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Hanging bulbs for porch lighting

A Guide to Effective Lighting Techniques

Lighting can play a significant role in transforming how your property looks at night. Most homeowners make the mistake of focusing on indoor lighting to make their interiors look warm and welcoming. What they don’t understand is that the exterior of their houses is crucial in shaping visitors’ first impressions.

If you plan to upgrade your property’s aesthetics, we suggest you start with outdoor lighting. There are numerous lighting techniques that deliver unique lighting effects. No matter what look you want for your property, there will be a lighting technique to achieve just that.

This blog post will discuss the different types of outdoor lighting in Maryland to up the aesthetics game of your property.

Why Outdoor Lighting Matters?

As we said, most of the time, the focus is on indoor lighting. You may wonder why outdoor lighting matters so much. Well, let us see why we so strongly suggest that you invest in outdoor lighting in Maryland.

Enhances Curb Appeal

The first and most obvious reason outdoor lighting matters is its impact on curb appeal. With the right type of landscape lighting, you can make your property look more welcoming and attractive. If there are any features in your outdoor space that you’re really proud of and love to flaunt, outdoor lighting can highlight it and make it a focal point.

Makes Your Outdoor Space More Usable

Without adequate lighting, you can only use your outdoor space during the day. You certainly wouldn’t want to spend your time in the dark, would you? Installing outdoor lights will make your outdoor space more usable. The proper outdoor lighting techniques can make your outdoor space highly functional. You can host parties or even set up romantic date nights in your garden when the lighting is right.

Makes Your Property Safer

Dimly lit spaces pose a trip and fall hazard. Installing suitable lighting in your outdoor space can make the property safer. If you’ve got a long, curvy walkway up to your house, installing pathway lights will not only make the pathway visible but also make it look welcoming.

Lighting Techniques for Outdoor Spaces

Now that you know why you should make your outdoor spaces well-lit, let’s look at the many lighting techniques that can change the whole vibe of your property:

Uplighting

Uplighting is one of the most versatile outdoor lighting techniques. This type of lighting creates a dramatic impact. In this type of lighting, light sources are placed at the base of the object you want to highlight, which could be any architectural feature of your property.

While the position of the light source is vital, the intensity also plays a crucial role. If you want to add a soft glow to any of the features of your outdoor space, wide-beamed, low-intensity lights will do the job. However, you’ll need narrow-beamed, high-intensity lights to add a little drama to your landscape.

Lighting techniques for staircase

Downlighting

Unlike uplighting, downlighting involves installing light fixtures above the architectural component you wish to highlight. The component is lit from above. Downlighting can be used to achieve a similar dramatic impact as uplighting, only inverted. Uplighting can be installed under gutters.

This technique is most suitable for architectural features that can’t be accessed from below and to illuminate stairs and pathways. The higher you mount lights, the larger the area they will illuminate. If you mount these lights lower, they will only illuminate a smaller area. The placement of light fixtures depends entirely on what components of your landscape you want to highlight.

Accent Lighting

Accent lighting is another effective lighting technique that can transform the aesthetics of your property. Do you have a fountain, pergola, or tree in your outdoor space that you really want people to see and admire as much as you do? Accent lighting is what you need.

This lighting technique creates a focal point. You can install an accent light below or above the object, depending on its position and shape. You can experiment with different shadows and highlights by varying the angle and distance of the light fixtures. This is one of the most impactful types of landscape lighting in Maryland that you can use to make your favorite landscape features stand out.

Silhouetting

A horse silhouette

The silhouetting technique involves installing spotlights to create a negative space. Spotlights are installed between the backdrop and the point of interest, which could be any feature you wish to make prominent. This lighting technique aims to project the light away from the object to illuminate the backdrop and create a dark outlined shape. This technique is suitable for dense features like plants that have been distinctly shaped.

Shadowing

Like silhouetting, shadowing also utilizes spotlights, not to create negative spaces but interesting shadows on the ground in front of the illuminated object or behind the object on the wall. An uplight is installed on the front of an architectural component to achieve this look if you want to create a shadow on the wall. To create interesting shadows on the ground, you’ll have to install a downlight behind the object but aim it at the wall.

A well-lit pergola

Get in Touch with Light Over DMV for Outdoor Lighting Solutions

You shouldn’t underestimate the difference that outdoor lighting can make. You’ll only know when you see for yourself. So, what are you waiting for? Get in touch with Lights Over DMV for outdoor lighting DMV today, and let us transform how your property looks and feels. It’s time you flaunt all the landscape features installed in your yard and add that oomph factor to the aesthetics

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