Sparkle can be good or it can be bad. If a sparkle turns into a glare, it can actually distract you from directly looking at the product. This is how I feel about audience blinders at a rock show. When they come on, I tend to close my eyes and miss what is happening on stage…I find the best way to light shiny chrome is to point your light straight on. You get significantly less glare…I have been designing trade show booths for Titleist Golf for more than a decade. The shafts of clubs are all chrome, but the grips and heads tend to be black. I use a little extra lighting to make club displays pop. However, I still get the occasional person asking if I can make their chrome not so shiny. I smile and say, “Of course.” I then add filters to the fixtures and bring down the intensity. Voila, the shiny is much less shiny.
—Mike Mahoney, from LD-at-Large, PLSN May 2015
