Lighting lessons - includes tips from the pros - outdoor lighting

Sunset, May, 1999 by Peter Whiteley

The garden of this Arizona home shows the principles and benefits of artful landscape lighting

If light were music, the courtyard and entry path of this Scottsdale, Arizona, home would reverberate with the sounds of a symphony orchestra. Here, light in varying intensities and breadths shines from unobtrusive and deftly placed low-voltage fixtures to create a visual composition that's dramatic, harmonious, romantic - even magical.

Landscape lighting goes beyond safety and security considerations. It helps blend interior and exterior spaces, making your home feel larger. During the day, sunlight falls indiscriminately on everything, but night lighting illuminates key features, turning them into stars. Of course, lighting also extends the time in which your garden or patio can be enjoyed. And the drama of light and shadow makes these spaces particularly delightful.

Light zones

Effective lighting is an ensemble effort: a number of fixtures must perform different tasks to give shape to an outdoor space. Although the courtyard shown at right appears as a balanced whole, it is actually divided into zones with different light intensities: a foreground area of medium brightness, a middle area with lower levels of light and shadow, and a background containing some of the brightest areas (the palms and fireplace) to draw the eye through the garden. The house's entry (shown here) follows a similar plan.

Uplighting accentuates shapes - from the exposed trunks and branches of open-form trees, to the solid form of denser trees, to the canopy of leaves, which can bounce indirect light back to the ground. For maximum definition, use two or more fixtures placed at different points around a tree.

Backlighting, or silhouetting, emphasizes the form of a tree or sculptural object. Place the fixture between the object and a broad surface behind it; aim the light at the surface so you view the object's silhouette against a bright background.

Shadowing uses a spotlight in front of plants that stand against or near a tall wall. It makes immature plants seem dramatically larger.

Grazing takes advantage of walls or objects that have rugged, textured surfaces. Place the fixtures 6 to 8 inches from the surface and let the light wash across it to create a high-contrast pattern.

Wall washing is similar to grazing, but the light source should be farther from the wall and should have a frosted diffuser to give an evenly reflected light. This can be an effective way to light a path near a wall.

Downlighting uses fixtures placed above the target area - mounted to trees or arbors or under eaves. Because downlights can have different beam patterns, you can devise tightly focused accent lighting or broader, softer light for areas that need general illumination.

Moonlighting gives one of the most natural appearances to a patio or path under trees. Mounted high in the tree, the fixtures are aimed through leaves so they cast shadows and pools of light on the surfaces below - just as if there were a full moon above. The challenge is mounting and masking the hardware and wires. Glare control also can be a problem: the lights should be angled downward as much as possible.

Path lighting spills outward to define paths or changes of level. The best fixtures of this type have a cap that shields the light source from direct view. (Unfortunately, the widely available pagoda-style fixtures are often used along paths; the glare from their lamps usually defeats other, more subtle lighting efforts.) It's best to position these lights in a flower bed at one side of a path, since putting them on the lawn side invites confrontations with a lawn mower.

These fixtures are meant to be seen in daytime. They're available in a wide variety of shapes and metallic finishes to suit most architectural styles.

Hidden sources

Shielding the lightbulb (technically called the lamp) from direct view is the first rule of effective night lighting. It reduces glare, prevents squinting, and creates the most subtle effects. It's the difference between staring at the headlights of an oncoming car and looking out at what the headlights illuminate.

Decorative fixtures - the hanging and wall- or post-mounted types - are the exceptions to this rule. You don't use them to light broad areas, just to provide an inviting glow. Their brightness shouldn't overwhelm the more discreetly located light sources. A 25-watt lamp is all they need. Frosted bulbs or sandblasted glass will help diffuse the light.

Low-voltage

For the well-established garden spaces shown here, lighting designer Jeff Berghoff chose a low-voltage system. Its ease of installation allowed him to experiment with fixture placement and the location of cable and transformers before burying the cable. (The other option is a standard-voltage system, which can produce brighter light levels but is more costly, has bulkier fixtures, provides less flexibility in final placement, and often requires cable in conduit - depending on local code.)

Low-voltage systems are easy for homeowners to install. Most home centers offer sets combining fixtures (usually pathway and stake-mounted spotlights), a proper-size transformer/timer, and wire. For custom installations, designers buy individual fixtures, based on desired effects and style, and select the lamps according to wattage, beam spread, and light quality. For instance, the most clearly defined shadows are cast by a single-filament incandescent lamp instead of the popular quartz-halogen MR-16 lamp, which has a multifaceted reflector.