LED is just a technology of light source, the foundation of lighting design has never changed. How to determine the research and judgment steps of Outdoor Lighting, the first thing you need to do is to clarify the purpose of outdoor lighting: the relationship between "seeing" and "being seen".
There are the following six steps in the judgment of outdoor lighting design: 1. The main observation direction: Before designing outdoor lighting, we must know the position or contact direction of the building or the illuminated surface. In terms of technique, if the facade of a building is illuminated at a certain distance, the whole building will appear to have no sense of hierarchy when viewed from the direction of the main light; while the use of lamps to "graze" the building can create strong shadows and prominent highlights, a sense of depth is created. 2. Effect creation: Outdoor lighting does not need to create a scene that is completely the same as the daytime appearance, because usually, the direction of the main light is opposite during the day and night. The ideal lighting design is actually to make the difference between the two larger rather than the same. How the surface of the building appears at night depends on the reflective properties of the surface material, which determines how bright the illuminated object is to the observer. Misunderstandings can easily arise when we only consider the illuminance falling on a surface. When a building or object surface cannot be cleaned, one of the easiest ways is to increase the amount of lighting. 3. Color: Since light sources of various colors are used for illumination, a shadow caused by a light source can be illuminated or even colored by other light sources. Colors and shadows can well interpret the three-dimensional and textured features of the building. 4. Shaping: The principle of establishing a viewing position is especially important. Like a sculpture, if the observation position is determined, the typical lighting method is: place a main spotlight at an angle of about 45 degrees, and set up a complementary light with weaker intensity and softer light on the other side. 5. Shadows: Shadows left by an illuminated object can sometimes become part of the overall environmental effect. Shadows can be an aid in revealing the three-dimensional character of an object and can create contrast between highlights in the field of view. The strong contrast of light and dark outlines the three-dimensional effect of the building. If light strikes a three-dimensionally structured object from a small angle of incidence (with a small offset), it can produce strong shadows. The light from this angle is only about one-tenth to one-third of the illumination of the main spotlight. When the incident angle of light hitting the surface of the object is very small, the shadow on the building material is small, which can be used to show the characteristics of the material. 6. Area brightness: In order to create a better three-dimensional effect, we can also set the light source behind. Of course we want to make sure that it doesn't cause glare to observers at normal viewing angles. When we're dealing with an object that the observer will walk around to look at, there should be heavy lighting in one direction and slightly weaker proper lighting in other directions.
