Advanced lighting tips

Basic lighting design incorporates three techniques: ambient, accent, and task light.

If you want to go beyond the basic three, try these advanced techniques to create an unusual and sophisticated look:

Key Light

This involves shining a single light onto an object.  If you shine a single spotlight onto a thing or a location, you’ll create shadows.  The exact look will depend on the angle at which the light is shining.  Generally, the point of this kind of lighting is to illuminate the front of the object, and this is done with a light source aimed at an angle of 45 degrees or so.


Fill light

A fill light is a second spotlight shining down on an object to augment key lighting.  This can soften or eliminate shadows, depending on how bright the light is.


Silhouette Light

To highlight the shape of an object in a dramatic way, place a light below and behind the object, aiming upward and slightly forward—not forward enough to shine in anyone’s eyes, however.  This will shadow the front of the object while putting its outer shape in stark relief.


Sparkle Effects

This works well in creating an elegant atmosphere.  Tungsten-halogen lights do a good job of this by bouncing off reflective surfaces such as silverware.  In addition, the light source itself can be seen to sparkle, in the case of chandeliers or lamps with multi-faceted glass fixtures.


Grazing

This is a technique used to highlight the texture of a wall.  It works best with brick or stone, or another highly textured surface. Hang a downlight above and very close to the wall, pointing straight down.  This will shadow the recessed areas and highlight the raised areas of the wall.


Washing

If you want to produce the opposite effect—make a wall’s surface look smoother—hang a downlight above a wall and slightly farther away, so that the light hits the wall at a wider angle. This will even out the texture of the wall, emphasizing its smoothness.