Luminance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Luminance is a photometric measure of the luminous intensity per unit area of light travelling in a given direction. It describes the amount of light that passes through or is emitted from a particular area, and falls within a given solid angle. The SI unit for luminance is candela per square metre (cd/m2). A non-SI term for the same unit is the "nit". The CGS unit of luminance is the stilb, which is equal to one candela per square centimetre or 10 kcd/m2. Luminance is often used to characterize emission or reflection from flat, diffuse surfaces. The luminance indicates how much luminous power will be perceived by an eye looking at the surface from a particular angle of view. Luminance is thus an indicator of how bright the surface will appear. In this case, the solid angle of interest is the solid angle subtended by the eye's pupil. Luminance is used in the video industry to characterize the brightness of displays. A typical computer display emits between 50 and 300 cd/m2. The sun has luminance of about 1.6109 cd/m2 at noon.[1] Luminance is invariant in geometric optics. This means that for an ideal optical system, the luminance at the output is the same as the input luminance. For real, passive, optical systems, the output luminance is at most equal to the input. As an example, if you form a demagnified image with a lens, the luminous power is concentrated into a smaller area, meaning that the illuminance is higher at the image. The light at the image plane, however, fills a larger solid angle so the luminance comes out to be the same assuming there is no loss at the lens. The image can never be "brighter" than the source.

1 Definition 2 See also 3 References 4 External links

Luminance is defined by

where

Lv is the luminance (cd/m2), F is the luminous flux or luminous power (lm),

is the angle between the surface normal and the specified direction,

A is the area of the surface (m2), and

is the solid angle (sr).

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Luminance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Diffuse reflection Etendue Exposure value Illuminance Lambert Lambertian reflectance Lightness, property of a color Luma, the representation of luminance in a video monitor Lumen (unit) Radiance

1. ^ "Luminance" (http://www.schorsch.com/kbase/glossary/luminance.html) . Lighting Design Glossary. http://www.schorsch.com/kbase/glossary/luminance.html. Retrieved Apr. 13, 2009.

A Kodak guide to Estimating Luminance and Illuminance (http://www.kodak.com/cluster/global /en/consumer/products/techInfo/am105/am105kic.shtml) using a camera's exposure meter. Also available in PDF form (http://www.kodak.com/cluster/global/en/consumer/products/techInfo/am105 /am105kic.pdf) and Google Docs online version (http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v& q=cache:3ygRnO1mEpEJ:www.kodak.com/cluster/global/en/consumer/products/techInfo/am105 /am105kic.pdf+estimating+luminance+and+illuminance+with+reflection+type&hl=en&gl=ie& sig=AFQjCNGlsuOrMAs62ZwlzQilxa6mkx0QaA)

Quantity Luminous energy Luminous flux

Symbol Qv F Lv Ev

SI unit lumen second lumen (= cdsr) candela (= lm/sr) lux (= lm/m2) lux (= lm/m2) lumen per watt

Abbr. lms lm cd

Notes units are sometimes called talbots also called luminous power an SI base unit

Luminous intensity Iv Luminance Illuminance

candela per square metre cd/m2 units are sometimes called "nits" lx lx Used for light incident on a surface Used for light emitted from a surface

Luminous emittance Mv Luminous efficacy

lm/W ratio of luminous flux to radiant flux

See also SI Photometry Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminance" Categories: Photometry | Physical quantities This page was last modified on 23 April 2010 at 21:58. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. Privacy policy

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