What determines the perceived brightness of objects?



Luminance is a physical and objective measure of the intensity of light. The sensation elicited by different luminances is called brightness. However brightness is a subjective measure as it is the perceived amount of light emanating from an object. It may seem logical to expect that luminance and brightness are directly proportional and that two objects that reflect the same amount of physical light into the eye will look the same brightness. However, as this essay will discuss, the apparent brightness of objects is not entirely dependent upon the amount of light received from them and other factors are influential in the way we perceive brightness.

Our perception of the brightness of objects often depends more on the luminance of adjacent objects and backgrounds than on the actual luminance of the object itself. Two surfaces reflecting the same physical amount of light to the eyes typically look differently bright if......

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Title: What Determines The Perceived Brightness Of Objects?
Approximate Word Count: 1702
Approximate Pages: 7 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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