You’ve never positioned a light up higher on another surface than where you’re working? Like on a fender pointing downwards into the engine bay?
Just before I began to type this, I set up 3 Icon lights, standing vertically, magnetized to metal horizontal surfaces, opened out to 90°, with the smaller light pointed down... so as to help my wife see better when she walks up the driveway, since I have a project in progress there.
As a side note... if anyone on the fence regarding the expense of these lights needs clearance from Tower to pay $25 for one, or $200 for eight, just start doing what I did. Deploy the lights where and when they will be useful to Her.
After the first couple of times I did this, it was Tower who was the one clipping the coupons, as well as stopping at HF for me to buy the next pair of lights in my collection. So word to the wise... make your first use of a new tool acquisition for Her direct and exclusive benefit... in order to keep your runway clear.
Back to this evening's Icon set up. I stuck one on a metal table that lives outside, about 39" from the ground. I put another on the metal frame of a Z rack that I use for hanging and painting parts, about 6" from the ground (net 12" including the height of the light body). I stuck a third light on the metal bumper of a motorhome, which was about 20" high.
All were on the lowest intensity setting, using the smaller lamp. Yet the illumination was better than a runway... it was as good as a store parking lot, because the light source was lower to the ground... not 20' up on lamp posts.
I've not only stuck these lamps on a fender (as previously mentioned in a prior post), I've also stuck them to the underside of the hood, for a broader flood of light across the entire engine bay, which is easier for me to see the engine. The magnet is strong enough to even attach to the narrow loop ring for the hood latch, with the body horizontal.
Alternatively, the body of the light can be vertical, magnetized to a reinforcement rib of the hood, and the lamp still folded out 90°, but since the body of the lamp is hanging upside down, the back side of the lamp is facing down, with the longer, larger lamp pointing down. It can be further refined to an angle less than 90°, to "cancel out" the angle of the open hood, and thus the lamp leg ends up level.
Yet since it is on the hood (and I bias the position to the higher part of the hood for head clearance), the distance of the larger lamp is further away from the engine. Less reflection, softer light, and lots of spillover outside of the fender, beyond the confines of the engine compartment where I have my tools on a cart (or on the ground).
When I put the light on the fender, pointed toward the engine compartment, the ground beyond the fender is in shadow, and with the source of the light being so much closer to the engine, the intensity of reflection on brighter metals (intermediate steering shaft, master cylinder, AC compressor, what have you) causes my eyes to have to reconcile the high contrast between what is within the close and intense swath of light, and what is out of sight, in the darkness, including the other side of the engine, if I only have one light with me at the time.
I guess what I am saying is that I have not found the lamp arrangement in the Icon to be a detriment. I actually find it to be quite clever and well thought out. This is just one opinion, and it is shared on the smorgasbord of opinions and experiences with no more significance than everyone else's... where one might readily find others who "see" things in a "different light."
