hey guys it's Cal from the lighting doctor here so this is what I woke up to this morning we got roughly I don't know close to 6 to 8 inches of snow so I figure I got time to put another fit heal on line we've been shooting a lot of videos about different landscape lighting techniques and just yesterday I posted a brief summary of the three most popular types of landscape lighting techniques that are out there which is up lighting path lighting and down lighting and now I'm gonna give you the full video with all the information it's probably gonna be about a thirty minute video here so I hope you guys enjoy that this is all thanks to FX luminaire has been putting together some great training videos and we just want to share those with you guys so big shout out to them and keep your questions coming to Cal at lighting dr. dot CA and I hope that you guys are having a better day outside than I am so thanks tell me about your lighting plan here yeah so that on the front of the house we have two separate lighting needs yep we have the landscape and as well as the architecture of the home okay now so let's start with landscape sure how did you decide to light up this section maybe this this maple here on this maple we chose the PB wall wash now it's a little smaller of a maple it's real wide so instead of using two up lights we use one wall wash well I'm sure that helps with really with that the width of the canopy that's right looks great and it probably saves the homeowner a little bit because you need one fixture rather than too many simplifies your design - exactly good good tell me about the architecture then sure on the architecture we used up lighting and we have one up light on both sides of the window okay and then we have one up light behind the bush and it's going all the way up to the peak okay well focusing on that really probably takes the light out of the windows that right that's correct we strategically put the up light behind the bush too to kind of guard the window from the light interesting now what happens as that that bush grows right what we would like to do when the bush grows is come in with a 12-inch riser to get the light above the bush and back up to the peak that makes sense that makes that makes really the light pretty consistent I would think around the stonework and kind of keeping the light out of this window itself that's right so John tell me what do you have going on here we have a boulder wall and on top of the boulder wall we have landscaping a few trees and so how did you decide to light this area the wall we use the P be wall wash we want a more texture on the wall okay so we use if two feet the further you go out you lose that little bit of texture okay so close to the wall lots of texture farthest from the wall what up a very flat yeah that and out your wall a little bit okay which is a fine look sure so what about the trees here the trees we use the up lighting and our viewing angle is from over here so of course we used one up light going up the tree now in in this case you used one do you ever use two or three or when you decide to do that yeah as the tree grows sometimes you might need to add a second light okay that might be two that might be five six years okay so it just depends on that on the time framing the growth of the tree that's right well and even the various viewing angles for the homeowner is that correct that's correct yep now what about the the pruning of the tree is that important yeah as the foliage grows it sometimes blocks the light we always recommend the homeowner prune maybe once or twice a year and that's important because the foliage blocks the light but yet the branching structure is really highlighted by the light itself is that right that's exactly right okay so the like really go much farther than three and you can take advantage of less light really if you keep the tree very welcome exactly uplighting is the most dramatic type of landscape lighting let's review some basics trees are traditionally illuminated with up lights with a special focus to ensure all areas of the tree are highlighted from the necessary viewing areas use long shrouds or hex baffles when the light source is visible to your general audience focus on lighting the trunk and branching structure of a tree instead of the leaves always ensure that the tree is properly pruned wall washes are a great option for shrubs walls and boulders to add light while hiding the fixture use in grade lights don't forget to highlight the architectural features of a house up lights are the most impactful way to bring color into a lamp oh we had a great day yeah so nice today alright so John tell me a little bit about this pathway and how you decided to light it yeah so here we have the traditional path light here now we're alternating from side to side we're evenly spaced out between each path line and we're spaced about 8 feet between each path light 8 when Wyatt feet on this path light we chose 8 feet too evenly we wouldn't even light throughout the walk now I did the height of the riser for the path lights affect the distance in which you spaced it it did so we use a 12 inch rise around these path lights if we were to use the 18 inch we could probably spaced out path lights a little more as gonna put out a little more light and what do you think that spacing would be tandup feet 12 feet I think 12 feet for the 18 inch riser it would be perfect okay I definitely agree that was a good call to bring a little bit closer this this sidewalk is a little bit inconsistent with the the rock and the media intermix with the sidewalk so it's definitely a good call to to keep it on the air on the safe side or for this situation I love the colors here this is great yeah what's looks really good so John tell me about how you designed these stairs here well the main staircase from the house the pool are these stairs they're very important to me to be illuminated we use Tudor for an approaches the first way we did was with the traditional path okay yeah now the traditional path lights are great they put off light not only on your steps but you're gonna get the plant material below the path light yeah the second way is my personal favorite is we use the pb wall wash light and what we're doing with this light is we're putting light on the Boulder as well as the plant material and getting a residual light back towards the path light that that is my favorite way to light up not only pathways but stairs as well so I'm really glad to see that you did that this is a great path yeah we thought so too when we first started the design here and so our challenge here was to continue to light this path but since on the rest of the site we hadn't really used path lights we needed to find alternative ways of lighting this path so we hung up a few pendant lights from some of these trees and then we have some down lights as well to kind of glow this path here yeah that's great I love how the the up lights next to the trees are really provide a lot of residual light that really light up the pathway anyway yeah and it definitely does do that nice little ambient glow coming off of these trees in here yeah and I love how a path lights are probably the second most popular fixture that people use but we don't always have to use path lights using the pendants I've used it as you did some directional down lights I think I see a JB up here in the top those are great ways to light up the pathway itself without even having to use path lines yeah and and it's great that we had those options to go to because it was a challenge to find a way to light this path without without the path lights yeah it looks great I love it all right let's see what else you have okay a different approach with some of the pathways and driveway lighting here and we'll see a better example of it right over here okay as we kind of walk through this entrance to this path here we use these NL's just kind of highlight this entrance oh it's nice like you could really highlight the entire post as well as it probably gives you a really clean transition of white here at the center yeah you get nice little pool light makes this kind of an inviting pathway to come down perfect what else do you have over here so you can see we did focus in on the driveway using those posts so we staggered these posts and used the de down light set all along this area that gives nice little wash effect across the driveway here well yeah it's a very wide driveway and a typical directional path light would would not come near the length of that so I think it's a great application to use a de down light it'll get you a very wide spread and it'll be able to wash the the entire pathway so I like I think that's a great application yeah a night it looks fantastic with the stagger and we're really happy with the way it turned nice and then here also we have these boxwood globes we wanted to do something a little different just to mix up the effect a little bit so we put some PBS for a nice soft wash behind on this nice green wall and then kind of silhouette actually each of these globes and that way we get kind of a different effect so we can kind of combine a few different effects here and not just always you know up light everything and kind of gives a nice silhouette of these round globes that's nice how many uh how many PBS did you put along here or how did you know how far to space them yeah so we kind of toyed with back and forth what we were supposed to do on that but we ended up doing every other cuz there's a fair amount of them here and we didn't want to kind of blow the homeowner away with too many lights just give them a example of that effect that's still a wedding effect yeah that those pb's do a very great job because they're very widespread so I could see that being a great a great application there so mark tell me a little bit about this site so again we're going to another site here in my town and and it's a property that's very quaint and first of all and we need to look and see what FX features really would enhance this property okay and so what did you choose we chose PMS yeah for the most part obviously we're using it for a path light okay but the best part about this light is it's bleeding over into the landscape beds and highlighting lance and even over into a space that we have over here 2 p.m. is a unique application for lighting paths because typically on a path light we don't want to see the source of the light we just want to see the effect of the light right correct but in this case we're actually making the pot the bollard itself as a marker light as well yeah so we see the source but my favorite part about that source it's very diffused it has a solid acrylic lens and so it allows the light to bleed into a variety of different areas so mark tell me about the controllability of these pictures all these fixtures on this side are all zdc okay so maximum amount of creativity for the homeowner yeah so with the CDC capability do you find that the homeowners changing the colors a lot I do for example that they don't put Christmas lights up anymore they're able to do it by by just changing the colors of the cdc's great you know my favorite part about the CDC is not only that you can change the colors for special events like Chris or special holidays or events that we're celebrating but the fact that you could always go back to white makes the the CDC capabilities complimentary to to any landscape very much so so Chris tell me what you have here what we've got here is we're standing in the lawn area it's a kind of a player at gathering spot in the evenings for families and kids transitions into a annual bed with the flowers being changed out several times throughout the year and then we've got a fountain there behind us as well okay so so why did you use path lights in this area we chose path lights for two reasons we wanted to create a barrier at night to separate this area from the planting and the fountains so that parents could see their kids if they started to run this way we also wanted to illuminate they pay a lot of money to get these flowers put in several times throughout the year so we wanted to go ahead and make sure that those were illuminated as well now I notice with the path lights use the a higher riser why so we chose the 18 s over the standard 12 because we wanted to get more light output throw further into the bed and throw further out onto the grass here just it's more of a safety feature going up higher getting more light out here because it is a public place and with that with the higher riser and the wider throw how often were you able to space them about we went about ten feet here general recommendation whatever your linear length is divide that by your number of fixtures and just to make sure that there's an even pattern to light well Ryan this final area here we were trying to get some light over to the gates just kind of make people aware the entranceway into the pool yeah we had a couple choices here we could have used some path lights but we decided to go with the FC ground wash this is unique it's low-profile it's not going to get kicked or bumped broken with path lights got a lot of kids and families coming through here with pool toys path lights we thought would get destroyed and knocked over well what I like about the fixture is it's very unobtrusive it's out of the way most people wouldn't even see that it's there during the day and the light source is really hidden at night that's true they don't see it during the day but at night it does a really nice cast of light right across this hard scape but this worked perfect the application let's recap some pathlight fundamentals traditionally pathways are designed with path lights stagger the placement of each fixture for a classic look or align them evenly for a more modern look since path lights are usually installed to enhance nighttime safety for pedestrians spacing should be consistent along the entire path when you have a tree or structure above the pathway use down lights to bring a natural light to the area without drawing attention to the fixtures if you have a high traffic area and you can't use down lights or path lights OFX luminaire also has integrated lights and wall lights that wash the path marked this is a nice landscape that you have here tell me what's happening well again I think we've found the perfect application for a JB done light ok highlighter landscape about done here so you're using down lights looks like directional down lights highlighting is it just this area or is it spreading out to the path well there's a little bit of bleed over but as we use the longer hoods on the front of the JB's it really does centric the light slowly in this path but does give a wonderful glow to it what I like about your selection here is you don't need any path lights it's not there's no tripping hazards nothing for anybody to kick over you're isolating the light source at the top it really allows the light to transition smoothly and it makes a very inviting and comfortable look for those who are in this space now Mike we're at the edge of the property in the backyard and we're under underneath this great tree tell me a little bit about the tree this area and how you decided to light it okay what we have here is an old mature Palo Verde which really kind of lends itself to different aspects we certainly get the height which is a you know you have to take advantage of here in Arizona because not a lot of trees grow tall but when you have an instance like this we chose to put a PS hanging light here with you can have a 3 a 6 or a 9 LED in it as the tree matures or grows larger you can certainly adapt to that aspect but the the benefit of it is you really you're bang for the buck and for one fixture you really encompasses quite a bit of light I like your use of the PS because this is an unusual use of this fixture right it's it's typically a surface mounted down line right but in this case we've put a hanging bracket mount on it and use it as a pendant but you only used one now tell me what are the benefits of using a single down light as opposed to typical up lights that you might find well in my opinion I really like the aspect of the hanging light and due to the fact that we have such a great amount of height that one light can do the job of two or three other lights and they were lower now that with that it will look very natural because it kind of moves with with the type of bracketing system that we have the hanging bracket existing illuminates the tree so it's still even though it's a long way away from where you know the people might be standing they still can appreciate the character of the tree and it does a really great job of aligning the you know the flora around it now did you light other trees this same way with just a down line and no up lights it's kind of yes we do do that on occasion we mix it up you know to kind of give a variability of intensity on different trees and things just to give it a little you know just kind of a flowing texture of light is basically the concept behind that and what helps you make that decision what what what is it what makes a tree better for down lighting as opposed to a tree better for up lighting okay well I think that a lot of the trees out west here or lend themselves to up lighting just due to the beauty of the nature of the bark and the build up at the tree we try to incorporate the down lighting just kind of a give a balance and a you know a little bit of difference between the different Lighting's just so your eye kind of tricks your eye into seeing more than one effect you know you can go either way on that that's kind of what your restraints might be and what your what you can what your budget will accept tell me a little bit about the lighting plan that you have set up over here what we're we're standing at the entryway into the residence we've got two beautiful specimen trees and olive and a Palo Verde here what we did was we decided to do down lighting to kind of accent this along with the up lighting on the trees kind of differentiates this residents from the other residences in the area so so what is unique about downlighting why do you decide to download a tree down lighting is the most natural form of light it's what we're all used to seeing and contractors seem to always want to just up light but what it does is it just brings a different effect coming down through it helps you illuminate plants and annuals on the ground below okay so it looks like you've selected two down light in two ways with a directional down light like the JB up there and then a few pendants so tell me about it yeah what we used was the J box mount on the JB fixture up there to illuminate the inside of the tree the multi-trunk palaver D and also catch the specimen plants that are below and and and what is your goal when you when you you a more direct that directional down light down at the tree what do you what is your goal in trying to create our first goal is to hide the source of the light what we do is we use the limb along with this the shroud on the JB fixture to help shield that and then our next goal is to just get the interior of the tree that's usually not illuminated with up lights okay and you're really highlighting the the branching structure I even skimming that one off with the first one all the way down correct yep but that's gonna look great what about the the pendant lights the v's and Ely's yeah we use two different types here we went with the the le which is the one LED a little bit softer and then in the center here we want the ve to kind of throw a bigger pool of light okay and what is that that natural pendant light kind of creates what does it do it does a very nice job moon lighting creating sec shadowing if you can get up into the secondary canopy illuminates this area if people are traveling down up or down you know for parties and whatnot just gives them a safety feel yeah I bet it does is it's very natural inviting and even I like the the smooth transitions of light you don't get a lot of hard lines when you have and hanging pendant light that's correct but me Chris a little bit about this area that we're letting out now this area is actually the courtyard of the hotel it's kind of a center meeting place and we've got palm trees lining both sides of the grass area yeah you do there's how many 23 there's 23 total palms okay great so so in an area as high-traffic as this area with the courtyard how do you decide to light this area we took a couple things into consideration we wanted to bring out the aesthetic beauty of the palms yeah that was number one and number two we wanted to bring out the make sure it was safe to travel through here at night so so focusing on aesthetics and functionality what what type of lights or categories do you use that we'd use down lighting for the safety aspect again the higher we can get the fixture the more light output or the wider area you're gonna get with the light okay we've got JB's and des on the palms probably about 15 feet up shooting down onto the path okay okay perfect so really the the down lights are really more of a functional light functional safety yes so now we're talking about just this tree in general but it's really not just this one tree right it's it's both trees along the entire side it's a very large area again these trees are probably 15 to 20 feet apart and there's again there's 23 of them and we've also got across the other side of the lawn area now we've got a nice wide open space and what this is gonna allow us to do is you know light the hardscape and the grass area okay now the challenge here is they got a big golden retriever right so we didn't want to put a lot of path lights that the dog could trip on and so what we did is we looked up okay and right here we have a 20-foot Eve so we can tuck some JB down lights up in there and we can down light and moon light from up that area now coming from so high maybe close to the house how do you make the light transition smoothly without mica our circle on the ground I think the big thing is is that the elevation that we're coming from so we're so high up that we can angle it just a little bit and we can evenly wash the area interesting now also what about the color temperature I mean warm light on the on the grass how is that going to look at night well typically when I down light I like to use moonlight effect so what I'm gonna try and do is go away from an incandescent and with the FX options it allows us to switch the filters so I can go from amber to a blue filter and the blue filters gonna kind of color balance with the moonlight now is it a is it a really harsh blue that we're talking about or something more lighter it's actually so light that you don't really notice it it it's lit by low voltage but when you out here it doesn't look like it's lit at all it's just safe and secure / that's that's the the perfect effect for this wide space when the homeowner wants to use it at night yeah exactly and there's one other thing with the dim ability of it we can have settings for party mode where it's nice and lit and bright and we can also dim it down for security and evening down lighting is the most natural lighting technique use down lights to softly illuminate Gardens shrubs and landscape vegetation during the late evening and at night down lights installed in man-made structures like pavilions gazebos or trellises provide a nice light to high traffic areas when you installed down lights above a tree canopy you can achieve a very dramatic moon lighting look with shadows you can also use down lights to illuminate walkways or areas with changing elevation you