Brightness

Brightness is an attribute of visual perception in which a source appears to be

radiating or reflectinglight.[1] In other words, brightness is the perception elicited by
the luminance of a visual target. It is not necessarily proportional to luminance. This
is a subjective attribute/property of an object being observed and one of the color
appearance parameters of color appearance models. Brightness refers to an absolute
term and should not be confused withLightness.[2]

The adjective bright derives from an Old English beorht with the same meaning via
metathesis giving Middle English briht. The word is from a Common Germanic
*berhtaz, ultimately from a PIE root with a closely related meaning, *bhereg-
"white, bright". "Brightness" was formerly used as a synonym for the photometric
term luminance and (incorrectly) for the radiometric term radiance. As defined by
the US Federal Glossary of Telecommunication Terms (FS-1037C), "brightness"
should now be used only for non-quantitative references to physiological sensations
and perceptions of light.[3] Decreasing brightness with depth
(underwater photo as example)
A given target luminance can elicit different perceptions of brightness in different
contexts; see, for example,White's illusion.

In the RGB color space, brightness can be thought of as the arithmetic mean μ of the red, green, and blue color coordinates (although
some of the three components make the light seem brighter than others, which, again, may be compensated by some display systems
automatically):[4]

Brightness is also a color coordinate inHSL color space : hue, saturation, and lightness, meaning here brightness.

With regard to stars, brightness is quantified asapparent magnitude and absolute magnitude.

Brightness is, at least in some respects, the antonym ofdarkness.

Contents
New meaning
Brightness
See also
Notes
External links

New meaning
The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has assigned an unconventional meaning to brightness when applied to lamps.
When appearing on light bulb packages, brightness means luminous flux, while in other contexts it means luminance.[5] Luminous
flux is the total amount of light coming from a source, such as a lighting device. Luminance, the original meaning of brightness, is
the amount of light per solid angle coming from an area, such as the sky. The table below shows the standard ways of indicating the
amount of light.

SI photometry quantities

Quantity Unit Dimension

Notes
Name Symbol[nb 1] Name Symbol Symbol[nb 2]

lumen The lumen second is sometimes

Luminous energy Qv[nb 3] lm⋅s T⋅J
second called the talbot.
lumen (=
Luminous flux, lm
Φv[nb 3] candela J Luminous energy per unit time
luminous power (= cd⋅sr)
steradians)
candela (=
Luminous cd
Iv lumen per J Luminous flux per unitsolid angle
intensity (= lm/sr)
steradian)
Luminous flux per unit solid angle per
candela per
unit projected source area. The
Luminance Lv square cd/m2 L−2⋅J
candela per square metre is
metre
sometimes called the nit.
lux (=
lumen per lx
Illuminance Ev L−2⋅J Luminous flux incident on a surface
square (= lm/m2)
metre)
Luminous
exitance,
Mv lux lx L−2⋅J Luminous flux emitted from a surface
luminous
emittance
Luminous
Hv lux second lx⋅s L−2⋅T⋅J Time-integrated illuminance
exposure
lumen
Luminous energy
density
ωv second per lm⋅s/m3 L−3⋅T⋅J
cubic metre
Ratio of luminous flux toradiant flux
lumen per
Luminous efficacy η[nb 3] watt
lm/W M−1⋅L−2⋅T3⋅J or power consumption, depending on
context
Luminous
efficiency, Luminous efficacy normalized by the
V 1
luminous maximum possible efficacy
coefficient
See also: SI · Photometry · Radiometry

1. Standards organizationsrecommend that photometric quantities be denoted with a suffix "v" (for "visual") to avoid
confusion with radiometric orphoton quantities. For example:USA Standard Letter Symbols for Illuminating
Engineering USAS Z7.1-1967, Y10.18-1967
2. The symbols in this column denotedimensions; "L", "T" and "J" are for length, time and luminous intensity
respectively, not the symbols for theunits litre, tesla and joule.
3. Alternative symbols sometimes seen:W for luminous energy, P or F for luminous flux, andρ or K for luminous
efficacy.

Brightness
The term "brightness" is also used in discussions of sound timbres, in a rough analogy with visual brightness. Timbre researchers
consider brightness to be one of the perceptually strongest distinctions between sounds,[6] and formalize it acoustically as an
indication of the amount of high-frequency content in a sound, using a measure such as the
spectral centroid.

See also
Luma (video)
Luminance (relative)
Luminosity

Notes
1. Merriam-Webster.com (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bright) Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition of
bright
2. [1] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq2y2BseUaE) Brightness vs. Lightness
3. “Brightness (http://www.its.bldrdoc.gov/fs-1037/dir-005/_0719.htm)” in Federal Standard 1037C, theFederal
Glossary of Telecommunication Terms (1996)
4. What are HSB and HLS?(http://www.poynton.com/notes/colour_and_gamma/ColorFAQ.html#RTFToC36), Charles
Poynton: "The usual formulation of HSB and HLS compute so-called "lightness" or "brightness" asR (+ G + B)/3.
This computation conflicts badly with the properties of colour vision, as it computes yellow to be about six times more
intense than blue with the same "lightness" value (sayL = 50)."
5. "Shopping for Light Bulbs"(https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0164-shopping-light-bulbs). United States Federal
Trade Commission. Retrieved March 13, 2017.
6. D. Wessel, Timbre space as a musical control structure(http://articles.ircam.fr/textes/Wessel78a/), Computer Music
Journal, 3 (1979), pp. 45–52.

External links
Media related to brightness at Wikimedia Commons

Poynton's Color FAQ

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