Balancing Shadows and Color Appearance in Secondhand Store Fitting Rooms

Sammanfattning

Lighting plays an important role in shaping visual perception and customer experience in retail fitting rooms, where clothing evaluation and purchasing decisions often occur. However, fitting room lighting in retail environments is often overlooked, resulting in harsh shadows, inaccurate color appearance, and reduced visual comfort. This research investigates lighting strategies that enhance perceived shadow quality and color appearance while maintaining a natural and flattering appearance in secondhand store fitting rooms. The study adopted a mixed-method approach combining field case studies, DIALux simulations, objective measurements, and participant-based subjective evaluations. Field studies were conducted in six secondhand retail stores, followed by the development of eight lighting scenes tested through DIALux simulations and a full-scale fitting room mock-up involving 21 participants. The results showed that layered lighting strategies integrating spotlights, frontal mirror lighting, and diffuse ambient ceiling lighting produced the most favorable visual conditions. These lighting combinations improved brightness distribution, shadow softness, facial visibility, clothing detail perception, and visual comfort. Participants generally preferred scenes combining all three lighting layers over single-source lighting conditions. Among all configurations, the combination of spotlight lighting, 4000 K mirror lighting, and 3000 K diffuse ceiling lighting emerged as the most preferred lighting strategy overall.