · **07-29-07, 09:57 PM**

Home you feel better, "Testing King". Being sick sucks...

<--- Does this cheer you up? mech stole the dancing banana idea from me and has used it to the point that it has become some sort of "mech trademark". Can I sue?

Fess up, mech!

**mechman** · **08-01-07, 12:16 AM**

Quote:

cynical2 wrote:

Home you feel better, "Testing King". Being sick sucks...

<--- Does this cheer you up? mech stole the dancing banana idea from me and has used it to the point that it has become some sort of "mech trademark". Can I sue?

Fess up, mech!

You are making the banana's angry! Heathen!

mech

**Tiddler** · **08-01-07, 10:43 AM**

I have prepared several sample panels with the following base coats:

Quart Custom Tints in
Behr UPW Flat Latex #1050

EasyFlex-00
No Tint == White

EasyFlex-01.5
0 1 1 Lamp Black
0 0 1 Yellow Oxide

EasyFlex-03
0 3 0 Lamp Black
0 1 0 Yellow Oxide

EasyFlex-07.5
0 7 1 Lamp Black
0 2 1 Yellow Oxide

EasyFlex-09
0 9 0 Lamp Black
0 3 0 Yellow Oxide

EasyFlex-12
0 12 0 Lamp Black
0 04 0 Yellow Oxide

NOTE: The tint ratio is 3:1 to match my retractable screen for comparisons screen shots.

**Tiddler** · **08-05-07, 06:56 AM**

A few words about setup conditions.

First of all, I am not as interested in learning how to take accurate photos as mechman. Therefore I only present comparison photos. By that I mean each screen shot will have two or more samples present. Comparisons are only valid between two or more of these samples within a single photo. DO NOT COMPARE PHOTO TO PHOTO.

Here are some ambient light condition photos:

In the left photo, take note of the tripod location. This where the on axis photos are taken from. In the right photo, take note of the partition wall behind the couch. I stand leaning on the wall to take the off axis shots.

Basic Comparisons:

NOTE: The off axis photos were taken at approximately 45 degrees. This is wider than when leaning against the partition wall.

I did compare both the EasyFlex-09 and EasyFlex-12 with 2xPearl clear coat samples to the EasyFlex-06 with a clear matte polyurethane top coat. The blacks for the EF09 were slightly less and for the EF12 were slightly darker. The perfect match would probably be 0 10 0 LB + 0 3 1 YO / Quart. Since the EasyFlex-12 sample seemed the closest in black levels I did a set of screen shots using it.

**Tiddler** · **08-05-07, 07:05 AM**

Screen Shots From T2 Extreme:

My general observation was that the darker gray with the pearl clear coats appears to perform very much like the lighter gray with just a matte polyurethane clear coat. So what's the point?

**Tiddler** · **08-05-07, 07:12 AM**

While looking at the scenes in the previous post, I was reminded of a question posed to a metallic screen paint mix developer. "So it's really just another gray paint?" It did appear that I had made the base gray much darker and then by adding the pearl clear coat modified it's performance to match a lighter gray screen with no metallic/pearl flakes.

If that were the case then why bother with the pearlizing medium and mixing?

Then I noticed a difference between the two types of screens. This difference is not huge but may be significant to some more discerning movie watchers.

The difference is the Pearl Clear Coated sample panel appears to maintain a brighter image towards the edges of the screen. Is that worth the trouble of introducing the Pearlizing Medium and mixing? That will have to be decided by the end user.

More trials to follow . . .

For our LumenLab friends I decided to duplicate these trials but with much lighter shades of gray and white. I will compare the Pearl Clear Coated samples to a Matte White Reference panel. I ran out of matte poly so these sample panels will not be ready until Monday or Tuesday evening.

**cynical2** · **08-05-07, 10:55 AM**

Quote:

tiddler wrote:

The difference is the Pearl Clear Coated sample panel appears to maintain a brighter image towards the edges of the screen. Is that worth the trouble of introducing the Pearlizing Medium and mixing? That will have to be decided by the end user.

A brilliant approach...darkening the base coat and then lightening with pearl to end up with the same shade as your baseline...allowing you to see exactly what the effects of the pearl are.

Based on the screenies, your conclusion seems dead on to me...the brightness on several of the shots in the last post seems to match the baseline at the center of the screen, but is definitely brighter near the edge. There is a noticeable improvement, but folks will have to decide for themselves if the extra brightness at the edges is worth the addition of the pearl.

GREAT WORK!! Thanks for sharing.

**Tiddler** · **08-09-07, 08:24 AM**

Now lets look at some white and very light gray samples with the same 1xPearl clear coat. First we will compare my white reference panel to a white base with 1xPearl Clear Coat.

The white reference panel is simply untinted Behr UPW #1050. I applied on coat of Behr Matte Polyurethane #780 to the right side of the panel.

Click Images To Enlarge

The matte polyurethane provided a small gain boost and a durable protective coating. The Pearl Clear Coat produces a significant boost in brightness as well as a protective coating. At around 45 degrees all the samples look very similar. So off axis all the samples perform similar to a matte white surface.

For dark theater viewing the Pearl Clear Coat could be very helpful for lower lumen projectors.

**Tiddler** · **08-09-07, 08:35 AM**

Now lets try adding just a touch of gray to the base coat.

================
Quart Custom Tint
Behr UPW #1050
0 1 1 Lamp Black
0 0 1 Yellow Oxide
================

In these black bar shots you can just see that the very light gray has darker black even with lights off (my walls and ceiling are white). Off axis, the very light gray sample looks like a light matte gray.

Now what happens when we introduce some low ambient light?

Notice the white reference sample panel washes out easily while the very light gray still maintains reasonable black levels.

By now you should realize these screen shots are from one of the greatest space odyssey movies of all time.

These screen shots were taken with some ambient light present. My general impression was that the very light gray with Pearl Clear Coat performed similar to the matte white but with much deeper blacks. This of course in only true with about a 30 degree cone. The drop off is gentle and levels out to perform like a very light gray matte surface.

I moved the reference panel behind the very light gray panel to compare the matte white directly to the very light gray with pearl clear coat. The pearl clear coated sample is actually slightly brighter than the matte white.

This shows that if some minimal amount of ambient light tolereance is required then you don't need to add a lot of gray to achieve noticeable improvements.

**Tiddler** · **08-09-07, 09:44 AM**

I also compared a little darker gray to the white reference.

My only comments is that the black level performance is approaching the gray background screen while the white levels are approaching the white reference. The point is that a little gray goes a long way to improve ambient light performance. Therefore if you are torn between two shades of gray then go lighter. If you are torn between white and gray then go with a gray shade that is in between. It does not have to be a dark gray to make a difference.

**mechman** · **08-09-07, 03:36 PM**

Todd

The middle picture in the bottom row of the above post...

It seems to push blue. Now I know that you don't do the color balancing thing so I have to ask...

What does it look like in person? It could be the camera or bad white balancing.

mech

**Tiddler** · **08-09-07, 04:42 PM**

Quote:

mechman wrote:

Todd

The middle picture in the bottom row of the above post...

It seems to push blue. Now I know that you don't do the color balancing thing so I have to ask...

What does it look like in person? It could be the camera or bad white balancing.

mech

I hope that was not the first thing you noticed looking at that half of the picture!

It does look like it is a bit blue though. I will try to check it out tonight. I don't remember it looking blue.

**cynical2** · **08-09-07, 07:39 PM**

<<<Attempt at humor removed>>

**mechman** · **08-09-07, 09:19 PM**

I'm glad I didn't say 'red' push!

mech

**mechman** · **08-14-07, 10:50 AM**

Todd,

Did you ever look for the blue push from the screen shots?

mech

**Tiddler** · **08-14-07, 10:54 AM**

My neighbor borrowed my copy of Barbarella and seems reluctant to return it. Assuming it is not worn out when he returns it I will check it out.

**mechman** · **08-14-07, 11:24 AM**

Just use the Terminator white scenes. It'd show up there if it was really there I'd think...

mech

**Tiddler** · **08-14-07, 11:42 AM**

Mech, do you see a blue push in this image of the black and white bars?

To me all the sections except the UPW + Poly Top Coat actually look like there is a slight blueish look to them (in the photo). Even the UPW 1050 alone looks a tad blue in this photo.

I will try to throw that EF03 + Pearl Clear Coat up tonight and take some photos as well as look it carefully. I did use a 3:1 ratio of LB:YO for these samples in order to best compare to my retractable screen which is roughly an EF06 with poly top coat.

Advertisement