It’s amazing just how much lighting can change our perception of color: there are actually specialized tools for experts to distinguish between different shades.

If you like to draw or paint, how well your workspace is illuminated can easily make the difference between a palette that really pops and one that’s just so-so.

Doing your best work really requires light that is as close to natural sunlight as possible.

With gray winter now upon us, good indoor lighting also becomes very important to maintaining a healthy mood.

While this lamp isn’t powerful enough to qualify as a genuine light therapy device, it certainly can’t hurt. This is also the kind of light our eyes see best in: if you get a headache after an hour or so of reading, improving your lighting may do far more good than aspirin.

At 69 inches tall, this falls somewhere between a desk and whole-room lamp. It’s the perfect height for sitting down, though, and you can also tilt the head up to illuminate an entire corner of a room.

The 17 watt, 2,000 lux bulb should easily last you for years and replacements are available for sale.

This is approximately the same brightness as an old-style 100 W incandescent lightbulb. In other words, while you’ll be able to see pretty clearly, it’s not as bright as the sun – you’ll still need to take your vitamin D supplements during dark winters.