The architecture of light: architectural lighting design concepts and techniques. A textbook of procedures and practices for the architect, interior designer and lighting designer pdfdrive com

Describing Light
In order to create Light Maps that can truly stand on their own to translate information to others, we add articulate descriptions to the graphics of our lighting “events”. Describing light doesn’t need to be a study in poetics and superlatives. We are simply clarifying what it is that light is doing. The better our descriptions, the less we have to rely on specialized graphics to get our ideas across. Lighting descriptions are like architectural notes; they need be detailed only enough to get information across clearly. However, even a brief description is better than the ambiguity of no description at all. Take pride in descriptions of light and dole them out generously. There is a rule in design that says: “When in doubt, create a note.” We will translate this guideline to be one of our mottos in graphics and creating light maps: “When in doubt, add a description”.
To help forge the right level of information into a lighting description, I
recommend considering the following elements that are included in a good description: Color, texture, and intensity of the light;
How the light affects mood;
How the light interacts with the surface.
If a lighting description includes these elements, it will be that much easier for other designers to understand the intent of the design. It will also be easier to solve lighting ideas and select the luminaires that will bring the idea to life. A list of useful lighting descriptors is included in appendix C.
Figure 17.6 Descriptions of lighting intent are a crucial step towards defining lighting challenges.
It is good visual practice to study environments that feature good lighting design and imagine how one would represent them graphically as a Light Map. This analysis really shows off the idea that it is the surfaces receiving light that define a space. Figure 17.7 and 17.8 show images of lighted spaces and how they might have looked as Light Maps during the design process.