Knowledge Outdoor Accent Lighting: Wall Washing vs. Grazing

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Knowledge Outdoor Accent Lighting: Wall Washing vs. Grazing

Shine

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Wall washing is a landscape lighting technique for evenly illuminating a wall or large vertical surface. The broad, uniform illumination hides imperfections and flattens the appearance of the illuminated area. Wall washing is accomplished by placing light fixtures with a setback that is distant enough to avoid bright spots while allowing the lights to evenly illuminating a wall from top to bottom in a smooth, graded wash of light.

Wall-Washing.jpg

Image courtesy of Kichler

People are apt to confuse wall washing with grazing. Grazing is used to heighten shadows and emphasize a textured surface. The object being grazed can be a hardscape element (a stone or brick wall, fences, chimneys, for example), or a softscape feature (e.g. a tree trunk, climbing ivy). Grazing is accomplished by projecting a steeply angled beam (that is virtually parallel to the surface). The light fixture is placed very close the vertical surface.

Wall-Grazing.jpg

Image courtesy of Kichler
 
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