Picture lighting: illuminating single images 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 in a targeted way. Work with varying lighting levels. This is how you direct the eye and create clear hierarchies of perception within the space.

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

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 defined projection surfaces, and extra wide flood distributions for large-area washing from a short distance.

Separate the lighting effect from the luminaire form. This is how you determine the beam angle independently of the luminaire's design.

Plan systematically. Spotlights, wallwashers, wallwashers, and framing projectors offer the right tools for precise lighting of art and exhibitions.

Highlighting individual pictures with accent lighting

Use accent lighting to make individual pictures visible in a targeted way. Direct the eye straight to the work with clearly readable cones of light. This gives the picture more presence than the surrounding space.

Use directional light to create brilliance and modeling. It makes low reliefs appear more three-dimensional and fine textures easier to read.

Using zoom spotlights variably

Adjust the beam angle continuously. This lets you adapt the light flexibly to format, distance, and exhibit.

Use zoom spotlights in particular 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 choice for this.

Using Framing precisely

With Framing, you can create an almost magical light effect for your paintings. Match the illuminated area precisely to the size of the picture to establish a clear edge boundary. The surrounding wall remains in darkness. This way, only the artwork 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 from a greater lighting distance. Use wide Framing for large works from a short distance.

Setting the focus with a dark background

In exhibitions, sensitive artworks may only be exposed to low levels of light (50 lx). To make the artworks stand out in the space at this level, keep the general lighting low and plan for dark wall colors. The resulting brightness contrast makes the picture appear brighter, even though it is only illuminated at 50 lx.

Plan your lighting strategy deliberately. This way, you can combine conservation requirements with an intense art experience.

Illuminating textures

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

Use accent light in a targeted way. A lateral incidence of light models flat and raised structures particularly effectively. The steeper the angle of incidence, the more distinctly shadows and surface detail stand out. In this way, textiles gain depth, reliefs gain plasticity, and fine textures gain presence.

Use diffused light 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 difficult for the eye to grasp. For this reason, plan deliberately with striking accent lighting for detailed modeling and for any brilliance effects.

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

Consider the viewing angle of your visitors. Avoid distracting reflections caused by glossy materials in the picture or the glass, for conservation reasons.

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

With good lighting design, make the materiality of an object visible. The right light makes visible 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, wallwashers, and wallwashers to suit the exhibition. Quickly and always at the museum angle. Use narrow light distributions to bring out small objects and architectural details with brilliance.

For larger exhibits, spatial zones, and an expansive sense of space, 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 deliberately.

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. Examine textures, brushstrokes, and reliefs critically. A steep lighting direction can overemphasize structures and can distort the effect. Watch out for deep picture frames. With a steep angle of incidence below 30° and a deep picture frame, a broad band of shadow appears on the canvas and below the picture on the wall. Plan the angle so that brightness, modeling, and visual comfort remain in balance.

Using the museum angle

Plan the accent lighting of pictures with an angle of incidence of 30°. In this way you achieve a high and even brightness across the picture surface. This lets you model textures, brushstrokes, and reliefs in a differentiated way. Structures stay lively without appearing overemphasized. By aiming the spotlights at a 30° angle of incidence, you avoid disruptive reflected glare on glazed pictures.

Angles of incidence greater than 30° should be avoided.

With pictures, avoid angles of incidence significantly greater than 30°. Check the position of the visitors. With a lighting direction well above 30°, they can cast shadows on 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 modeling and makes structures less legible.

Rule of thumb for wallwashers

Plan your wallwashers with a distance from the wall of roughly one-third of the room height. This gives you uniform vertical lighting.

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

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