When we were painting our apartment, the green of the kitchen/dining area looked like Shrek coming out of the can, and Kermit the Frog on the roller. When it dried, of course, it was a much richer color that we really like. What amazed us was the obvious difference lighting made on the color. The pictures above were taken seconds apart, same camera settings--and these rooms are open to each other, not just through a doorway, but there is no wall between them.
More about where you can learn more and how you can apply it after the jump....
Does anyone know of a good reference tool/chart available on-line for referring to what type of light a certain type of bulb produces, beyond the basic warm and cool? Let us know about it in the comments.
The kitchen has the florescent light in it, installed in an inexpensive, ceiling-mounted fixture. The dining area, however, has incandescent bulbs, and the addition of frosted glass on the fixture. These pictures are perfect for showing the difference between the white light and the "yellow" light of the different types.
I would consider the florescent light to be a truer representation of the color we were going for, Benjamin Moore's Forest Moss (2146-20). On the right is the color according to the computer screen, a different light source.
As for sources for learning more, a place to start is this page by Sylvania. It might create more questions than answers, but it will answer some, and give you a frame of reference for your exploration.
For discussion about how light affects a specific color, check out the discussion on this post by AT's resident color therapist Mark Chamberlain, around the beautiful color "Sweet Pear." [For a guide to the way natural light "looks," check out this post from the Decorating Diva.]
As for us, we love the kitchen color far more than the dining area color, so we'll start with the easiest action we can take and install compact florescent lights in the dining room fixture to balance out the light and bring us closer to the color we're going for. The bonus is that it's the greener option!
What we're wondering: do people complain about the difference between incandescent and florescent when they switch to CFLs because they're just used to the light? Or does it have more to do with preferring warm over cool coloring?
Some of this effect (at least in the pictures) is caused by the automatic white balance setting on your camera..
view Peter D's profile
True, Peter, and I often don't do much with the white balance, but the color is just about as obviously different in person with your own eyes as it is with the camera, so the camera's not really affecting the outcome very much.
view kate's profile
I've noticed that the CFLs aren't as bright, but maybe we just bought the lower wattage (13, 14, 15, and 16 all say they're comparable to a 60 W regular bulb - and I think we bought the 13s). It seems harder to study and read under the CFLs. We got the peach glow but it doesn't quite feel the same. But once we've got the whole house switched over, I'm sure we'll forget how the regular bulbs compared - it's just now we've got both and there are definitely brighter areas of our home that we're gravitating toward more than the CFL areas. We've got mostly recessed lights as well and no lamps, so maybe that affects the light.
view Joan Vignocchi's profile
I use CFLs all over the house, now. My only problem is that they start off dim, in many cases, although they brighten up within 20 seconds. I remember when we changed the incandescent bulbs in the bathroom to CFL, it was very jarring at first, but we soon grew accustomed to it and stopped noticing. Your eyes adjust quickly.
view Chzzy's profile
There are at least a couple of factors here:
1. The color temperature of the light. Incandescents are usually around 2700K (Kelvin), and look "yellowish". Fluorescents are frequently 4000K (pure white), or more. Fluorescents also put out a much more narrow spectrum of light, and human eyes evolved with sunlight and over the last hundred years or so have adapted well to incandescents, both of which produce a much broader spectrum of light. Sunlight and incandescent may have different temperature peaks in their spectrum, but those curves look much more like a traditional mountain, whereas the color spectrum for most fluorescents looks more like a pole. "Warm white" fluorescents will also have a color temperature around 2700K, but regardless of temperature, a narrow spectrum will always look "wrong" whereas a broad spectrum is more likely to look "right".
2. Color Rendition Index. Some CFLs are poor quality, and have a low CRI. Some CFLs are higher quality and have a good CRI. The higher the CRI, the more accurate the color representation in that light, and consequently also the broader the spectrum of the bulb. The best CFLs today can hit in the low 90s for CRI, which is not too bad. But bad CFLs may have CRIs as low as the 50s or worse. Oh, and everything I've said about CFLs pretty much applies to all forms of fluorescent lights, not just the compact variety.
One thing I've found is that it does not generally work well to mix fluorescent and incandescent lighting in the same space. Even if they both supposedly have the same color temperature (2700K), and even if the CFLs have a good CRI, they still look different enough to be "off". Either go with all incandescent, or all fluorescent, and make sure that their color temperature and CRIs are well matched. Then you should be fine.
We had this very same problem in our living room, until I went around and replaced all the rest of the incandescent lights with CFLs, and now everything looks just fine.
The human eye adapts well to situations where the color of the lighting is consistent, and where the CRI is good. The specific color temperature is not so important, so long as it's consistent. We have our own "automatic white balance" that works quite well in those situations.
view bradknowles's profile