Get Answers For Our Most Frequently Asked Landscape Lighting Questions

Spot Lighting 

Spot Lighting is a focused beam of light that can be used to illuminate interesting features, architectural details and statuary. When it’s possible, positioning the spotlight so that its overhead minimizes glare and tends to supply a direct light bath to the subject.

Silhouetting

Silhouetting is a lighting technique to highlight vegetation and interesting shaped objects outside of your home. Placing a fixture directly behind the subject and pointing it vertically on a surface displays a dark outline of the subject to the foreground observer. This light source will accent the shape of an object, it’s not a lighting technique that will highlight color or texture. Remember to not use this technique near windows or too close to your neighbors, you goal is to washout the background and have the object in the foreground create a focal point.

Shadowing

Opposite of creating silhouettes is creating shadows. Use interesting shaped objects or vegetation, place the fixture directly in the front of the subject and aim the light through it so that it casts a shadow on the surface vertically. To enlarge a shadow on a subject, position the fixture closer to the subject so that the shadow is created larger on the surface. This technique can also be used to add security lighting to your home or business. If you are looking for the most detailed shadowing effect, flat surfaces or walls with no texture work best.

Sign Lighting

Flood lighting works best to light up signs after dark. It’s important to select optics that will complement the orientation of your signage: If the signage is horizontal and wide, try using a horizontal shaped flood light so that the beam illuminates at its best. While vertical optics on a flood light will better illuminate tall objects.

Moon Lighting

Concealing a fixture in a tree and aiming it downward creates the tranquil effect of light filtering through the branches on a moonlit night. Moon lighting fixtures should be hidden and positioned as high as possible. For a complementary effect, a luminaire may be installed on the ground and pointed upward to illuminate the tree itself.

Up Lighting

Up Lighting is a technique used to highlight the beauty of trees and architectural detailing. Illuminating repeating patterns, windows, archways and flowering trees will bring attention to these features after dark.

Walkway Lighting

By alternating the lights on different sides of the path is a nice alternative to the standard uniform path lighting set-up. Path lights should be spaced about 5-8 feet apart depending on the light output. Properly spacing out path lights will allow you to create a more efficient usage of your fixtures and create a safer route from point A to point B.

Path and Spread Lighting

The technique of low-level and evenly dispersed illumination will work best for flowers, shrubs and other types of ground cover. Fully shielded fixtures (path lights) work best to reduce glare. However partially shielded fixtures may be positioned in deeper foliage landscapes where the additional light will serve to backlight greenery. Spread lighting is a technique that may also be used underwater to illuminate an ornamental pond.

Fountain Lighting

Underwater illumination amplifies the dramatic effect of fountains, adding visual warmth and interest to parks, town squares and shopping centers. To use the water as a mirror, light the area behind the reflecting surface. Also, add colored lenses for dramatic effect.

Pond Lighting

Unlock the natural beauty of a pond or water garden after sundown by highlighting with underwater fixtures. In addition to extending the charm of the feature after dark, pond lighting gives you the option of using color lenses for the different atmospheric effects.

Grazing

Grazing is an ideal lighting approach to bring out the textured beauty of stone or brick surfaced walls, privacy fences, chimneys, and other interesting masonry. By achieving this technique its best to position a luminaire within six to eight inches of a façade and aiming it 90 degrees vertically. The illumination will graze the surface displaying the details on the wall nicely.

Down Lighting

Down lighting is a common technique used to supply light to a wide area from high above. Mounting lights high in trees will help broadcast a large source of light over a wide area down below. This type of installation creates general ambient light for backyard entertaining and also illuminates for safety and security. Down lighting fixtures can also be installed under eaves of a structure to highlight architectural detail.

Step Lighting

Using light to accent steps pays dividends in beauty and safety, allowing visitors to navigate with ease. Fixtures can be recessed into steps risers, underneath railings, and as surface lights on vertical posts.

Deck Lighting

Deck Lighting is another way to enhance safety and accent design. Spotlight changes in elevation, deck edges, and drop-offs. Fixtures can be concealed beneath benches, underneath railings, and as a surface lights on vertical posts.

Security Lighting

Eliminating dark areas where intruders can hide is an effective crime deterrent. Security lighting can be created without harsh glare by installing low-level lighting or accent lighting in and around the landscape of a home or business. The right combination will improve both appearance and security.

Landscapers and electricians deal with low voltage lighting systems only occasionally, and as an afterthought. They lack the expertise of a creative landscape lighting designer like Fireflies Landscape Lighting. We can’t even begin to describe all the poorly conceived systems we’ve seen from electricians and landscapers over our years of operation. Save yourself time, money, and stress by having the job done right the first time!

We typically install cable at a depth of  6″, although this may vary based upon digging conditions. In mulched or rock-covered plant beds the cable will be buried just under the mulch or rocks.

Most landscape lighting installers use dielectric silicone filled wire nuts or plastic tubes that are subject to the connections inside becoming loose from plant roots pulling on them or landscape maintenance people pulling on them. When this happens it can result in the connection heating up and melting and causing an outage or worse. Here at Fireflies Landscape Lighting we use a specialized shrink wrap connection that is installed with a special crimping tool that assures a tight permanent connection that is then shrink wrapped in an antifire wrap. 

Click here to see our shrink wraps. www.lightingshrink.com