When you are doing color sensitive work, you need a light that will help you accurately compare colors. Whether it be product photography, hospital work, or managing a retail store, having a good coloring rendering index (CRI) means colors will look more vibrant which helps assess your work. Like color temperature, CRI is overlooked when it comes to LED light shopping. So here are three questions to help you understand what a color rendering index is.
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What is CRI?
CRI is a measurement of a light’s capability to show objects’ true color compared to natural light. Simply put, it represents a light source’s ability to display things in their natural colors. Incandescent lighting and sunlight are ideal sources of illumination in this regard and have a near perfect or absolute CRI rating. It is measured on a scale of 1-100, with 100 being sunlight.
What does high CRI mean?
A high CRI means objects in a room are accurately color-represented. The higher the rating, the better the color rendering ability. An 80+ CRI rating is considered good at color rendering while a 90 or higher rating is considered excellent. Most LED lighting fall within these ratings which add more value to them. While there are a few cases when you’d want a low CRI, such as in cinematography to achieve an effect, most settings call for highly accurate color portrayal.
Why is CRI important?
A high CRI is paramount to interior design. If you’ve carefully chosen your furniture and wall paint to complement each other, you’ll also want to make sure you see their colors are you intend them. This ensures your décor looks crisp and sharp so it looks the best it can. Equally important to accurate hues are how people look under your LED lights. When you use high CRI LED light fixtures, your environment is brighter, has more clarity, and is filled with vibrant color.
