I bet faldage, Mav and-- an other photographers know more about albedo then they might think..
(and Steve Pinker, in How the mind works covers this.)

albedo is reflectivity of light, and as bean said, measured..
but think of driving down a highway, on a sunny, sunny day.. the black top (macadam, tar, what ever) can reflect so much light, its hard to see the white lines painted on the road..

Now think of driving in a norther city in the middle of winter.. there might be lots of snow, but most of it is soot and dirt covered (not a fresh snow, but 2 day to 2 week old snow) it hardly reflects any light at all.

Still, we all know, white reflects light and black absorbs it! Our moon, is about the same color black as a tar road. our beautiful silver moon is black! but it has a high albedo-- (no atmosphere, direct sun light) and reflects back a high percent of light!

that is why photographers use light meters.. they don't trust their eyes!


my other obsession