Energy loss prevention in buildings continues to be an important subject as it impacts climate control and cost associated with used energy necessary to maintain the desired temperatures in closed spaces. Despite insulation methods used during permanent construction, the highest energy loss occurs through windows. Materials research and design inventions have improved energy conservation through windows; however, some of the existing implementations may still be relatively costly. For example, double/triple-glazed windows in buildings, to polarization-controlled windows now seen on some aircrafts serve as effective insulators, but are expensive to install. The purpose of this project was to investigate the use of layers of paper as a potential material for use for variable absorbance levels of light energy, showing a potential application and design that could be implemented, for example, as an affordable insulating material over windows for variable-light attenuation. The experiments involved using a cellphone camera to image the amount of light transmitted through up to five layers of paper of four different colors placed over an LED light bulb. MATLAB programming tool was used to quantify the amount of transmitted light from images based on pixel brightness levels, and then quantify the energy attenuation, avoiding the need for expensive camera technologies like hyperspectral imaging for data acquisition and analysis. Light attenuation follows Beer-Lambert’s law with the constant material but simulated changing thickness or optical path. These experiments have shown that paper can absorb light energy following Beer Lambert law in a controlled manner, and, with some other considerations, paper can be used as an insulator to block light energy. A design concept that could serve as a variable attenuation-control shade for windows or as an awning is also presented as a potential application.