iMac ambient lighting

[wodeh]

When trawling through the ridiculously long thread showing pictures of peoples Mac setups, I noticed an awful lot of ambient lighting and want to try a little myself. It's a painfully wanky thing to do, but with the iMac in the living room there just isn't any room for an ordinary lamp so a blue LED could look stunning.

What do people use for ambient lighting? It seems to be that, with USB ports being in fairly good supply behind the iMac it would be criminal not to go with something USB powered.

I found this: http://www.warehouse-aquatics.co.uk/index.php?p=product&products_id=2284&cid=0

Looks like it might do the trick, and even comes with a suction cup which *might* attach to the back of the iMac or the stand. The same light is also available in white, red, green or a colour changing version, but I'm convinced blue is best.

 

[Bryan Bowler]

What an interesting idea! So you would use this to "light-up" the area behind your iMac? I think it would look really cool!

Bryan

 

[flopticalcube]

I agree that blue is best. I have a blue uplighter behind my plasma that provides ambient light and make watching TV easier in the evening on the eyes.

 

[wodeh]

make watching TV easier in the evening on the eyes.

Is that really true? I've heard quite a few times that ambient lighting helps make the display itself appear a bit softer to the eyes. If it genuinely does then that's an added bonus alongside the visual effect.

Oh well, my i7 is on the way so I guess I'll find out if a suction-cupped aquarium light will stick to it soon. If it doesn't work out I'll just put it in my aquarium instead.

 

[mrsir2009]

I reckon blue would look great behind your iMac

 

[flopticalcube]

Is that really true? I've heard quite a few times that ambient lighting helps make the display itself appear a bit softer to the eyes. If it genuinely does then that's an added bonus alongside the visual effect.

Oh well, my i7 is on the way so I guess I'll find out if a suction-cupped aquarium light will stick to it soon. If it doesn't work out I'll just put it in my aquarium instead.

Supposedly. Philips uses a method called Ambilight which actually changes the color according to the content on the display. I found blue to be the most restful for my eyes.

 

[topmounter]

I can't remember the particulars, but when watching (or looking at) an LCD display, rather than sitting in total darkness, you always want some sort of ambient light to reduce eye-strain. Putting the light behind the display keeps glare from being a problem.

 

[fhall1]

I ordered kits from here http://ledlightingkit.com/ and attached them to the back of my iMac, 2nd monitor, and inside the top of my pullout keyboard tray. They're inexpensive and work great.