GUIDING LIGHTS.

Byline: Alan J. Heavens Knight Ridder Newspapers

Outdoor lighting isn't simply something to help you find your house keys at night.

It is also a way to show off the stuff your house is made of. Or the bushes, shrubs and trees that surround it.

By using a combination of lights to illuminate a tree and the ground around it, you can create the effect of moonlight when the real thing has taken the night off.

Under-the-eaves illumination can ``wash'' the sides of a house with light, highlighting architectural features for passers-by. That is, of course, if you have any features you want to show off.

``Illumination is an art, you begin with a black canvas and you use light and shadows as your paint and brush,'' said Luis Scott, general manager and lighting consultant at John Watson Landscape Illumination in Northridge.

And while you are creating a thing of beauty, you are enhancing security. No burglar can do his job successfully if he or she is in the spotlight. Or in artificial moonlight, for that matter.

If security is your first concern, here's an idea: Install light on both sides and above the doorway so that steps, door, house number and the lock can be seen easily.

If aesthetics is your chief motivation, don't aim directional lighting at the front door if the view of any visitors will be obscured by the direct glare.

House-mounted or overhead lighting illuminates the face and body of the caller. Avoid direct glare on the visitor and be sensitive to how it affects neighbors across the street.

Landscape lighting does not require the candle power used for night games at Dodger Stadium. Low-voltage lighting (12-volt) or energy-saving halogen or krypton-filled bulbs as low as 35 watts can keep the electricity bill this side of inexpensive.

``For inexpensive and easy-to-do lighting, low-voltage lighting is what you want to go with,'' said Jeff Cox, store manager of Home Depot in Woodland Hills.

Ron Hazelton, home-improvement editor of ABC-TV's ``Good Morning, America,'' said that ``low-voltage stuff does almost everything that the typical homeowner would require.

``It's also safe and easy to install,'' said Hazelton, who is also Home & Garden Television's ``House Doctor.'' ``And, with the help of a long extension cord, you can run the lights in any number of configurations and in any location to see what they look like - without having to bury the lines first.''

Hazelton emphasizes the ``you'' factor in landscape-lighting design. That's because outdoor illumination should be a reflection of your taste. If you don't like the effects you've created, keep changing them until you find them pleasing.

If you like what you've done, don't mess with success.

In effect, you are painting a portrait of your yard and home with light. You are creating the shading and the colors and the contrasts. The only rule in this kind of design is that less light is more, because your eye will be drawn to the light. Using lamps of low wattage prevent glare, which is what you want to avoid.

By using low-wattage lights, your eye is drawn to the result - the object being illuminated - instead of the source of the illumination.

To eliminate glare along a walkway, for example, use what are known as ``mushroom'' lamps. These are light fixtures on short poles that are close to the ground. The fixtures have a shield on top of the light source so the light is directed downward and out.

While lighting can highlight the exterior features of a house, they can do wonders for the interior, too. By lighting gardens or shrubbery that can be seen from the living or dining room, you provide a room-expanding view to the outside at night.

``By lighting the trees, and shrubs and landscaping, you can bring the indoors out of doors,'' Hazelton said. ``The rooms on the other side of exterior walls washed with light grow larger. The windows provide depth and drama to the interior as the exterior lighting transforms them from black, rectangular boxes.''

Until recently, consumers had limited lighting choices. Low-voltage was restricted to the mushroom lamps lining walkways or to deck lighting. But that has changed.

``The selection and the different varieties have increased overwhelmingly,'' said Cox of Home Depot. ``Five years ago, when I started with the company, outdoor lighting was about 50 lights. Now I'm up to 300. And that doesn't include what can be special ordered. When you go to special order, you're talking a thousand fixtures.''

The number of lighting choices continues to expand. There are in-ground lights, down lights, lights that can fit into a brick walkway, beacons, deck and stair lights - both round and square - floodlights, wall lighting, and decorative lighting styles that recall the Victorian or art deco periods or provide a Japanese or Chinese feel.

All are in a variety of sizes, shapes and colors. Technology has created materials that resist the effects of weather - fiberglass, Teflon, aluminum - and creations without steel parts that succumb to rusting or need frequent painting or refinishing.

If you live near the beach, for example, you might want to choose fixtures made of copper, brass or bronze with less than 20 percent nickel content to resist corrosion caused by salt water.

Some lighting fixtures come with warranties and may be more expensive because of it. Comparison shop.

Many experts complain that do-it-yourselfers choose landscape or deck lighting for their looks. The chief criterion should be the kind of light these fixtures provide. Different lights perform different functions. Low-voltage lighting won't work in situations where 120-volt lighting is needed.

Daily News Staff Writer Betty Kwong contributed to this story.

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5 Photos

Photo: (1--Cover--Color) Outdoor illumination can dress up and dramatize 

LET THERE BE LIGHT

(2--Color) A low-wattage spotlight avoids glare, while drawing attention to an object.

(3--Color) Gardens and landscaping take on new dimensions at night with well-placed lighting.

(4--5--Color) A walkway that is naturally shaded by day can be bathed in artificial moonlight using fixtures placed in the trees. This method of softening light is known as downlighting.