Outdoor Lighting Focus and Adjustments

All too often we hear the tale of the company that installs an outdoor lighting system during the day, and never returns to focus the system at night. WHAT? REALLY?

Yes, it’s true! There are a lot of companies out there that will show up in the daytime to install some lights and call it done. Often times these are the crews who use the same fixture with the same lumen output and the same beam spread for everything, so there’s no real lighting design work done to properly enhance the landscape and architecture of the property. They really don’t care too much about the details or how it looks when it gets dark anyway; light is light – and the client won’t know the difference, right? Personally, we give our clients plenty more credit than that – they paid for excellence and we won’t give them anything less.

Not surprisingly this failure to return to the jobsite for adjustments after dark happens more in the summer months when it may not get dark enough to focus a system until 9pm or so. At least in the winter it gets dark around dinner time or earlier so installation crews don’t have to be working as late in the evening.

I’m proud to say that there are many times when our team may not get back to the shop until well past 11pm during the summer. The fine tuning and detail work of nighttime focus for outdoor lighting is a critical step to any well-designed lighting system. Although a good designer tries to anticipate each scenario, sometimes fixtures may need to be moved, or even replaced with a better suited fixture to get the right effect. We may also need to work on some glare control issues that we couldn’t see during the day. We may find that our client would like to add a few things as well. After all, it’s the homeowner who will be looking at it every night, and they are the ones we are trying to please.

So, make sure that the company that you choose to install your outdoor lighting system will be there as late as it takes to make sure that all of the fixtures are focused properly to get the best possible results. Ask them how they ensure proper focus so you don’t have light sources shining in your eyes while you’re trying to enjoy a nice glass of wine and conversation on your back patio. Be sure you get the outdoor lighting system you are paying for by day to enjoy every night.

NightScenes is always happy to come out and focus an existing system; just drop us a note if we can help you. info@night-scenes.com