How Light Affects Color

Light affects colors in many ways, natural light and artificial light have greatly differing affects on colors. Even in which direction your windows are facing will have an affect on how colors look in your home.

 So what is light? White light, such as sunlight, is made up of the seven colors of the visible spectrum. When light is refracted, such as in a prism, this spectrum becomes clearly visible. Each of these colors has a different wavelength measured in nanometers, which refracts or bends at a different rate. The electromagnetic spectrum extends beyond the visible spectrum of light, including wavelengths we cant see such as infrared, X-rays, UV rays, gamma rays, and even ham/cb radio waves.

  Opposite of the primary colors of pigment, red, blue, yellow, the primary colors in light are red, green and blue. When all three colors of light are combined in equal parts, white light is  created. When red light is mixed with green light, yellow is created. Red and Blue lights create magenta, while blue light mixed with green light creates an aqua color.When light hits a surface all the light is absorbed into the object, except the color which is the same as the object, which it will reflect.

The type of lighting we use to view a color is just as important as the color itself, since the color perceived is relative ti its light source. The perception of color can change with a change in lighting. Natural sunlight is the ideal light source for viewing color due to its ability to maintain a balance between warm and cool colors. Sunlight varied throughout the day and is both direct and indirect. Direct sunlight will always give the truest rendition of colors in a room. Lights affect will also vary depending on the direction it's coming from. Northern light (window facing north, indirect sunlight)) is cooler, but more consistent, southern light (Windows facing south, direct sunlight ) on the other hand tends to be warmer and stronger, but its more variable than northern light.

Tip:

Use warm colors, yellows, reds, oranges, in north facing rooms and cool tones, blues purples, green, in south facing room.

Artificial light sources (incandescent, fluorescent and halogen) all have varying affects on colors in a room. Incandescent lights tend to have a yellow cast to them. Colors appear warm, reds and yellow are enhanced while blues and greens are dulled. Fluorescent light is much blue in hue and can be unflattering. Colors appear cool with blue and greens enhanced, while reds and yellows are muted. Halogen lighting is the best of the 3 for color rendering as its the closet to natural sunlight. It's said that every room should have seven sources of light such as, windows, lamps, scones, skylights, ect..

Now that you have an understanding of how lighting will affect the colors in your home its time to find the perfect colors for all the rooms in your home. When you're ready to coordinate your walls with your lighting sources, give me a call and ill be glad to bring your ideas to light.






Written by Jeffrey Hartford