What you'll learn:
- Understand the properties of light
- understand how to use photometric charts in selecting lights
- understand layering lighting to add depth
- understand the basics of installing a landscape lighting design
This course is intended for those who have little or no experience in the art of landscape lighting - either in design or the engineering aspects of installation. Overall, this course is a GUIDE for lighting design and installation - not Step-by-Step instructions. A well-designed garden can be enjoyed easily through the day, but at night we have the opportunity to create scenes and focus our client's eye on the beauty of the garden much as a lighting designer will do for a play or movie. In lighting design, we have complete control of what is seen and what is not seen. My intention for this course is to demonstrate different ways to light a garden artistically and to explain the various elements that should be understood in order to accomplish this goal. Having an understanding of electricity, photometrics and color temperature will give you the tools necessary to do just this. Also, one should know how to read a manufacturers catalog and the specifications contained so as to select the best possible fixture for the desired effect - this course will give you this knowledge.
Where necessary, calculations and formulas are provided in both Imperial and Metric values.
At its most basic, lighting design consists of two methods - uplighting and downlighting. Lighting manufacturers have created a wide range of fixtures to expand on these two methods utilizing different beam spreads, light color, and fixture style. This course is not an endorsement of any one product or manufacturer; every company will have similar products and fixtures and I will draw on many different companies throughout this class to demonstrate what is being presented in each lesson.
Section One will include photo gallery showing different lighting techniques and how they were created. I'll also cover a brief history of landscape lighting and why we do it.
Section Two will dive into the some of the aspects of lighting design, meaning bulbs, the properties of light, color temperature, reading photometric charts, and some of the different fixtures available to us.
Section Three will discuss the temperature of light and how temperature will affect how we view objects within our design.
Section Four will look at the process of developing a lighting plan. Design considerations, site assessment and an overview of fixtures.
Section Five will jump into installation methods, wiring, and transformers. Two different wiring techniques will be covered - Daisy Chain and the Hub method. I will leave it to you, the student, to decide which method you find the most reliable or worthy of your time. Finally, I'll cover voltage drop calculations - in both Imperial and Metric values.
Section Six will cover some basic installation procedures.
Section Seven will be a course review and wrap up.
Resources will be provided to reinforce the lessons being presented.
Remember, you have a 30-day, money-back guarantee, so you have nothing to lose if you find this is not the course for you. Thank you for your interest and I look forward to seeing you in our first lesson.
