Landscape Lighting Help

I'd be happy to make some recommendations. Beautiful home/property; you definitely have A LOT of options. I attached some photos below.

For path lighting, I would say your goal is to target a few key spots along the pathways/driveway such as the stairs. Notice how I placed my recommendation off to the side of the steps in the garden bed where it will not affect any mowing or edging. Essentially, you'd want to stagger path & area lights in this manner around your property. Extension risers are available to elevate fixtures where needed (as an example perhaps you'd want to elevate the one near the stairs) and special drill bits are available for running cable under traditional sidewalks. The Max Spread is our most popular path and area light.

For uplighting the smaller and average-sized trees on the property, I'd recommend a spotlight such as the All-Star or the Fat Boy for a budget-friendly alternative. Most homeowners prefer these lamp-ready types (use bulbs). For the larger oak trees, I'd recommend considering more powerful spotlights and floodlights. Perhaps an Infiniti 60 G3 for the trunk (very bright at 800 lumens), and either a 30W or 10W 12V LED Flood Light for powerful, widespread light on large canopies. Lighting trees becomes quite preferential depending on what effect you are looking for and how bright you want the trees illuminated.

For the long driveway and basketball area, you could consider downlights (I'd recommend the All-Star Downlight). They would provide lighting for those larger open areas using fewer fixtures than path and area lights and the illumination can be more subtle and beautiful than trying to simply blanket the entire area with a commercial floodlight.

 

My apologies! I knew I was forgetting something.

It's pretty tough to see the architecture of the home from the photo but, it is typical to highlight columns, spaces between windows, corners, dormers, or give texture on stone walls.

Another simple and very common way of getting illumination on the home is to blanket garden beds with a wave of light from a floodlight that will simultaneously cast a beautiful shadowing effect on the home at night. In the photo you posted, I noticed the lush/fuller landscaping in the garden areas around the front door. I marked these spots with the "double" beam on the photo. I attached a photo that shows the shadowing effect. The only drawback with floodlighting compared to highlighting the architecture is that you run the risk of some minor light intrusion through windows into the home at night.

Here is an article listing some different lighting effects for you as well: Landscape Lighting Techniques