Light+Vocabulary


 * Accent Lighting**: lighting that is used to accent or highlight a particular object such as a work of art. To be effective accent lighting should be approximately four or five times the level of ambient light in the room, area, or space. House plants can be accented by aiming an uplight at the wall behind the plant, creating a dramatic silhouette of the plant against the wall. To learn more about this topic click Accent Lighting.


 * Beam Spread**: a measure of the spread of light from a reflectorized light source, a special-shaped lamp with a reflective coating inside the bulb to direct the light forward. The beam spread may be very narrow (narrow spot), very wide (wide flood), or something in-between (narrow flood, for example). Examples of "reflectorized light sources" are MR11, MR16, PAR20, PAR30, PAR38, R40, ER30, and BR30 lamps.




 * Cornice Lighting**: a lighting system comprised of light sources shielded by a panel parallel to the wall and attached to the ceiling and distributing light over the wall.


 * Floodlight**: a broad-beamed high intensity artificial light source


 * Initial Lumens**: the luminous output of a brand new lamp
 * Linear Spread Lens**: a lens designed to produce the asymmetrical distribution of light in one direction as opposed to a spread lens, which produces symmetrical distribution in all directions. This lens diverges light in one axis and leaves the other axis unchanged. A linear spread lens is sometimes called an elongated lens, elliptical lens, or a Skytex lens


 * Silhouetting**: a landscape lighting technique used to create a distinct outline or silhouette of plants or other objects




 * Snoot**: a protruding hollow cone of opaque material that provides a high cut-off angle for certain types of track fixtures, landscape lights, or spotlights. A snoot focuses light into a small area and is often used in art gallery lighting, landscape lighting, or theater lighting.