DIYbanter - View Single Post - Strange problem with low energy light bulb

Lostgallifreyan

(Don Klipstein) wrote in
:

But if the light level is neither in kilolux nevels nor a recent
uptick
from something lower, I find daylight to usually have no warmth or
"cheer".

If the ceiling is dark but the windows are bright, then things can
look
cheerful - sometimes - for some reason.

I mentioned contrast earlier, and I wonder if it might be this. I have an
odd colour scheme on my monitor, a kind of inversion of usual practise. I
call it 'panel lights'. It has black window objects, white and orange text
on them, the text backgound is a blue-biased mid grey, text black. Desktop
is deep blue with a pattern like dark water seen from a boat at twilight,
but saturated strongly, icon text there is like blue flame. Title bars are
green like plastic backlit by fluorescent light with red text. I like
programs with buttons that use colours well and illuminate like lights on
the black toolbars. Menus are yellow on a grey brown background. When
working on a full-screen text edit, it looks like a monochrome TV framed by
illuminated panels.

What I'm getting at is that this thing has both kinds of colour, 'hot' and
'cold', and most of all, strong contrasts. Some would find it as garish as
a fairground. I find it comforting the same way I find firelight
comforting. It keeps me calm yet aware for long periods while working.
Similar lighting tricks keep air pilots awake on night flights. (That's
partly the basis of the name I give that scheme).

Most colour schemes I see on computers are varieties of dark text on pale
backgrounds. I don't care if they're warm flamelike backgrounds or cool
fern greens and icy blues, I find them ALL distracting, stressful, and the
executive class adlanders white pages and thin grey text and pastel shades
are the very worst.

Ok, so I'm weird, but that's still a natural take on lighting. It shows
that there's a lot more to this than colour temperature. Contrast is
important too, as is the ratio of light to dark, and of object to space,
and suggestion plays a big part. It's very hard to be scientific about such
things, so maybe we shouldn't be trying too hard.

I'm still having a hard time adjusting to the fact that an SI unit, the
Lumen, is based on a statistical consensus, yet is placed alongside
hallowed units like the amp and the volt and the watt which seem as
immutable as 2+2 equalling four. Trying to get objective about what colours
are 'right' for us to accept and discussing it as if it is a hard science
is more weird to me than suggesting that the lightbulb is a form of magic.