LED Lighting: The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread?

Exchange the techniques and skills needed to walk the shadows. Post your guides and how-tos here.
Post Reply
Nameless
Member
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed May 19, 2021 6:05 pm

LED Lighting: The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread?

Post by Nameless » Sun Apr 30, 2023 4:58 am

Well it is no longer the 90s or early 2000s anymore now, is it?

These days LED lighting is the standard. For older explorers this was probably nice because now you could see more in situations where security was non-existent and you just wanted to see more of the neat area you were exploring.

Of course this quickly reached almost everyone and now it's all LED. Motion sensor lights, flashlights, headlights, spotlights... There's a lot to like about the technology; it's low cost, highly efficient, and way brighter than the incandescent standards of old.

So why does this obvious subject deserve its own topic?

Because LED lights make it harder to find you.

You read that right, this is one of the few wins we've had in stealth as a concept. LEDs aren't perfect and have downsides that, if you're going to encounter lights during an operation, make it a bit of a relief to see being used against you.

Point one: LED lights cast harder shadows.
Since LEDs produce very specific spectrum lighting, they diffuse far more strictly than incandescent. While this does offer a leg up to anyone looking for you if you are moving at speed laterally to their position, it otherwise actually helps to break up your outline. The happy result is that more patterns or lack thereof will be effective in an LED illuminated environment.

Point two: LED often washed out colors.
People are cheap, so if something seems like it'll get the job done why spend more on bells and whistles you don't need? LED lighting exists that more accurately mimics incandescent lighting but people are happy with what seems like the blinding white/blue tint lights. These lights don't reflect the same off of materials as incandescent and effectively reduces the saturation of the illuminated area. Handy! This also increases the effectiveness of a larger range of colors and camos for any given area.

Point three: LEDs more rapidly decrease natural night vision.
By using bright LED lighting, the user quickly depletes the light collecting rods in their eyes. The operator knows to counter this by keeping at least one eye "fresh" one way or another, but an individual or party using LED to illuminate will have a much harder time seeing into areas not directly hit by the light. In fact, many set ups have a super bright center that almost makes it impossible to see outside of the cone of light.

These three points also work against each other. If I'm standing in an open area and I use a basic bitch LED torch to light up an area say, 30m away, my peripheral is all monochromatic with sharp shadows and barely even visible in the first place. All I will have left is motion detection and if my suspect doesn't move rapidly to my left or right I have very little hope of seeing him.

So what's the takeaway here? It doesn't change much. Lateral movement against observation is always the biggest risk anyway and should be done slowly under actively searched illumination. Even during routine movements it becomes a common consideration; move slowly as to not draw attention or are you too close to a potential threat and just need to keep your time under illumination to a minimum?

It's fun to consider either way.

User avatar
Xanatos
Moderator
Posts: 2675
Joined: Sun Jun 21, 2009 2:51 am
Location: The last place you look.
Contact:

Re: LED Lighting: The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread?

Post by Xanatos » Mon May 01, 2023 2:36 am

I'm an advocate of carrying an LED flashlight on ops (or at night in general), not just for exploring dark areas but for blinding potential threats. Had to use it on a cat recently that was harassing a dog in the street - kept trying to have a go at this poor dog so I shone my flashlight in the cat's eyes and robbed it of its only advantage.
We are all books containing thousands of pages and within each lies an irreparable truth.
What is locked, can be opened. What is hidden, can be found. What is yours... can be mine.

User avatar
Intruder
Member
Posts: 50
Joined: Tue Sep 21, 2021 8:49 am
Contact:

Re: LED Lighting: The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread?

Post by Intruder » Thu May 18, 2023 6:44 pm

LEDs are like Mobile phones. In the year 2000, no one had a clue just how pervasive it was going to be. It changed driving too.

My takeaway from the LED explosion into normal access is this -
1The liothium dependance means batteries are better, stronger longer and smaller. The golden triangle of tech advancement.

2 Beams are more adjustable, but also get hot as hell on bright lights.

3 You can get them in instant color changes. Red Blue Green in a single unit + strobe.

4 You can get IR interchangables great for washing out CCTV.

5 The devices are smaller, and can often charge other devices or be charged via portable solar, packs or pre charged stations. Very useful to have a battery that can also revive a phone in a pinch.

6 The advent of headlamps not being Z tier trash. The headlamp and smaller clip on pocket flash light along with various weapon white lights is among the biggest game charnges for security and LEOs as well. It isn't just us taking advantage of them it's the fact that IR Leds are responsible for cameras catching faces more and more. This brings up point seven.

7. It's not what you can see that matters as much as the stuff that you need a camera to see. So carry a means of view finding for IR light. A dumb/ non connected phone is good for this. A cheap phone with a cheap camera you can whip out and look for pin pricks of light will reveal many cameras even in the dark. All thanks to LEDs.

It's not the tech it's the effect that you have to contend with. You think LEDs are the big thing? Just wait till every single CCTV cam is open thermal. It's gonna be hell. Irays are already cheap enough to make security better. Never mind places with something actually valuable inside. Gotta watch the heat sig now.

Nameless
Member
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed May 19, 2021 6:05 pm

Re: LED Lighting: The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread?

Post by Nameless » Thu May 18, 2023 6:55 pm

What good timing. Rather, the real subject of this thread and how it could possibly be renamed is "How the opposition utilizing cheap LEDs is good for your operations". There's a lot more I want to add and wish I could be more active but just this reply is going to be a fight against the website since I use Tor and refuse to log in any other way. There's a lot more that needs to be discussed with cameras, such as the proliferation of AI to identify people by their walks and such. But again, I'm about to be logged out for no reason and it's going to take like 5 minutes just to post this one reply probably so...

Post Reply