Pearl Clear Coat Trials

**mechman** · **08-14-07, 02:00 PM**

Todd,

I agree with your assessment. Everything looks bluish but the left panel. How does it look to your eye's though? It's amazing how much a camera screws things up all on it's own - colorwise.

mech

PS When I get back a little later I'll show you the difference for my e-500 between color balanced and not.

**mechman** · **08-15-07, 01:38 PM**

This shows the difference between a properly white/gray balanced photo and a non balanced shot.

Non-balanced shot:

Balanced Shot

Quite the difference. Now I couldn't tell you whether or not most cameras push blue or not - that'd be a question for kenyee or JimP. But it's apparent mine does. That's why I'm wondering what it looks like to you.

mech

**Tiddler** · **08-16-07, 12:29 AM**

Preparation & Application of the Pearl Clear Coat

In a separate container combine one quart of Behr Matte Polyurethane #780 and one 2oz. bottle of Folkart Pearlizing Medium. The Folkart Pearlizing Medium can be found in the craft paint section of Wal-Mart or Michaels Arts & Crafts. I have found a 1 or 2 oz. syringe with a catheter tip is very helpful. You can get one of these from a veterinary office. The pearlizing medium is very thick. Squeeze as much out of the bottle as you can. Fill the bottle half way with poly using the syringe. Put the lid back on and shake. Pour out the poly and repeat until you see that all the pearl has been rinsed out of the bottle. Be sure to mix the poly well before dumping it into the container for mixing. The flattening ingredients in the poly settles to the bottom of the can. You want to be sure you mix the flattening agents into the poly before mixing it with the pearl. Mix the poly + pearl very thoroughly using a drill attachment. Be sure to stir the pearl clear coat every time you go to use it.

To apply the white or gray base coat refer to the Basic Roller Painting Instructions.
The following clip is included in the instructions.

The application of the Pearl Clear Coat is similar with a simple addition of down rolling. This final uni-direction rolling causes all the pearl flakes to be aligned the same way. This is demonstrated in these video clips:

NOTE: In the video I made one minor error when down rolling. Notice the end of the roller the handle is attached to. The pressure on the handle end is actually slightly higher than the free end of the roller. I should have been rolling with the roller flipped over so the free end was the last part of the roller to down roll the screen. I was also not getting enough polyurethane on the screen and ended up redoing the base coat and top coat to fix the streaks. So remember load as much Pearl Clear coat on the roller as it will hold. Always trail with the free end of the roller when down rolling.

Well that's all I have to offer to the low lumen crowd. I hope it is of some use to those who can get these paint products. For those in other countries the basic concept is applicable to use with products you can find locally. Any pure white base paint can be tinted to near neutral with a ratio of 2:1 or 3:1 of Black tint to Yellow tint. For very highly pigmented bases I recommend the 2:1 ratio. For primers and lower pigmented bases I would go with the 3:1 ratio. Some companies have different names for these tint pigments. The black should be fairly easy to identify. The Yellow Oxide is a dirty yellow color like regular mustard.

**mechman** · **08-16-07, 01:18 PM**

Todd,

I hate to be or sound like a pain, but you haven't answered my question yet. Does it push blue in person like it does in the pictures?

mech

**Tiddler** · **08-16-07, 01:25 PM**

I was going to look into it last night but we had company drop by and I did not get around to it. Here is a screen shot from the same camera of a white pearl mix similar to RS-MaxxMudd. The right side is the very white EluneVision (old version) screen. To me these both look somewhat blue so I would suggest that the camera does tend to push blue.

I will try to get to it tonight mech.

**mechman** · **08-16-07, 03:30 PM**

Thanks Todd! If you could do a manual white balance with one of your UPW panels and a projected white light, that would get you pretty close to where you need to be.

mech

**Tiddler** · **08-16-07, 04:48 PM**

Quote:

mechman wrote:

Thanks Todd! If you could do a manual white balance with one of your UPW panels and a projected white light, that would get you pretty close to where you need to be.

mech

I have a Canon S2 and I have no idea how to do a manual white balance.

**mechman** · **08-16-07, 06:26 PM**

Quote:

tiddler wrote:

I have a Canon S2 and I have no idea how to do a manual white balance.

I can't find a manual for it online but I have seen where you can do a custom white balance. If you could get to that setting, you could probably do it.

mech

**Tiddler** · **08-16-07, 07:39 PM**

You are going to make me read the manual aren't you?

**cynical2** · **08-16-07, 08:23 PM**

Quote:

tiddler wrote:

You are going to make me read the manual aren't you?

Don't worry, I won't let mech off that easy...

Here's the manual, mech.

You want page 94 of the pdf file (which is page 92 when looking at the page #'s on the document itself).

**mechman** · **08-16-07, 11:12 PM**

Quote:

tiddler wrote:

You are going to make me read the manual aren't you?

No! LOL!! I wouldn't make you do that! I was hoping someone would find it for me as I was having a bit of trouble trying to find it. And they did... Thanks Jim!

mech

**mechman** · **08-16-07, 11:34 PM**

Todd,

Page 91 and 92.

Select Auto (AWB) from the FUNC. menu and select Custom with the < or > button. Point the camera at the UPW panel with a projected white light and press the set button. It will stay at that white balance until you set it to something different - highly suggested for anything but screen shots!

mech

**Tiddler** · **08-18-07, 12:20 AM**

OK Mech, I followed your instructions and here are the results:

I did not see any sort of blue push in any of the images.

What I did notice in these scenes is that the EasyFlex-03 with a Pearl Clear Coat is brighter and whiter than the UPW or UPW + Poly. At the same time with the ambient light present in the room the blacks are much darker on the EF03+PCC than the white reference panel. To me that suggests that in the presence of ambient light the Pearl Clear Coat does enhance the contrast ratio.

**mechman** · **08-18-07, 06:33 AM**

Todd,

You've convinced me.

Earlier I thought I was seeing a bluish push. But now, with the new pics, I think I'm just seeing the difference between white and gray. I don't know if I'd agree on the whites though. The asylum pic looks better on the flat white. The blacks are definitely better though.

mech

**Tiddler** · **08-18-07, 08:02 AM**

I can't tell where the panels are in asylum scene. If you look at the sign the pearl clear coat is brighter. It is also much brighter for the closeup of her face. I find the flat white is kind of dull looking.

**mechman** · **08-18-07, 09:19 AM**

Todd,

I don't think the sign looks brighter on the left in your picture. It does appear to be a different color but not brighter - from the screen being gray as opposed to being white.

The sign photo gives me an RGB of 201 184 178 on the right and 195 181 178 on the left in MSPaint.

The asylum pic in the windows I get 226 230 233 on the left and 224 224 224 on the right.

I think we should probably skip comparing the white and the gray but look at the difference between your screen and the left panel. What's the difference between your screen and the panel on the left? Graywise which is darker?

mech

**mechman** · **08-18-07, 09:33 AM**

Todd,

I think it might be interesting to see some different comparisons. I'd like to see some base shots (gray paint only) compared to base plus topcoat. And then maybe mix it up and use the same base plus topcoat compared to a lighter gray base. You've got to have some panels like this laying around somewheres!?!?

mech

**Tiddler** · **08-18-07, 09:46 AM**

Quote:

mechman wrote:

Todd,

I don't think the sign looks brighter on the left in your picture. It does appear to be a different color but not brighter - from the screen being gray as opposed to being white.

The sign photo gives me an RGB of 201 184 178 on the right and 195 181 178 on the left in MSPaint.

The asylum pic in the windows I get 226 230 233 on the left and 224 224 224 on the right.

I think we should probably skip comparing the white and the gray but look at the difference between your screen and the left panel. What's the difference between your screen and the panel on the left? Graywise which is darker?

mech

Mech, on the right there is a panel that was painted with UPW 1050. I then top coated the right side of that with poly. So when you say "on the right", which half of the right, the left or right half?

The asylum windows RGB numbers indicate the pearl clear coat is brighter.

**mechman** · **08-18-07, 11:17 AM**

Quote:

tiddler wrote:

Mech, on the right there is a panel that was painted with UPW 1050. I then top coated the right side of that with poly. So when you say "on the right", which half of the right, the left or right half?

The asylum windows RGB numbers indicate the pearl clear coat is brighter.

Todd,

I did it right near the seam, which was the UPW only. But it doesn't matter as the poly isn't causing a color shift or anything. Looking at the pics it appears the poly has zero effect upon UPW.

When looking at the gray side, compared to your background screen and all the previous pics in this thread, it seems that the pearl/poly just lightens the gray. Another thing to be noted is that it's observed to increase gain but at the cost of viewing cone. How much of a cone? I've been looking at the high power a lot lately and while I like it straight on, it's nothing but average a few feet right or left.

So as I stated a couple posts up, I think the real comparison should be to the same tints without any topcoats. You may have already done this elsewhere but I can't recall it being done. So I think that's what you should be comparing now is a EF dark with pearl topcoat to a EF lighter and no pearl topcoat. Because if the result is the same but with a better viewing cone, why topcoat? What benefit is attained at a higher difficulty that could be attained using a lighter gray paint? That's the question that's been bouncing around in my head!

You've been extremely patient with me and I hope it continues!

mech

**Tiddler** · **08-18-07, 02:34 PM**

Mech,

If you go back to Post#61 you will see that I had come to similar conclusion as you have. To investigate the notion that the pearl was really just making the gray lighter I made two panels, with darker bases. I tried EF09 and EF12 for bases in hopes the resulting pearl clear coated panels would have similar white performance to my EF06 with just a poly top coat.

This was more an effort to address your observations that the blacks had suffered when I applied a Pearl Clear Coat. The results were that my initial observations confirmed that by using a much darker base gray I could duplicate the black performance of my screen. The Pearl Clear Coat then added enough gain to also match the white performance of my screen.

You will see that I then wondered why bother? Just as you are wondering now.

Quote:

Post#63 wrote:

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.

So there's my answer to your very astute question.

I think those most likely to reap benefits that warrant the effort are the folks at LumenLab od those with lower lumen projectors like my buddy who has a Sanyo Z2.

On the other hand the only reall difference between applying a Pearl Clear Coat and just a matte polyurethane clear coat is mixing a bottle of pearlizing medium into the poly and the addition of a down rolling pass after you blend adjacent vertical strips when applying. So the extra effort is not anything like what it takes to mix and apply a metallic mix.

It's kind of the icing on the cake, that last 3% improvement that Bills talks about.

What I would really like to see is how this approach might work with a gray laminate darker than fashion gray. Of course that would be a laminate guy's experiment wouldn't it.

Just yesterday my wife said "That valence you made for the screen is quite beautiful but those hooks hanging down ruin it. " She also made comments regarding me

on paint but not actually painting anything. Soooo . . . it's time for me to

and start getting a little more of this

and maybe even just a little of this

opps was I thinking out loud again!

Shhhhh . . . . Here she comes now!

I better get off the computer, quick!?

Now that's a reason for bananas to dance, Eh!!

**mechman** · **08-18-07, 02:56 PM**

Thanks Todd! Sometimes I get a bit lost in these threads.

It's hard for me to read the panels at times.

Well that's awfully selfish of the wife to pull you away from us!

But I understand her motives as I'm sure mine will be doing the same shortly as I'm about to drop the hammer on an expensive piece of equipment to test screen samples. :raped: Better to ask for forgiveness than for permission.

mech

**Tiddler** · **09-09-07, 07:46 PM**

It has come to my attention that my observations and conclusions regarding the application of two coats of a Pearl Clear Coat have been made in the absence of any real RGB or gain measurements. I should not have been suggesting anyone try this solution under these circumstances.

**Tiddler** · **09-10-07, 01:59 AM**

I have no data on gain for the pearl clear coat. I have no idea what effect it may have on viewing cone.

**Tiddler** · **09-10-07, 02:05 AM**

I am no longer in a position to provide any kind of color or gain data for this latest pearl clear coat. Given the lack of any properly measured data I must caution anyone that this is an unproven solution.

**GbrNole** · **10-05-07, 12:03 PM**

yeah and i'm busy as this weekend but i really want to get this paint on the wall. i can only hope it truly is exact but i grabbed every laura ashley color card that they had in the store that was in the ball park of neutral gray and all of them had a color hue in one direction or another that this paint didn't exhibit.

the nice thing with this paint is that there is no need for a protective coating but since i bought a gallon i was wondering what effect a non color bias pearlizing medium might have if i put one or two ounces directly into a quart of paint?

that would be my test panel paint if any.

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