What is bad lighting? What is good lighting? These two questions elicit a multitude of answers, depending on whom you talk to, their level of expertise and experience with lighting, and even the particular project you’re talking about. But the esoteric argument about what is good or bad often overshadows the functional aspects of lighting, such as eliminating night blindness. Night blindness, contrary to common belief, is not the inability to see when it is dark. Instead, it is the effect created when the lighting in an area actually reduces rather than enhances a person’s ability to see. Although it seems simple enough to avoid, lighting systems that increase night blindness are numerous, insidious and found almost everywhere.

“There are vital pieces of lighting know-how that are missing in the overwhelming majority of projects,?EUR??,,????'?? says John Massey, a lighting consultant with of Creative Electric in Mira Loma, California. ?EUR??,,????'??Once people learn these basic precepts, they are able to go out and look at lighting projects and say, ‘Oh yeah, I see where the designer used this,’ or, ‘I see the principles that are missing.’ You have to envision the end product that you’re trying to come up with. It’s not just about light.”

In landscape lighting, there are several considerations to keep in mind. The three basic forms of landscape lighting are to enhance the appearance of a feature, such as rock work, trees or shrubbery; to provide security lighting (which often is in conflict with appearance); and safety lighting, which is designed to allow maximum navigability through an area, such as pathways and steps.

“Most of landscape lighting’s basic function, however, is to present something to the eye in the most appealing manner possible,” says Massey.

Hide the Light Source

The problem is exacerbated because once the eye has looked at this bright light source, the pupil contracts. The effect is that the eye looks at the source, contracts, and then looks away, having less visibility that before.

“A good analogy is the old gunfighter,” says Massey. “In the old days, no gunfighter wanted to face into the sun because the glare reduced his visibility.” “If you want to get the clearest view of an object at night, ideally you want to have the light on that object, and be viewing it from an area of lesser light,” says Massey.

There are several ways to achieve this, such as uplighting, downlighting, choosing locations that otherwise hide the light fixture or using a diffuser lens on the fixture if it cannot be hidden.

Plan Your Lighting

An effective lighting design takes time. The entire site must be evaluated for hazard areas, prominent features to be lit, and any security concerns.

“Say for instance that at this residence there is an exceptionally nice palm tree far out into the yard that needs to be lit, plus some shrubbery close to the house that is considered a feature. If the same lights are used on the shrubs as the palm tree, you get an okay effect, but the whole lighting job seems to sort of wash out. It’s subtle, and most people won’t notice it, ” says Massey. “But let’s say you lit the palm tree, which is three times farther away than the shrubbery, with three times the amount of light as is on the shrubbery. Now, all of a sudden the palm tree jumps out at you, and the impingement of that lighted feature suddenly comes right out and socks you. What you are trying to do is get the eye to follow a pattern, and you have to determine that pattern and light it accordingly”

Massey says that light can be thought of in the same terms as colors. Reds and yellows are bright and noticeable, whereas browns and blues tend to recede and be subtler. Think of a low light level as the brown or blue and stronger lights as the red and yellow. The principle can then be transferred to the landscape. Which feature needs to stand out, thereby being brighter? Which needs to be more subtle, lit with less light? Once these aspects are determined, choosing lights becomes simpler. Additionally, colored lights can be used in much the same way to enhance the effect.

Another factor to consider is the reflectability of what you want to light. The side of a house or business complex has a different reflectability than a palm tree or shrubs.

A security lighting system often is designed separately from features and hazard lighting. This is because the purpose of security lighting is often to get an area as brightly lit as possible. “Many times you see a security lighting design that operates separately from the other lighting systems so that the resident or whoever, if they hear something that sounds suspicious, can turn on this system and flood an area with light in order to investigate it or scare an intruder away,?EUR??,,????'?? says Massey. A security lighting system often lights an area so much that it overwhelms the more esthetic features lighting.

Lamps Are the Heart of a System

Ultimately, the person who has learned the most about lights and lighting is better off. There are a multitude of lighting sources available on the market, as well as variations among each source.

“Remember that the brightest thing a viewer should see is the feature you want lit. I can’t say that enough,” says Massey. “An exposed light source is by far the brightest item on any job. Eliminate the bare bulb and the improvement to the job will be tremendous.”