The short answer is ‘yes. Just like dark sunglasses stop some part of sunlight making it less bright for your eyes, smoked tint on the headlights stops some part of light emitted by the light bulb. Though, how much is the reduction depends on the tint level of the headlight wrap. Keep reading this piece to get more detailed information.
The way how smoked headlights affect visibility depends on the headlight wrap. The darker tint is, the more light it catches. Yet, if you pick light smoke headlight tint, you will lose a very small percentage of light, and you will even not notice the difference in reality. Yet, you will get your vehicle refreshed with that aggressive smoked look.
How do smoked headlights affect visibility?
We are getting closer to the technical aspect. There is a thing you have to consider if you plan on dealing with smoked headlights. Here we are talking about tinted lights, it is important to note VLT rating.
Visible Light Transmission rating (VRT) is the percentage of the light that is emitted by the headlight. Let’s see an example. You are buying a headlight wrap film with the VRT 85%. This means that once applied, the film will reduce the amount of light emitted by the light by 15% and with the film on, 85% of the light will still be transmitted. See the formula: 100% – 85% (VRT) = 15% (light reduction). Source: hikari-led.com.
So, the lower VRT is, the darker your headlight tint is. And, as a result, the more light it stops. If you pick light smoked headlight tint, you will not notice the light reduction. However, if you pick dark smoked headlight tint, you will lose some percentage of light emitted by the light bulbs.
