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.

Explanation[link]

Luminance is often used to characterize emission or reflection from flat, diffuse surfaces. The luminance indicates how much luminous power will be detected 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 1.6×10⁹ 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.

Definition[link]

Luminance is defined by the derivative

Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): L_\mathrm{v} = \frac{\mathrm{d}^2 \Phi_\mathrm{v}}{\mathrm{d}A\,\mathrm{d}{\Omega} \cos \theta}

where

Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): L_\mathrm{v}

is the luminance (cd/m2),

Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \Phi_\mathrm{v}

is the luminous flux or luminous power (lm),

Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \theta\,

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

Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): A

is the area of the surface (m2), and

Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \Omega\,

is the solid angle (sr).

The expression is written using Leibniz's notation.

Units[link]

A variety of units have been used for luminance, besides the candela per square metre.

One candela per square metre is equal to:

• 10^-4 stilbs (the CGS unit of luminance)
• π apostilbs
• π×10^-4 lamberts
• 0.292 foot-lamberts

See also[link]

• Diffuse reflection
• Etendue
• Exposure value
• Lambertian reflectance
• Lightness, property of a color
• Luma, the representation of luminance in a video monitor
• Lumen (unit)
• Radiance, radiometric quantitity analogous to luminance
• Brightness, the subjective impression of luminance

References[link]

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

External links[link]

• A Kodak guide to Estimating Luminance and Illuminance using a camera's exposure meter. Also available in PDF form and Google Docs online version