Stop Flirting & Commit : Rules of Engagement With Colour

Just as with any budding attraction, should you bring it home with you, you might be surprised how it looks like in a different light. Colours which look great on the colour chart under fluorescent lighting in the paint store will look much different at home in a sunny room or lit by incandescent lighting. Tungsten bulbs give a slightly yellow light; halogen gives white light, while some fluorescent bulbs can give flat, cold light. All these lights can all affect how the colour looks. Your best bet is full spectrum lighting, which mimics daylight, to show a colour at its’ best.

Read more.

Comments: In this long(ish) post, the authors advise on ways in to include colour in your home design choices. In terms of making your colour decisions, the best piece of advice they give, is to make sure you’re looking at it under the right light.

Related posts:

1. The Colour Rendering Index (CRI)
2. Full-spectrum Light and Colour Perception
3. How accurate is your colour perception

These cones in our eyes specialise in perceiving any one of the three different colour groups – red, green or blue. If any group is damaged then we cannot properly perceive that particular colour.

For those wanting to test their colour perception ability we link to this list of five different online tests that you can do. What is also relevant in looking at these tests, is that all the test providers specify that the surrounding light will affect results.

“Because of different display settings, display gamma values and ambient light situations you can’t rely on the results of online color vision deficiency tests.”

For those who need to accurately perceive colour in their work, you will need a full-spectrum bulb or natural daylight, to ensure that your eyes are getting an accurate picture of the colours surrounding you.

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This year, Viva-Lite partners, FL TRADE Kft. exhibited Viva-Lite full-spectrum bulbs. The stand, which focused on showing the quality of light that could be achieved with full-spectrum bulbs, produced serious interest amongst visitors.

An example for those unable to attend the exhibition on how full-spectrum bulbs affect our ability to perceive colour – can be found in the illustration below.

Picture 1 shows a painting under standard artificial light. Picture 2 is the same painting in sunlight and Picture 3 is the picture under Viva-Lite full-spectrum bulbs.

You can see how the perception of colour is closest to natural sunlight under full-spectrum bulbs.

A high colour reproduction is an important tool for many companies and colour sensitive businesses. Viva-Lite ensures that even objects and materials containing fluorescent substances are reproduced true to nature.

We find that Viva-Lite full spectrum light has been valuable for dentists and dental technology where they have to be sure that the fabricated denture completely matches the natural tooth colour.

Viva-Lite full spectrum bulbs are likewise popular in clothing stores and boutiques. Can you remember the last time you bought a apparently blue shirt that suddenly was green when seen under natural daylight?

If you work in any industry where accurate colour reproduction is important – consider investing in a full-spectrum bulb today.

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1. How accurate is your colour perception
2. The Colour Rendering Index (CRI)
3. Stop Flirting & Commit : Rules of Engagement With Colour

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What does Wikipedia have to say about the CRI: “The color rendering index (CRI) (sometimes called color rendition index), is a quantitative measure of the ability of a light source to reproduce the colors of various objects faithfully in comparison with an ideal or natural light source. Light sources with a high CRI are desirable in color-critical applications such as photography and cinematography. It is defined by the International Commission on Illumination as follows: ‘Color rendering: Effect of an illuminant on the color appearance of objects by conscious or subconscious comparison with their color appearance under a reference illuminant’.”

As this sounds a wee bit complicated, we’ve prepared an article which (hopefully) explains a bit mor simple what the CRI is and does. First of all, please note that the CRI is different from the light colour or colour temperature of the lamp. Even so-called “daylight” bulbs may have a comparatively low CRI (as per full-spectrum standards anything below 90 is seriously low) and it is the CRI rather than the colour temperature (measured in “K” for “Kelvin” by the way) which makes the real difference when it comes to the light spectrum and ultimately how good you’ll see and be able to do visual tasks under such lighting.

Researchers in Sweden found out that with the CRI being around or above 96 Ra, it is quite possible that we see up to 30% better when compared to lower quality light sources. So what light sources are those which are preferrable for a good CRI which are those who are not:

I light source with a CRI = 100 Ra would be perfect and balanced in terms of colour reproduction, shading, contrast etc. – therefore the lesser the difference from 100 Ra, the better will colours be reproduced under such light. The lower the Ra-value, the worse colours will reproduced and the more difficult it is to see and work under such light.

A last but important word on the note of colour reproduction:

When comparing different light sources, it is only recommendable to compare them in the same colour temperature. It makes therefore not much sense to compare an incandescent 2700K bulb with a 6500K daylight energy saving lamp. For a proper comparison – either the incandescent lamp should be also rated at 6500K colour temperature or the energy saving lamp should be in the 2700K range. Then – and then only – true colour reproduction comparison can take place.

We hope this helps to clear up some confusion around the terms colour reproduction and colour temperature. Thanks for reading

Related posts:

1. Stop Flirting & Commit : Rules of Engagement With Colour
2. How accurate is your colour perception
3. Full-spectrum Light and Colour Perception

Instructions:

1) Name the following colours aloud from up to down. Say aloud, as if there is nobody else in your room. So start from “red”:

2) Now do the same for the following colours, but try a little faster:

Very good. However, did you really name the colours? Why did you say that the upper colour is red, although it is white, as you can see here once more:

Isn’t that surprisingly difficult? A person, who cannot read, will find this test most likely much easier – of course we just guessed that you said “red”, because 99.5 % of all people say so.

BTW: It is also difficult to read in yellowish, eye tireing and insufficient bad colour rendered light. Therefore we suggest that you try clean, full spectrum daylight lamps, like Viva-Lite, in your office and at home. We believe that you will improve your reading speed – not to talk about seeing true colours!

There is a huge difference between different lamps.

Thanks to your Viva-Lite partner in Finland for providing the test!

Related posts:

1. The Colour Rendering Index (CRI)
2. How accurate is your colour perception
3. Stop Flirting & Commit : Rules of Engagement With Colour

Dave – one of our kind customers in Australia has sent us the following pictures of an energy saving lamp with the Viva-Lite Spectrum and the Sunlight as a comparison:

Both photos were taken through so-called “Spectral-Glasses” which you can get in many stores and on the internet. Or buy them directly in the Viva-Lite International Online-Store and compare for yourself…

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