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Outdoor lighting effects: The basics and how to use them

Whether you’re living amid a winter wonderland or reside in a climate where there’s more rainfall this time of year, landscape lighting can provide beauty and enhancement to your property limits. Aside from also demonstrating the ability to add to the safety and security of your outdoor space, LED garden lighting possesses the power to create an embellishing design that’s both fun to do and rewarding to look at. Continue reading to see which light fixtures you can choose from and how they can be used. 

Where should you install LED garden lighting? 

Whether you’re upgrading your current landscape lighting design or simply starting something from scratch, it’s important to find a balance so that some outdoor areas are bright and alluring and others are left dark to create a more natural effect. 

Before placing an order on bestprolighting.com, you should first create a checklist that calls attention to what functionality you need for any prospecting fixtures. Ask yourself, do you want them to hang from the siding of your home or would you prefer them to stake into the ground? Aside from considering the aesthetics as an element in functionality, you will also want to consider safety and security in your decision. For example, if you’re striving to have brighter walkways, chances are that your path lights would better function if they were placed at ground level to allow guests, and yourself included, to see where they’re stepping. 

Assess your entryways, paths, stairs, and ponds to see what areas need brightening to highlight hazards, and then move onto where you would want illumination to heighten the beauty of the features of your outdoor spaces. Both elements are important when selecting LED garden lights, and trust us when we say that your lighting scheme will make your home a showstopper once all is said and done!  

Outdoor lighting effects that accent your outdoor space

While LED garden lighting can be easily used to brighten up your surroundings, some fixtures are more determined to customize your space. 

Here are a few ways that you can use our signature LED garden lights to create the ambiance you’ve always wanted:

    • Uplighting: This effect allows you to highlight a specific structure by placing one to two fixtures at the base of the area pointing upwards (ex. tree trunk). The fixture can also be placed from a distance to illuminate more delicate details or focal points, such as the canopy of your tree. 
    • Moonlighting: The opposite of uplighting a tree is moonlighting, where the light is filtered through the foliage, rather than onto it. This allows the homeowner to cast unique shadows. 
    • Silhouetting: This effect allows you to use LED garden lighting to show off plants that possess a distinct structure or shape. You spread the light by placing it between the plant materials to cast a shadow on an adjacent structure. 
    • Shadowing: The opposite of silhouetting is shadowing and involves washing a feature with light to cast a shadow against a wall. To apply this effect with your LED garden lights, the fixture needs to be placed directly in front of what you are trying to play up, and moving the fixture closer or further away will allow you to adjust the intensity of the shadow. 
    • Grazing: This unique effect is a technique that homeowners use to draw more attention to the rich textures of a hardscape. This involves placing the light fixture close to a flat surface and aiming it directly up or down to create dramatic shadows. 

While directional LED garden lights are often the best type of fixtures to use if you’re looking to create any of the above effects, there are a variety of other designs that stake, hand, or simply rotate to allow you more flexibility in your outdoor design. 

Are you ready to brighten up your outdoor spaces? Which effect are you going to try? Tell us in the comments section below.