Issue link: https://nbm.uberflip.com/i/1491554
G R A P H I C S - P R O. C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 3 • G R A P H I C S P R O 6 7 exactly." Well, we've all run across this type of life-or-death job, and in this case, I picked up the phone and asked the CD if he had planned for the Kelvin Shift for that base color. Naturally, the CD went silent ... like I just asked him to name every Pantone color in order of hue. The crickets on the phone were deafening. I then kindly explained that painting the base in the color and sheen he had specified was all that we could do. I explained that "Every color darkens outdoors at a distance, which means our eyes perceive a darker shade of that color the farther away we stand from it, and depending upon the time of day, the color could shift as much as three places up or down the color spec- trum due to the Kelvin Shift." e CD thanked me hesitantly, as he was bewil- dered. I had enlightened him on some- thing he had never considered — and as he hung up the phone, I knew he was won- dering why the Kelvin factor had never been discussed nor mentioned while he was in design school ... ever. Just remember that every color is subject to its surrounding colors (that's a topic for another day), and that every paint color that is viewed outdoors versus indoors will be looked at with a much different eye and hue perception. Most viewers will take these factors into consideration and will provide a bit of wiggle room when it comes to color and sheen matching in an outside environment. It's much different when a color doesn't match in a brochure or a business card. Print materials or screenshots can be com- pared side-by-side anywhere. However, seeing how a sign's color looks by viewing Charging for your design time A podcast with Matt Charboneau https://gpro.link/designcharge it outside and realizing it is changing hue by the minute affects the way we should communicate color-matching limitations to our customers. Maintain your accuracy at all times, but explain to those who question it that even when it's correct, the big ball of light in the sky will determine how that color appears to the viewer's eye, so making that color appear accurate throughout the entire Kelvin range is basically impossible. GP No matter what you try to do, no matter how careful you are, you will never be able to record the real color of a wall via a photo alone. You must have boots on the ground with a color book that has a color for comparison that is very close to the wall color. Just as I have shown here, by placing a paint color book directly against the wall and capturing a photo of that, you can reliably count on the color number that matches the wall color in that photo. Both the color book and the wall are subject to the same lighting, therefore the number that matches the closest in the shade will also match in the bright sunlight, at any time of the day.