How Background Luminance Affects Perception

(Based on the Article: The Impact of Background Luminance on the Perception of Chromatic Lightness)

              There’s a psychology to color. They can evoke specific feelings, help us recognize characters or brands, and they can even tell a story. Filmmakers and content creators rely on the psychology of color to tell their stories correctly. That’s why it’s important to reduce outside light sources whenever possible. Background luminance, in particular, can warp audience perception.

              Background luminance generally affects lightness, which is the brightness of an area judged relative to the brightness of a similarly illuminated area that appears white or highly transmitting. Contextual factors, such as simultaneous lightness and the Helmholtz-Kohlrausch (H-K) effect, affect how background luminance can alter perception.

              Simultaneous lightness refers to a phenomenon where a light background induces a stimulus to appear darker, and a dark background induces a stimulus to appear lighter. The H-K effect describes an increase in perceived lightness achieved by increasing the chroma, the purity or intensity of color, of a stimulus. These two phenomena and the way they affect perception can make or break an audience's experience.

              Content creators need to be aware of these issues during production. However, different technologies and Standards can also be created to reduce the effects of background luminance. To truly experience a content creator’s vision and have a positive audience experience, creatives and technologists should work together to find solutions to the issue of background luminance.