In this article, I will discuss some of the tricks of lighting your artwork within your home.
In fact, depending on the type of artwork that you are lighting, there are different lighting strategies that you can use that will accent different features and present your artwork to visitors in different ways.
First, I will discuss lighting painting.
Here, I am assuming that the painting is open, that is, it is not covered in a glass frame.
If that is the case, please see prints and photographs below.
When lighting a picture, there are three things to worry about.
First, you want the painting to be maximally visible.
That is, you want to have accent lighting that covers your entire artwork and lights it well.
Second, you want to display the texture.
Painting, unlike photography, isn't completely flat.
While it is subtle, it needs to be taken into consideration.
Third, you want to avoid glare.
Paintings are slightly reflective, so you don't want there to be a spotlight on your painting.
Lighting a painting should be done from a single light or track light no more than thirty degrees away from being vertical.
The reason for this limitation is that, if the angle is any more, you produce glare for people looking at your painting.
If, however, the painting is highly textured, even thirty degrees is too much.
Moving the light to twenty degrees will subtly highlight the texture in your artwork.
Next, I will discuss photographs and prints, as well as paintings behind glass.
In this case, there is no texture to worry about.
Instead, your primary consideration is glare.
The glare from glass can not only disrupt the viewer of the art but even bystanders.
In this case, you want to use a thirty degree angle, just like with paintings, but you need to also be careful that this doesn't produce reflected glare that hits any of the trafficked areas of your room.
Finally, I will discuss sculpture.
Sculpture can actually be tricky to light.
On the one hand, it should be accent lighted, meaning that it should be in direct light of some kind.
On the other hand, shadows will distort the intended appearance of the statue.
The trick to lighting a statue is to use two, or even three sources of light on the statue.
This eliminates most of the shadows, while still keeping your statue brightly lit.
Of course, you'll want these sources each to be half as strong as the light would have been had you used only one lamp.
In fact, depending on the type of artwork that you are lighting, there are different lighting strategies that you can use that will accent different features and present your artwork to visitors in different ways.
First, I will discuss lighting painting.
Here, I am assuming that the painting is open, that is, it is not covered in a glass frame.
If that is the case, please see prints and photographs below.
When lighting a picture, there are three things to worry about.
First, you want the painting to be maximally visible.
That is, you want to have accent lighting that covers your entire artwork and lights it well.
Second, you want to display the texture.
Painting, unlike photography, isn't completely flat.
While it is subtle, it needs to be taken into consideration.
Third, you want to avoid glare.
Paintings are slightly reflective, so you don't want there to be a spotlight on your painting.
Lighting a painting should be done from a single light or track light no more than thirty degrees away from being vertical.
The reason for this limitation is that, if the angle is any more, you produce glare for people looking at your painting.
If, however, the painting is highly textured, even thirty degrees is too much.
Moving the light to twenty degrees will subtly highlight the texture in your artwork.
Next, I will discuss photographs and prints, as well as paintings behind glass.
In this case, there is no texture to worry about.
Instead, your primary consideration is glare.
The glare from glass can not only disrupt the viewer of the art but even bystanders.
In this case, you want to use a thirty degree angle, just like with paintings, but you need to also be careful that this doesn't produce reflected glare that hits any of the trafficked areas of your room.
Finally, I will discuss sculpture.
Sculpture can actually be tricky to light.
On the one hand, it should be accent lighted, meaning that it should be in direct light of some kind.
On the other hand, shadows will distort the intended appearance of the statue.
The trick to lighting a statue is to use two, or even three sources of light on the statue.
This eliminates most of the shadows, while still keeping your statue brightly lit.
Of course, you'll want these sources each to be half as strong as the light would have been had you used only one lamp.