Like the bright clear sun on a May morning, Cadmium Yellow Light describes a notable group of specific colors in the wider group of Cadmium Yellows.

Do these yellows play a role on your palette? Quite possibly, as their opacity and lightfastness make them perennially beloved by painters. For those who are wondering if these colors are all the same, or how a particular brand's Cadmium Yellow Light compares to the others, this is for you.

If colors sang vocal parts, these colors are in the soprano section when it comes to yellows. The same could be said of a similar group of Cadmium Yellows called Cadmium Yellow Lemons. Clocking in at the upper reaches of the lightness scale, Cadmium Yellow Lights also soar in chroma.

Yellows in general-- speaking of other pigments here like Hansas-- can be a tricky area to find lightfastness and opacity, and so these Cadmium colors really help out in that department. Cadmium colors tend to do well in both comparative opacity and lightfastness. (Some cadmium yellows are more semi-opaque than opaque, it just depends-- but that depends on brands. Anything can be diluted or spread thinly--this is just to say these pigments do not tend to be thought of as transparent). There is some interesting research about cadmium yellows in conservation, however for many painters the choices in the paintbox still don't outshine these beauties.

As noted earlier in regard to the nuances of human vision, there can be a sensitivity to small differences in this region.

Certain Cadmium Yellow Lights are needed to reach specific areas of the gamut. Does this matter to everyone? Nope. If you paint Old Master styled muted-chroma paintings, or even realistic landscapes, or portraiture, these nuances between the cadmium yellow lights are probably not the most important thing. However, if you appreciate this area of the gamut, it might be helpful to know that each cadmium yellow light is different from the each other. We're excited by this color range, and as color appreciators, we prize the small differences from brand to brand.

And no, we don’t mean a broken car, nor the oblong fruit, nor a lightbulb. Cadmium Yellow Light often have some overlap in hue with paints named Cadmium Yellow Lemon. Names can vary among brands, however we found a lot of cadmium yellow lights have a particular behavior.

The paints we'd classify as true Cadmium Yellow Lights tend to impart more yellow-hued saturation in tints, where the lemons had different behavior. It’s a bit subjective, and we’d like to put more precise language and testing around this in the future.

Sometimes Cadmium Yellow Lemons imparted a sort of overall lightening effect as though one had also added a bit of white to a mix. Perhaps it is a greater reflectivity overall— that is reflecting more of the spectrum at many wavelengths, and hence an overall white light effect. This is a subtle distinction, and probably most useful to those studying fine gradations of electric green.

We grouped these paints due to this different behavior in mixing. Paint brands are here and there with their naming, so now you know what we mean when we call something "more of a cadmium yellow lemon" or "more like a light."

We freely admit we are totally over-the-top when it comes to prizing of the small differences among cadmium yellows. For many painters, this color is so high pitched it may be totally out of their gamut, or perhaps some painters pick one paint and stick with it. Whatever suits you best. This is an area where human vision is especially attuned to differences. We like to have at least three of these Cadmium Yellow Lights on hand at all times, as we enjoy hitting various high notes amongst the chromatic yellows.

Here is another set of comparison panels between the Cadmium Yellow Lights and Cadmium Yellow Lemons (both PY35). The featured panel is the top panel here. One thing to note is the relative tinting strength, shown by the semi-circles.