If you coat a lightbulb with (human) blood, will the light be tinted red?
Foreword: I understand Halloween's over but I'm still enjoying the second half of my long marathon.
In Evil Dead II (1987), there is a gory scene where blood is splattered onto a lightbulb, and the room is consequently illuminated in a red tint, as if the light were to have a red filter.
This was achieved, no doubt, by simply throwing fake blood on a bulb in for a slow motion shot, and the second shot was just achieved by whacking on a red filter to any old studio light they had.
My question is: how accurate/realistic is it?
Would blood (human or otherwise) not be too viscous, thick and opaque to allow for this effect to happen?
What would happen if you coated a lightbulb in blood?
Best Answer
It would tint the light, but very badly, and unevenly (quite unlike the photo).
Of course, blood is a translucent liquid that will -- at first -- coat the bulb. Recall that hospitals use a gizmo that is attached to your fingertip in order to measure oxygen levels in your bloodstream. It does this, I believe, by shining light through a thin portion of your body (your fingertip) and measuring its color after passing through it. The more oxygen, the more bright red your blood will appear. (Doctors out there please correct this if I am wrong.)
But blood is also living tissue, and will die soon after leaving the body. Once it dies and is "baked" by the heat of the light bulb, its chemistry will change. It will discolor, flake, split, start to fall off the bulb, etc. After a while of some bad odor, it will probably look nothing like the photos above.
Pictures about "If you coat a lightbulb with (human) blood, will the light be tinted red?"
Is blood opaque or translucent?
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