Week 5: Streetlights

I was walking back home from rehearsal the other night when I noticed these two streetlights in close proximity to each other. I found it interesting how, when juxtaposed with each other, the lights were so different in terms of warmth. The streetlight on the left, which I feel like would have seemed white to me had it been on its own, looked very cool and blue. On the other hand, the streetlight on the right seemed extremely warm and orange to me, much more so than if it were on its own. in addition, the area it illuminated seemed smaller than the area illuminated by the cooler light. This got me thinking about how much of how we perceive color is in relation to other colors and the importance of being able to physically see our lighting compositions instead of just planning them out in our heads, because two colors that may look great on their own could very likely be affected by color shifting when put together. 

Seeing these two lamps together also got me thinking about how streetlights will be in the future. I'm assuming that we'll be using fewer and fewer sodium vapor lamps as they get replaced with LED lamps, and I wonder what effects that will have. The warm orange of the sodium vapor lamps are definitely easier on the eyes at nighttime than the somewhat harsh bluish white of the LED lamp, but perhaps having a more jarring light would be better, as it could help both pedestrians and drivers alike stay awake in late hours. Then again, maybe having only LED lamps in the future would shift our perception of white light so that the light from the LED lamp wouldn't seem so harsh anymore, for better or for worse.