Lightness and Brightness and Other Confusions

Karin Fridell Anter
Light and Colour – Concepts and their
use
Introduction
Light and colour are things that all seeing persons perceive, and therefore
have often reason to comment, refer to and discuss. Still, such discussions
surprisingly often end up in misunderstandings or disagreements, based on
the fact that both terms – light and colour – have several and often conflicting
meanings. This is especially true, and especially problematic, amongst
people who work professionally with one aspect or other of either colour or
light or both. As it has been expressed by Anders Liljefors, professor of architectural
lighting: “The lighting technician knows exactly what ‘light’ is, and
the architect knows exactly what ‘light’ is, but they talk about different
things”. 45 The conceptual confusion creates problems when it comes to such
as quantifying the amount of light or discussing light qualities, or specifying
an exact colour and its characteristics.
This article is an attempt to sort out the confusing terminology of colour and
light and thus contribute to a better understanding between different disciplines
and professions. The analysis starts from the means by which we can
identify that which we name colour or light, and the methods we use for its
quantification and description. 46
Basically there are two different approaches in formulating words dealing
with colour and light. The original one is based on our visual experiences of
the world we live in. The other one is based on physics as a scientific way to
explore nature, and is only a few centuries old. There are also several attempts
to formulate concepts and measuring systems that combine the approaches
of experience and physics.
Professor Anders Liljefors in oral communication 2010.
The scientific approach and several of the colour concepts are based upon Green-
Armytage 2006.
45