Light, accompanied by our life, it uses the natural law of light reflected by objects to let us understand the existence of objects, and the work of lighting designers is to reasonably distribute the amount of light used on the illuminated objects, so as to form a light environment.

In addition, light gives a strong psychological cue. For example, in the direct sunlight that is very clear and bright, the shallow concave and convex reliefs give the impression of being powerful.

The Egyptian pyramids are exposed to strong direct sunlight, and the subtle concave and convex surfaces of the buildings will produce obvious shadows▲
In some areas where the light is not so intense, the reliefs are extremely realistic.

The direct sunlight is not strong and balanced with the skylight, and the reliefs on the surface of the Greek temple building need to be more three-dimensional to highlight the effect▲
In areas where it was cloudy and diffusely lit, the designers of the cathedral had to make the statue tall and imposing.

The Nordic region is located at a high latitude, which determines that it is quite lacking in natural light, and in the lighting environment of basically diffuse light, all the decorations of the building are presented in the form of three-dimensional carving▲
All of the above is caused by the different manifestations of sunlight in different geographical locations, and these principles also exist in the design of artificial light.

Everyone has a different understanding of light, but there are certain rules to follow about the impact of light on people. For example, in daily life, people generally follow the habit of working at sunset and resting at sunset. It is a habit of moving near or far from light, and is also the result of long-term natural selection of living things. It is difficult to express exactly what kind of light environment makes people feel the most suitable in words, but it can definitely be felt. Maybe you don't understand lighting, but you must have enjoyed the comfort that lighting brings.

The lights of the Bund building in Shanghai▲
Artificial lighting is a process in pursuit of natural light, and this is because artificial lighting is more controllable than natural light, but the quality of natural light is better than that of artificial light. In order to better combine the two, lighting designers have taken on this responsibility. To do a good job in lighting design, we need to be familiar with the characteristics of natural light and understand the knowledge of artificial light, so as to be able to control the arrangement of artificial light.

1. Natural light and artificial light

1. Natural light

When lighting designers talk about natural light, they refer to the most common light produced in nature and used by living beings for survival.

These include:

1) Daylight, i.e., direct sunlight;

2) Skylight, that is, the light of the sun's rays scattered through the atmosphere, that is, the light emitted by the blue sky that we often see;

3) Moonlight, that is, the light rays of the sun reflected by the moon.

These three types of natural light exhibit different color temperatures at different times.

Different color temperatures of various lights in nature▲
Tip: The light emitted by the stars in the night sky is also natural light, but its light is too weak to serve the purpose of illumination.

Since the evolution of human beings has been carried out in the environment of natural light, the architectural design and lighting design of modern society are still the highest level of the most clever use of natural light.

Although firelight can also occur in nature, it is generally classified as artificial light because it is too accidental and most of the firelight is artificially generated.

Focus: The purpose of lighting design is to simulate and control natural light.