Dartboard lighting: how to get rid of shadows on your board

You're going for treble 20 and your first two darts cast a black shadow right across it. Poor lighting doesn't jump out at you straight away, but it tires your eyes, makes you second-guess the score and gets in the way of your third dart. The good news: it's one of the easiest things in your set-up to fix.

Why lighting matters so much

A dartboard is metal wires, double and treble bands 8 mm wide, and darts sticking several centimetres out from the surface. With a single light source:

• every dart casts a shadow on the board, often over the segment you're aiming at next;
• the wires get hard to read: you can't tell at a glance whether a point is in the treble or just below it;
• the colours fade: the red and green of the doubles and trebles barely stand out from the black in dim light.

Good lighting means light that's bright, even and free of cast shadows across the whole board.

The ceiling light trap

A light on the ceiling in the middle of the room lights the board from a distance and from one side. Worse, when you step up to the oche you're standing between the lamp and the board, so your own body throws the shadow. It's rarely enough.

The fixes

An LED ring (LED surround)

This is what most regular players go for. A ring fitted with LEDs goes all the way around the board, often built into a surround, and lights the surface from the entire rim. Because the light comes from every side at once, each shadow is "filled in" by the light coming from the opposite side, and dart shadows all but disappear.

The upsides:

• no dart shadows, or very nearly;
• the same light on every segment, from the 20 down to the 3;
• nothing sticking out into the room or into your line of sight.

Pick one that doesn't stand too far proud of the board face (a dart that clips it will bounce out) and a neutral white light, neither too yellow nor too blue.

Spotlights

Without an LED ring, spotlights do the job well, as long as you use at least two, ideally three, lighting the board from different angles. Mount them above and slightly in front of the board, aimed at it, so they don't dazzle you at the oche. A single spotlight above the board guarantees a shadow under every dart.

Combining them

An LED ring on the board plus soft background light in the room is the most comfortable combination. Try not to make the board the only bright spot in a dark room: the contrast wears your eyes out over a long session.

Things to avoid

Glare

Metal wires, a glossy surround or a varnished cabinet can all bounce light back at you. A lamp pointing too directly, or a window opposite the board, creates dazzling hot spots. Go for matt surfaces around the board and light that comes in at an angle.

Backlight

A window right behind or beside the board means aiming straight into daylight. If you've no choice, draw the curtains while you play and rely on artificial light.

Flickering light

Some cheap LEDs, and many LEDs dimmed right down, flicker at a rate your eye barely registers. It can be tiring over time. More to the point, a camera definitely sees it: on a phone screen it shows up as rolling bands or a pulsing picture. If you film your games or keep score with a phone, choose a decent power supply and avoid turning the dimmer right down.

Good light, better camera scoring

If you use Throw to keep score with your phone, lighting matters twice over. Throw compares an image of the board before and after each dart to spot the one that just arrived, then finds its tip. What helps:

• steady light: a flickering lamp, a dimmer turned mid-visit or light that keeps changing all add changes to the picture that aren't darts;
• a board that's evenly lit: a tip stands out better on a well-lit segment than in a shadow;
• no backlight in the frame: a window or a bare bulb in the phone's view dazzles the camera.

You don't need a film studio, though: lighting that's comfortable for your eyes is usually comfortable for the camera. For where to put the phone (off to the side, 1.5 to 2 m away, whole board in the frame), see how to set up a dartboard at home, and to see what the app actually does, read how Throw scores your darts.

In short

• A ceiling light on its own isn't enough.
• An LED ring around the board gets rid of nearly every shadow.
• Otherwise, several spotlights from different angles, above and in front of the board.
• No glare, no backlight, no flicker.

Once the lighting's sorted, all that's left is to throw. For your first games, have a look at the 501 rules.