Picture lighting: illuminating single pictures with precision.

Wallwashing

Use vertical lighting to present paintings and photographs as a calm, unified whole. Illuminate walls evenly. This creates a clear backdrop that makes the artworks visible and gives the space structure. Plan efficiently. With high-quality lens technology, you can often achieve even wallwashing with just a few luminaires. Don't compare lighting technology by lux values alone. What matters is the uniformity, the precision, and the effect on the vertical surface.

Creating hierarchies with light

Use spotlights to highlight exhibits selectively. Work with varying levels of illuminance. This is how you guide the eye and create clear hierarchies of perception within the space.

Use precise lens technology. Avoid stray light. This boosts the efficiency, precision, and impact of your lighting. Plan your accent lighting deliberately. It makes important objects visible and intensifies the experience of art.

Using interchangeable optics flexibly

Choose the light distribution to suit the task. Use narrow spot light distributions for small artworks or across long distances, framing projectors for precisely delimited projection surfaces, and extra wide flood distributions for wide-area flooding from a short distance. Separate the lighting effect from the luminaire form. This lets you determine the beam angle independently of the luminaire design. Plan systematically. Spotlights, floodlights, wallwashers, and framing projectors offer suitable tools for precise art and exhibition lighting.

Highlighting individual pictures with accent lighting

Use accent lighting to make individual pictures selectively visible. Guide the eye directly to the work with clearly legible cones of light. This gives the picture more presence than the surrounding space. Use directional light to create brilliance and modelling. It gives bas-reliefs greater depth and makes fine textures easier to read.

Using zoom spotlights variably

Adjust the beam angle continuously. This lets you flexibly adapt the light to format, distance, and exhibit. Use zoom spotlights especially for temporary exhibitions with varying picture formats. Thanks to the zoom range from spot to wide flood, the cone of light can be flexibly adapted to small, medium, and large works. Also aim the light so that no distracting shadows are cast by visitors. The 30° museum angle is the right means to achieve this.

Learn more about framing

Using framing with precision

With framing, you can create an almost magical lighting effect for your paintings. Match the illuminated area precisely to the size of the picture, creating a clearly defined edge. The surrounding wall remains in darkness. This way, only the work itself stands out, as though it were glowing from within. The intuitive sliders confine the illuminated area precisely to the picture. Choose narrow framing for small exhibits at a greater lighting distance. Use wide framing for large works at close range.

Setting the focus with a dark background

In exhibitions, sensitive artworks may only be exposed to low light levels (50 lx). To make the artworks stand out in the room at this level, keep the general lighting low and plan for dark wall colours. The resulting brightness contrast makes the picture appear brighter, even though it is illuminated with only 50 lx. Plan your lighting strategy deliberately. This way, you combine conservation requirements with an intense art experience.

Illuminating textures

Textures, textile structures, and reliefs require directional light, clear contrasts, and a precise light distribution. Only the interplay of light and shadow makes fibres, weaves, grain, edges, and three-dimensional forms visible.

Use accent light in a targeted way. Light striking from the side models flat and raised structures particularly effectively. The steeper the angle of incidence, the more clearly shadows and surface detail stand out. Textiles thus gain depth, reliefs gain plasticity, and fine textures gain presence.

Use diffused light only sparingly, as it reduces contrasts, produces no hard shadows, and thus often robs materials of their sense of value.

Textile exhibits then appear flat, reliefs lose their spatial impact, and structures remain hard for the eye to grasp. For this reason, plan deliberately with striking accent lighting for detailed modelling and any brilliance effects.

Choose the light distribution to suit the object. Use narrow spot or spot light distributions to highlight details, edges, or individual areas. Use oval flood distributions when elongated textiles, wall hangings, or relief zones are to be emphasised evenly. Work with wallwashing when textile surfaces are to appear as a calm, unified whole.

Consider the viewing angle of visitors. Avoid distracting reflections from glossy materials in the picture or the glass for conservation reasons.

Also avoid hard self-shadowing and glare. Tilt the spotlights at the museum angle of 30° so that the surface structure, the character of the material, and the spatial depth remain clearly discernible.

Use good lighting design to make the materiality of an object visible. The right light reveals not only the object itself, but also its surface, its history, and its craftsmanship.

Using tracks flexibly

Plan tracks as a flexible basis for changing lighting tasks. Position, move, and add spotlights, floodlights, and wallwashers to suit each exhibition. Quickly and always at the museum angle. Use narrow light distributions to highlight small objects and architectural details with brilliance.

For larger exhibits, spatial zones, and a spacious impression of the room, use wide light distributions. Add wallwashers to illuminate vertical surfaces evenly. This makes rooms appear brighter, clearer, and more prestigious.

Check the angle of incidence carefully.

An angle of incidence of 30° is ideal; with framed pictures this angle avoids overly strong shadows, whether cast by the frame or by the viewer. Assess textures, brushstrokes, and reliefs critically. A steep beam direction can overemphasise structures and distort the effect. Watch out for deep picture frames. With a steep angle of incidence below 30° and a deep picture frame, a broad strip of shadow forms on the canvas and on the wall below the picture. Plan the angle so that brightness, modelling, and visual comfort remain in balance.

Using the museum angle

Plan the accent lighting of pictures with an angle of incidence of 30°. This achieves a high and even brightness across the picture surface. It also models textures, brushstrokes, and reliefs in a nuanced way. Structures remain lively without appearing overemphasised. By aiming the spotlights at a 30° angle of incidence, you avoid disruptive reflected glare on glazed pictures.

Angles of incidence of more than 30° should be avoided.

With pictures, avoid angles of incidence significantly greater than 30°. Check the position of the visitors. With a beam direction well above 30°, they can shadow the work themselves. Also pay attention to glazed or glossy exhibits. Reflected glare can impair the picture information. Illuminate reliefs so that light and shadow appear three-dimensional. Light that is too flat reduces the modelling and makes structures less legible.

Rule of thumb for wallwashers

Plan wallwashers with a wall distance of about one third of the room height. This way you achieve uniform vertical illumination.

Also coordinate the spacing between the luminaires. For good longitudinal uniformity, this can be up to 1.3 times the wall distance.

Use these rules of thumb early in the design process to plan efficient, dependable wallwashing. A picture at eye level with a 30-degree museum angle corresponds on the ceiling to the position for the one-third wallwashing rule. A single track is therefore often sufficient.