What determines the reflective qualities of paint colors?

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imported_mirrorfinishman

New member
What do you think is the primary reason why a freshly detailed dark colored car, such as black, will usually appear to have greater reflective qualities and a greater depth of gloss when compared to a freshly detailed light colored car, such as silver?
 
It has to do with which light frequencies or colors are absorbed vs. which are reflected.



I can't give an exact definition of how it works (it's been a while since I read up on it). If I recall properly (which I'm not positive I do), white (or light colors) reflects too broad a spectrum of visible light, so it basically gives too much information for your eye to process. Darker colors absorb more light, but reflect back a range of color that though less than what white reflets, provides more clarity to the human eye.



At least that's what my memory says, I read up on these things as part of a photograpy project several years ago.
 
That kinda falls in line with the old saying that black cars are a lot hotter in summer that white cars.
 
Two different effects, not entirely unrelated but different nonetheless.



When talking about the visual differences between dark and light finishes the key word is visual. That must include a person looking at it and human perception is a very complex process. I believe the perceived difference is mostly due to our eyes' spectral response combined with out brains' ability to process low contrast image information. Darker (perceived) colors provide higher contrast with respect to the reflected image.



The heating effect is due to a particular material's tendency to absorb and re-radiate long-wave infra-red (IR) light. Absorbing the IR energy heats up the material.



It's theoretically possible for a material to appear very light to our eyes while still absorbing IR radiation (which we can't see) but in the practical world, most materials that absorb IR light also tend to absorb visible light so they usually look dark to us.





PC.
 
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