How do professional outdoor lighting designers determine fixture placement?
Quick Answer
Our designers decide where to place landscape lighting by walking your property and studying the views from the street, your windows and where you sit outside. Then we map the focal points and paths worth lighting and layer safety, accent and ambient light. Each fixture gets a suitable beam spread and is aimed to keep glare out of people’s eyes.
Detailed Answer
We usually schedule an on-site visit after a brief phone call. On that walk-through, you and our designer talk about what you’d like to see after dark and how you use each space. We note the sight-lines from the street, the house and your outdoor seating, since a light that looks right from the driveway could still glare into a bedroom window.
Next, we map focal points such as a gable, a water feature or the front walk, and layer light around them. Uplights accent the architecture, path lighting guides footsteps, and downlights high in a tree cast moonlit shadow patterns across the lawn. Our lighting design approach ties those layers into one scene, with enough contrast to give the yard depth. We also hide the hardware and aim each fixture to limit glare.
The size of your yard changes the plan. Our designers usually keep a small courtyard to a few low, soft fixtures, while a larger property takes more fixtures and more varied beams and angles. On any yard, we match the beam to the subject: a wide-angle wash for a long facade and a narrow beam for a column or slender trunk. On a long walkway, we plan the path-light spacing to lead guests to the door.
We design and install each of these layers, from architectural and path lighting to garden, tree and water-feature lighting, as part of our residential and commercial outdoor lighting solutions. Our guide on how to design outdoor lighting covers the wider planning choices. When you’re ready, contact us to talk about your project and get your free quote.