The low cost, simplicity, and aesthetic appearance of external and internal shading devices, make them commonly used for daylighting and glare-control applications Shading devices, such as Venetian blinds, screens, and roller shades, generally exhibit light scattering and/or light redirecting properties This requires the bi-directional scattering distribution function (BSDF) of the material to be known in order to accurately predict the daylight distribution and energy flow through the fenestration system Acquiring the complete BSDF is not a straighforward task, and to complete the process it is often required that a model is used to complement the measured data In this project a Venetian blind slat with a white top surface and a brushed aluminum bottom surface was optically characterized A goniophotometer and an integrating sphere spectrophotometer were used to determine the angle resolved and hemispherical reflectance of the sample, respectively The acquired data were fitted to a scattering model providing one Lambertian and one angle dependent description of the surface properties These were used in combination with raytracing to obtain the complete BSDFs of the Venetian blind system (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved