Light is How We See
Light is quite literally how we see. It’s time we invest equally between how we see and what we are looking upon. After all, what is the point of investing in amazing stone for your bathroom only to look at it with substandard light? Why bother hanging art on the walls if its color won't be vivid? Why bother designing a conference room if the lights won’t dim properly? Great light makes every other piece of your space better and more enjoyable. It’s time to make it a priority.
What Makes High-Quality Light Different
While every project is unique, the tenants of great light are fairly universal. (Note: here I said great light, not great lighting design, great lighting design is complex, a blend of art and science, hire a lighting designer.) At a minimum, great light will do three things.
Create The Correct Brightness
Render Colors Beautifully
Dim Properly
Creating the Correct Brightness
This is probably the most common complaint about light that I get from people actually living with it. The space is too bright or not bright enough. The great misunderstanding of brightness is most of the time it is not the amount of raw lumens in a space that’s the problem. It’s putting light where it is needed and desired.
Ambient light is important, a space must feel navigable, but so too is contrast, highlighting features that are important or where tasks will done. This is not a small matter. When people say “it’s too dark in here” they often mean that it’s too dark for the thing they want to be doing. When they say “it’s too bright in here” they are often reacting to eye-line brightness better known as glare.
Getting brightness right is essential to getting the light right.
Rendering Color
Color is a gift. I know that sounds silly, but I mean it. Go visit the Color Factory in NYC or Houston. The millions of visible colors make the world a vibrant place. Our eyes evolved to discern color with amazing specificity. But our eyes evolved to do so under sunlight which (during the most of the day) renders color perfectly. We live the majority of our lives indoors today. Artificial light sources are not all created equal when it comes to how they reflect color to our eyes. Light sources of 90+ CRI are ideal for effective color rendering. There are certainly more advanced color metrics that can provide even more information about how well a light source will render colors. The science of light and color is a fascinating field that I have a hunch you don’t have time for reading this. Suffice to say, high-quality LED light sources make colors explode visually and create environments our eyes enjoy being in.
Make Sure You Have Control
Great light is only great if it can be well controlled. That means it dims smoothly without color shift or strange dips from 100% of output down to 1% of output. Ever turn the lights on and have them popcorn to life? Ever go to dim the lights in a conference room only to find they flicker terribly? Natural light changes throughout the day, so should the artificial light we employ.
Investing in Light
Investing in great light means, understanding its value. I don’t expect one blog post to change the mind of decision-makers. Getting light on the table is the only way we will secure beautiful spaces and make room in people’s minds and budgets for great lighting. Great lighting is an investment. But it’s one that will reinforce every other investment you make in your space.
