Discomfort glare from interesting images

In laboratory experiments, subjects viewed bright images projected on to small screens. The projected images ranged from neutral patterns to complex scenes. There was a greater tolerance of discomfort glare from images previously judged ‘interesting’ by an independent subject group than from other screen images giving the same calculated glare rating or from a reference source. When presented with matched pairs, images of natural scenes were reported as less glaring than pictures of urban scenes; specific elements of a view, such as the presence of water, also had an effect.