Question

How can the true color of objects be affected by artificial lighting? Explain briefly

Answer 1

The lighting and colors will work together, consider that warm, yellow light can intensify warm colors and mute cooler hues, while cool light does the opposite. For example, incandescent lighting cast warm light that can enhance reds, oranges and yellows; Cool fluorescent light works best with blues, violets and greens.

Natural light can vary greatly depending on the weather, the season, the time of day, the position of the sun in the sky, the location of the building and where the space is located within the building. Understanding these factors can help you to anticipate how natural light will affect a color.

Light that enters a room from the north casts a cool, bluish tint on the objects is washes over. Using clear hues rather than ones that are muted or greyed. Northern light is indirect and can make colors appear darker and less saturated so you may want to compensate by considering a paint color that is a bit lighter or slightly more intense. It would be three sets of swatches in popular colors. Colours that work best with light are light value, bright and clean. Colors best for rooms with south exposure are medium value, toned, muted or greyed colors. Colors for rooms with either eastern or western exposures are warmer and less muted than those for southern exposure.

The color of northern light is the most diffused light and remains quite consistent throughout the day. This is why the colors of your paint and fabrics in a room with a northern exposure will remain the same color throughout the day than the same paint and fabrics used in a room with an east, west or southern exposure.

Rooms with southern exposure benefit from beautiful warm light but at time it can be too much light that is too intense or glaring. To solve this problem use colors that are muted with a bit of grey to absorb a bit of the light so the room feels more comfortable.

Light that comes from an eastern or western exposure is also warm. It cast a yellow to orange-yellow or red-orange tint that will change throughout the day as the sun moves across the sky. Light is softer and yellowish in the morning moving to intense and orange or reddish in late afternoon. Using colors that are warmer and less muted will help the color to work even when the sun is not streaming in.

Artificial light supplements natural light so it is important for you to know how a space will be lit when selecting colors. The type of artificial lighting in a space influences how a color looks. Some of the most common sources are fluorescent and incandescent light bulbs, halogen bulbs, and LED lighting.

Halogen lighting is nearly white and the closest to natural light on a clear day around noon. Fluorescent lighting is more bluish although now some fluorescent bulbs produce light band that is close to daylight. Incandescent lighting produces a yellowish light.