I don't have one but have looked at a lot of lighting recently and seen a number of them. I think the biggest drop in light comes from the shade itself and possibly a bit from the darker fabric. There sure are some pretty ones out there.

I have black shades on the chandy in my master bath and I don't find that the shades make that big a difference. They're lined in white and the chandy is hung high enough that I get plenty of downward light in there.

I did thoroughly clean it recently, shades & bulbs, and noticed it was quite a lot brighter (shamefully hanging my head). So I don't think the dark shades are that bad.

Thanks, you two! I was hoping for an answer like yours, pesky1. LOL

The inside of the shades are an important factor, be they white or metallic

We had black fabric shades on our previous dr chandelier and when I switched them out to black paper shades lined in gold (which you could not really see when the light was on) it was brighter. The fabric shades were lined in white and for some reason seemed to suck up all the light. I preferred the look of fabric, though, it was softer.

i had black shades with gold interior on our dining room chandy (8 lights) for a few years...the shades didn't make a difference on the light put on the table, but definitely made the whole room darker because the light didn't shine through the shades...my shades weren't drum shades, so we didn't get as much light out of the top as a drum shade would provide. i loved them at the time, but was ready for more brightness when we changed the shades!
[i have again changed the shades to gold colored drum shades and do love the drum shape on our chandy!]

Thanks everyone.

Bee3, will you share where you purchased your new drum shades?

I've never had a chandelier
(late bloomer) so I imagine there are different types of hardware on shades other than clip-ons, correct?
I need to do more research!

i got them at restoration hardware...waited for a sale!

Okay, thanks!