How Does Lumens, Lux, and Candela EXPLAINED | Diode Dynamics Work?

Imagine you have a flashlight that can be as bright as the sun or as gentle as a nightlight, lumens, lux, and candela are like different ways to describe how bright your flashlight is.

Lumens tell us how much total light a source produces. Think of it like how many marshmallows you throw into a hot cocoa, the more marshmallows, the more light (or sweetness). A tiny LED light might have 10 lumens, while a big lamp could have 1000 lumens or more.

Lux tells us how bright that light is on a surface, like how warm your cocoa feels in your hands. If you shine the same flashlight on a wall nearby, it’s brighter than if you shine it on a wall far away, that's lux at work. It depends on both the light and how close it is to what it's lighting up.

Candela tells us how bright the light is in one direction, like how focused your flashlight beam is. A flashlight with a narrow, tight beam has more candela than one that spreads out wide. It’s like pointing your marshmallow cocoa directly at someone versus throwing it into the air, the person you point it at gets all the warmth (or light)!