Outdoor Lighting
Wall-washing creates a soothing and even glow that comes off the wall or facade it's pointed towards. For best results, place the lighting fixture a few feet away from the feature, and give it a sideways angle. By shining along side the wall, it maintains an even and somewhat subtle ambient lighting for the nearby area. A wide angle flood light with low wattage is recommended for this, as opposed to a spotlight.
Highlighting - This is a common and quite useful technique in outdoor lighting. Highlighting is created by placing a spotlight at the base of an outdoor feature. By varying the distance and angle of the light fixture, you can experiment with different lighting designs for unique landscape architecture goals. For example, trees often need two or more fixtures to provide sufficient illumination.
Create moonlighting techniques by placing a large fixture with a full glare guard high up inside a tree, and angled downwards. This effect looks like moonlight shining down through the branches. It causes attractive shadow patterns on the ground to appear, plus it provides a very natural and beautiful lighting effect.
Path-lighting is created by placing small fixtures along the borders of walkways, driveways, and patios. It is important that the style of these path lights be considered carefully. It is also important to be sure that they are positioned to illuminate the path, but also placed so that they avoid being kicked, moved, or getting in the way of the lawnmower.
