Aaron Fude wrote:
Hi,

I have a slight contradiction of goals which I am hoping to resolve.

I would like to have recessed lights that are as inconspicuous as
possible yet fill the room with nice soft light.

Do there exist recessed lights that are small (3" or 4"), yet do what
I want them to do?

Many thanks in advance,

Aaron

The softness of a light source is a function of its size relative to what it
is illuminating. Lights 3-4" will always emit light that is "hard" in
relation to people (flies, no if they are close to the light; people, yes).
You can use many of them to get *even* light over a given area but unless
they are ganged very close together the light will still be hard (sharp
shadow edges, specular reflections).

To get "nice soft light" you need reflected light, preferably big.
Fluorescents are often used for your purpose by blocking frontal and
downward light in some manner thereby illuminating the entire ceiling (which
needs to be white or a very light neutral color). If the area you want to
illuminate is smallish and has fairly high ceilings you could use "eyeball"
incandescents directed at the upper walls to get a similar effect.

Again if you have high ceilings, you could use regular cans but with large
diffusers below them to get a similar effect.

--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico