Bet You Didn’t know This About Incandescent Bulbs and Daylight

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Have you heard the news? “Scientists in the US believe they have come up with a solution which could see a reprieve for incandescent bulbs.” http://j.mp/1Q1Ftq3

Without light, there is no color. That’s a fact.

We humans have a long and affectionate history with incandescent light. We love the stuff. So much so that when rumors first flared that incandescent light bulbs would be “banned” people started hoarding them.

Why? Because objects illuminated by incandescent light matches how we see objects in natural daylight. (article offers more detail) I hope the scientists are able to bring the new and improved incandescent light bulbs to market soon.

It seems daylight is the most popular quality of light to mimic. Understanding the importance of daylight-quality-illumination to how humans perceive color, professional standards for measuring color specify a light source that represents indirect daylight at noon. It’s called D65 and it’s key to how a color’s hue family and other attributes are determined.

I’m releasing the first Camp Chroma eLearning module end of this month. It’s all about Hue Families.  I’ve been banging the drum about color order systems and notations that include hue families for many, many years.

While flocks have been chasing the fastest and easiest shortcuts for working with color, I have been the lone voice saying, “Hey, wait a second… you all do know other, more effective color systems already exist — and they come with scientific provenance — and professional reference, some going back more than 100 years.”

It was easy to get the attention of those who are abundantly talented and color smart but are driven to be color educated as well. Many of them have tried the fast and easy shortcuts and it’s just not enough to quench their thirst for substantial color knowledge.

 

One of the questions I get a lot is, “I’m almost embarrassed to ask because I feel like I should know this, but where do hue families come from?”

And this is where that all-important factor of daylight comes back into our conversation.

Colors are illuminated with a daylight-like source and then measured with a device. One of the things the device measures is the wavelengths that make up the color – think of it as the color’s DNA. The strongest or most prominent wavelength in the color’s DNA is its hue family.

If you’re lucky enough to come across a collection of colors that have color notations including hue family, you know you have an accurate and objective piece of color data to work with.

A hue family designation ascertained via standard is information you can count on because it’s not dependent on someone else’s opinion of a color. A color notation is objective, not subjective.

There is no shortage of subjective color opinion. The image above is a small sample of what you’ll find just on Pinterest. Beware of random information like this because when you accept someone else’s subjective color opinion as being fact, you are assuming that person has the acuity to consistently see color accurately. You’re also accepting all the personal baggage and past color experiences that informs how they perceive color. Essentially, they’re making their best guess about color — in their “normal” viewing conditions — and are expecting you to blindly buy into their opinion.

Why would you settle for that?

Color notations that include hue family are like a color’s bio, read it and you know the color. Confident that it’s accurate, consistent, objective information. With that said, and as wonderfully useful as colorimetry is to anyone who works with color, I like to remind people of this:

I’d love to have you join me for the first Camp Chroma module. Sign up below and you’ll be the first to know when registration opens for the Hue Family Module.

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