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Pro tip: squint at your palette in a dim room, the Museo del Prado trick
I was at the Museo del Prado in Madrid two weeks ago and kept noticing how the old masters grouped warm browns next to cool grays in the dim rooms. When I got home I tried laying out 5 swatches on my screen and dimming my desk lamp, and the weak one popped out right away. Been doing this before every handoff now. Does anyone here test palettes under low light or is it all hex codes and contrast checkers for you?
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leo_price17d ago
My desk lamp has one setting and it's called "why is it so bright in here at 2am" so dimming it means draping a t-shirt over the shade, which I have done maybe 40 times now. The squint thing actually works though, because when everything goes murky your eye stops reading the labels and just sees which color is fighting the others. I've caught muddy greens and washed out pinks this way that passed every contrast checker I ran them through. The Prado rooms are dim on purpose too, which makes you wonder how much of that old master color sense was just them painting for candlelight and bad windows. My only worry is that a palette that works in the dark can look flat and lifeless in daylight, so I usually check both ends now.
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