Def: It describes the amount of light that passes through or is emitted from a particular area, and falls within a given solid angle.
Mathematically:
Luminance is defined by
Where,
Lv is the luminance
F is the luminous flux or luminous power
θ is the angle between the surface normal and the specified direction
A is the area between the surface normal
Ω is the solid angle
Units:
The SI unit for luminanace is candela per square meter (cd/m2)
A non SI term for the same unit is “nit”
The CGS unti of luminance is the stilb
Some of the unit conversions are
1 stilb = 1 candela/square centimeter
1 stilb = 10 kilocandela/square meter
1 stilb = 10 kilocandela/square meter
1 lambert = 3183.098861838 candela/square meter
Uses of luminance:
Luminance is often used to characterize
- emission or reflection from flat, diffuse surface.
- indicates how much luminous power will be perceived by an eye looking at the surface from a particular angle of view.
- an indicator of how bright the surface will appear.
- used in the video industry to characterize the brightness of display.
For more info on derived SI unit conversions, visit Converter
