Lighting Metrics – get to know them, or else.

If you spend anytime on a 3D software package sooner or later you will have to light your scene. Improper lighting can and will lead to unrealistic scenes that do not convince. Lighting is certainly a complex issue to divulge in almost any context. The great thing about 3D software is that real world lighting metrics do apply – one is not confined to idiosyncratic jargon related to the software, for the most part.

Lighting metrics are used to understand and predict how a lighting system will operate. They deal with quantity of light (light output and light levels), quality of light (brightness and color), and fixture efficiency (electrical efficiency and how much light leaves the fixture).

I recently came across lighting metric guides from the lighting industry itself. All the science, physics, calculations and raw data are presented in somewhat complex technical reading, but the fundamentals are present and once the context is understood terms such as “Luminous Flux” (light output) and “Luminance” (photometric brightness) are grasped. The immediate benefit of this information is obvious.

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