Why Your Lighting Looks Bad - 5 Potential Reasons 3&4

The CRI rating of your bulb is insufficient.

The color rendering of a light bulb denotes its capacity to accurately reflect the colors of an object. This criterion exists independently of the previously mentioned color temperature or hue and may be a reason your lighting appears unsatisfactory to you.
LED bulbs frequently deceive the eye into perceiving an object's color as different from its actual hue. If you are an artist, you may have painted one evening under an LED lamp, only to find the following morning that all your colors appear altered in natural daylight. What is occurring?
The explanation is that conventional LEDs do not emit full-spectrum light. This indicates that its spectrum lacks specific wavelengths of light essential for revealing the true colors of various objects. LEDs exhibit a notable deficiency in red wavelength energy. Consequently, things containing red elements will appear less vibrant or even brownish compared to their appearance in natural light.
An effective method to ascertain the spectral quality of your LED bulbs is to examine their color rendering index (CRI) rating. The metric assesses a light source using a numerical score, where 100 is the maximum attainable value. A score of 95 or above signifies that colors illuminated by the light source will resemble their appearance under natural light, making it ideal for applications where color fidelity is crucial.
The majority of LED bulbs available in the current market has CRI ratings of 80. If an advertised CRI value is absent, it is probable that the manufacturer seeks to obscure it, and the number is likely near the standard 80 CRI level.
If the perceived color of your things is problematic, it may be due to your existing lighting having inadequate CRI scores. Consider upgrading to a high CRI LED option.

Your bulb lacks sufficient brightness.

Thus far, we have extensively discussed the hue of the light emitted by the bulb. Nonetheless, even with optimal color fidelity, insufficient brightness in a light source renders it ineffective. While quality is important, the appropriate quantity is also essential.
The conventional practice of using wattage to indicate bulb brightness is no longer applicable with LED bulbs. LEDs are inherently more efficient, producing greater lumens per watt compared to incandescent lamps. LED manufacturers generally offer the wattage equivalency number to assist consumers throughout this transition. A 10W LED bulb may be labeled as "60W equivalent" to signify that it may substitute a 60W incandescent bulb while providing equivalent brightness.
When substituting an incandescent bulb with an LED counterpart, a direct one-to-one replacement may suffice. However, if you are considering a new lighting installation and lack the financial resources to employ a lighting designer, you may feel at a disadvantage.
In actuality, determining the requisite brightness for a place necessitates guessing or experimentation in the absence of advanced lighting models and software. If the illumination in a room appears inadequate, consider the likelihood that the lighting is insufficient for the area.
Lighting requirements can differ by a factor of ten, contingent upon the intended use of the illumination. For a bedroom, 1,000 lumens per 100 square feet may suffice, whereas the same area designated for industrial or commercial use may necessitate 10,000 lumens.
Additionally, it is important to consider that environments with elevated color temperatures necessitate a greater lumen allocation to establish a suitable ambiance. This phenomena is referred to as the Kruithof curve, which illustrates the necessity for increased illuminance levels when employing a higher color temperature. In comparison to 3000K, a 2700K setting necessitates merely 0.7 times the brightness, a 4000K setting demands twice the brightness, a 5000K setting requires three times the brightness, and a 6000K setting calls for four times the brightness.