How do I decide what wattage to choose for MR16 bulbs for up lighting? I’m lighting massive Redwoods, a 20ft Japanese Maple, a large tree house, and some small 4ft date palms. I’m assuming I’d want different wattage for each of these? Does beam angle play into it? If I want a 110 degree for the redwoods, do I then go higher wattage to get more throw? thanks for any advice!
& I Among other things, I consider the shape and size of a tree or structure, the overall setting, and where these features will be viewed from. A landscape lighting company would want to visit your property before recommending, specific fixtures, techniques, lamps, beam spreads, etc. It’s hard to make recommendations without at leads seeing photos. Having said that, I’m a firm believer that less is more. You want to highlight plants and structures and not necessarily fully illuminate them. If you are in a setting with very low ambient light, you should find it easier to light most of these features with fairly low lumens. For taller structures and trees, you might need to use more fixtures to achieve more subtle effects.
Thanks for the reply. Here are some images of what I want to up-light. Hopefully it helps: Japanese Maple Small palms: Tree house: Three redwood areas:
Very helpful. Thanks for taking the time to post these. Um, wow. Just wow. These are phenomenal trees. Your lighting options are virtually limitless! Brightness level is largely a matter of personal preference. There is no single perfect way to light any of the trees or structures. However, as I mentioned previously, with low ambient light levels, it’s possible to achieve stunning results with fairly low to moderate lumens (2W-3W range). You could light the trunk of the maple with a single 38 degree spot at the base and two or three 60 degree spotlights evenly spaced and several feet away from the base to illuminate the foliage. A bolder approach? A couple of floodlights flanking the base of the tree. Same idea with the palms. A spotlight with a beam spread that shows off most of the tree structure or a small floodlight that fully illuminates the tree. Really depends on what features and aspects you want to highlight the most. There are any number of ways you could show off the treehouse encircled by those redwoods. You could install moonlighting high in those trees to gently bathe that entire area below in light. Alternatively, you could tuck puck lights or deck lights or hardscape lights under the base of the treehouse turret to softly light its exterior walls. You could also spotlight or flood light the redwoods from their bases. Because the foliage on the trees in the last two photos is denser and begins at a lower height, it might be necessary to install spot lights or floodlights from about 10 feet or so from the base of the tree. Here is the one scenario where it might be necessary to go with slightly higher lumens (generally lamps in the 3W to 5W range to adequately illuminate the trunks and foliage. Hope this helps to get you started.
Mesodude2 - thanks so much for taking the time to provide those suggestions! Much appreciated. That definitely gives me some great ideas.
Absolutely stunning! I agree with Mesodude - a simple approach with up-lighting would be a few key placed, powerful floodlights that would illuminate the trunks and canopies - shadowing from branches would create a natural dramatic effect. This would likely be much easier than trying to utilize spotlights given the size of the trees. I myself would second Meso's mention about moonlighting with downlights - downlights create a beautiful surreal effect on gardens with the artificial moonlight they provide. The shadows from the branches would create a dramatic effect on the ground as well and offer pools of light in walkways throughout the garden or surreal, fantasy type moonlight on the treehouse. Definitely a bit more involved of an installation mounting downlights but, often extremely beautiful results.
