Light for pictures | ERCO Knowledge

Illuminating paintings, photographs and pictures: glare-free lighting solutions with accent lighting and wallwashing

Individually emphasising pictures with accent lighting

Accent lighting guides the view of the observer onto the artwork with clearly legible visible light beams. When brightly illuminated, pictures are given greater importance than their surrounding space. The targeted light of accent lighting creates brilliance and good modelling for bas-relief and makes fine textures clearly visible. If the layout of the pictures changes the accent lighting must be realigned.

Rule of thumb for arranging planar lighting

An inclination angle (α) of approx. 30° is most suitable for illuminating pictures. This efficiently displays the artwork without distorting the effect by excessively strong shadowing. Shadows caused by the observer are also avoided. α = 30° Tip for luminaire selection: Luminaires with interchangeable light distributions allow the light beam to be simply matched to the specific image format.

Displaying several pictures as a single unit with wallwashing

Wallwashing creates wall planes with a uniform distribution of brightness. These provide the ideal neutral background for paintings; the artwork and the room are equal in terms of perception hierarchy. The exhibition room also appears concise and clear and achieves an impression of depth. In contrast to accent lighting, the luminaires need not be realigned if picture arrangements or formats change.

Rule of thumb for arranging planar lighting

For uniform vertical lighting, the distance to the wall (a) of lens wallwashers should be around one third of the room height (h). For good linear uniformity the luminaire distance (d) of lens wallwashers can be up to 1.3 times the distance to the wall (a). a = 1/3 x h d ≤ 1.3 x a Tip for luminaire selection: Wallwashers with a predefined alignment to the wall save installation time because these need not be specifically tilted as with normal spotlights.