Organising your thoughts and outlining your objectives when planning a LED landscape lighting project will help you to achieve professional and dramatically pleasing results.
Light can achieve many ends including the creation of shape, eliciting a desired emotional response, and even as dramatic as creating a new reality for a familiar space. There are three basic objectives to be considered.
1. Safety. Lighting avoids injury. As in the photo at top left, you will see that the stone pathway is tastefully yet purposefully lit to enable a visitor to navigate down the walkway without stumbling. Note that the pathway is curved. Light is placed strategically to give the visitor a clear idea of what is in front of him or her. Landscape lighting should provide a clear view of any potential obstacles such as steps, perhaps water or drainage, and even children’s toys which may have been inadvertently left on a pathway.
2. Security: Although similar to safety, security means protecting the premises from intrusion by a trespasser. Without a doubt, light is a deterrent to an intruder and it adds to the homeowner’s feeling of safety. Although security is a practical function, it can also be quite beautiful as shown in the centre photo above. Note how the form and texture of the building is beautifully highlighted.
3. Aesthetics: Plain old good looks! Lighting for aesthetic reasons allows so much more enjoyment of the premises whether you are indoors or outdoors. By strategically lighting outdoor spaces you can lend a very desirable view to a previously bland landscape. Lighting also tends to visually enlarge the space and allows you to use spaces for outdoor activities. Consider all three of the objectives when starting the design for a landscape lighting project. Although one objective may be more important to you than the other, all three objectives should be incorporated into your design. Lighting designers depend on careful observation, imagination and the proper use of composition elements.
1. Observation: Careful observation trains the eye to evaluate a scene. In some settings, one object or area may be visually more important than others. In other settings, several objects or areas may have equal visual importance. Ask yourself how each element relates to the entire scene and to the other elements in the scene.
2. Imaginations: Compare lighting a space with photographing the same space. The photographer can decide where he or she is going to take a photograph and from what angle, but cannot enhance or diminish the importance of objects in the photograph. It is lighting that provides the opportunity to create the scene by selecting areas to emphasise and/or areas to downplay. You as the lighting designer have the opportunity to paint a picture in the light. Keep in mind that when it is dark outside, it is really dark. Imagine bits of light here and there to add interest, depth, dimension. You can actually move the viewer’s eyes from one object to another by creating a path of sorts. You can use light to sculpt the darkness. Imagine … just imagine …
3. Composition Elements: This is a very large topic which we will cover in segments as we move through this series of articles. Basically, we are creating something out of darkness by manipulating not only the light but how it affects objects in the environment. In most cases, you will be working with the contrast of tones, objects with different reflectance properties, and so forth. For example, the siding of the home shown in the centre photograph above could be deep red brick. It could be brilliant white stucco with sparkling metallic flakes. It could be wood shake shingles and it could be a log cabin. In each case, the light will reflect and bounce off the surfaces in very different ways. More on LED landscape lighting in our next blog. Stay tuned! Browse our LED landscape lighting products if you wish or most certainly, ask us for help.
By: Mary Wecker
