Covers color temperature, color rendering, metamerism, reflectance, and why the same object can look different under different sources. You will start judging white light, colored light, and surface finishes together.

Gives you the practical language of lumens, candela, lux, footcandles, luminance, beam spread, and photometric files. You will use readings and manufacturer data instead of guessing whether a design is bright enough.

Traces lighting from fire, oil, gas, and early electric lamps through fluorescent, HID, theatrical dimming, architectural standards, and LEDs. This history explains why today’s fixtures, codes, controls, and design habits look the way they do.

Covers voltage, current, load, circuits, grounding, overcurrent protection, heat, working clearances, and when licensed electrical work is required. You will make safer decisions around temporary setups, fixture selection, and installation limits.

Compares incandescent, halogen, fluorescent, HID, neon, OLED, and LED sources by output, color, life, heat, cost, and failure patterns. This gives you the judgment to choose a source for the job instead of chasing one spec.

Covers ballasts, LED drivers, transformers, dimmers, flicker, inrush current, and dimming compatibility. You will read driver labels and fixture cutsheets with enough confidence to avoid common control and failure problems.

Covers reflectors, lenses, diffusers, louvers, trims, housings, gaskets, ratings, mounting methods, and thermal design. You will see how a luminaire shapes, protects, hides, or reveals the source inside it.

Uses small setups to practice narrow beams, wide beams, grazing, washing, backlighting, silhouettes, and spill control. You will connect beam angle, distance, and surface texture to real visual results.

Covers ambient, task, accent, decorative, vertical, and wayfinding light. You will combine layers so a room can be useful, comfortable, and visually clear without making everything equally bright.

Shows how ceiling height, wall color, texture, reflectance, furniture, glass, and dark finishes change the lighting result. You will account for the room itself as part of the lighting system.

Covers direct glare, reflected glare, veiling reflections, contrast ratios, shielding, brightness balance, and common comfort metrics. You will spot lighting that is technically bright enough but still hard to live or work under.

Covers switches, dimmers, occupancy sensors, vacancy sensors, daylight sensors, timers, scenes, zones, and manual overrides. You will plan controls that match how people actually use a space.

Covers lighting symbols, reflected ceiling plans, fixture tags, schedules, mounting notes, aiming notes, and coordination with architecture and electrical plans. You will produce drawings that another person can price, build, and check.

Covers the lumen method, point-by-point calculations, light loss factors, illuminance targets, uniformity, and lighting power density. You will calculate whether a design meets performance and energy goals before it is installed.

Covers cut sheets, photometric reports, IES and LDT files, warranty terms, lead times, finishes, ratings, accessories, and substitutions. You will compare fixtures beyond appearance and price.

Uses lighting software to place fixtures, run calculations, test glare, check daylight, and create renderings. You will also learn where simulations can mislead you if the inputs are wrong.

Covers sun path, orientation, window size, skylights, clerestories, reflectors, and the difference between direct sun and useful sky light. You will treat daylight as a design material, not just a free source of brightness.

Covers shades, blinds, light shelves, glazing, overhangs, daylight dimming, heat gain, fading, and glare from windows. You will balance daylight with comfort, energy use, and material protection.

Covers the role of IES guidance, energy codes, electrical codes, accessibility rules, fire requirements, local ordinances, permits, and inspections. You will know which decisions are design choices and which are legal or safety requirements.

Covers egress lighting, exit signs, emergency power, battery units, generator-backed circuits, testing records, and typical inspection issues. You will plan lighting that still protects people when normal power fails.

Follows a real building project from client request, site visit, concept, calculations, fixture schedule, budget, coordination, submittals, installation, aiming, and handoff. This chapter ties design judgment to the documents and decisions used in practice.

Covers mockups, aiming sessions, scene programming, punch lists, owner training, maintenance plans, relamping, cleaning, and performance checks. You will finish projects so they work in real life, not only on drawings.

Covers kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms, stairs, closets, outdoor entries, aging-in-place needs, decorative fixtures, and homeowner controls. You will design homes that feel good while staying practical and safe.

Covers desks, classrooms, labs, meeting rooms, libraries, screens, visual fatigue, flexible layouts, and energy limits. You will support concentration and visibility without creating flat or harsh spaces.

Covers patient rooms, exam rooms, corridors, nurses’ stations, procedure areas, senior living, hygiene, night lighting, and patient comfort. You will handle spaces where visibility, safety, stress, and regulation all matter.

Covers storefronts, merchandise, restaurants, hotels, lobbies, brand mood, sparkle, contrast, and customer movement. You will use light to guide attention while keeping staff tasks and maintenance realistic.

Covers paths, streets, parking areas, façades, landscape features, weather ratings, vandal resistance, trespass, security, and neighbors. You will light outdoor places without wasting light or creating avoidable conflict.

Covers instruments, positions, gels, gobos, cueing, focus, dimmers, DMX, consoles, and collaboration with directors and performers. You will create changes in mood, visibility, and timing for live performance.

Covers key, fill, backlight, exposure, contrast, motivated sources, continuity, color matching, and flicker for cameras. You will shape light for recorded images instead of only for the human eye.

Covers object conservation, fading risk, low-UV practice, tight beam control, color quality, labels, visitor comfort, and changing exhibitions. You will protect objects while helping people see them clearly.

Covers uniformity, glare control, aiming, spill, high-speed camera needs, flicker, emergency modes, and large-scale maintenance. You will handle lighting where athletes, spectators, broadcasters, and neighbors all have different needs.

Covers plant spectra, photosynthetic photon flux, daily light integral, crop stages, heat, spacing, waterproofing, and energy cost. You will design grow lighting around plant response, not just human brightness.

Covers LED binning, thermal paths, driver matching, optical losses, flicker, dimming curves, service life, and replaceability. You will treat LEDs as complete systems whose performance depends on many linked parts.

Covers warm dim, tunable white, RGB, RGBW, color calibration, scenes, fades, and user control. You will use changing color and spectrum deliberately instead of as a gimmick.

Covers DALI-2, DMX/RDM, 0-10V, phase dimming, Bluetooth mesh, Thread, Matter, gateways, addressing, and control intent. You will choose control approaches that match scale, reliability, and user needs.

Covers Power over Ethernet, Class 2 wiring, low-voltage distribution, device limits, network switches, commissioning, maintenance, and cybersecurity concerns. You will judge when PoE lighting simplifies a project and when it adds risk.

Covers occupancy data, daylight data, energy dashboards, fault alerts, space-use analytics, privacy, and owner handoff. You will use lighting data to improve operations without collecting more than a project can justify.

Covers melanopic metrics, spectrum, timing, intensity, glare, night work, schools, healthcare, WELL-style goals, and the limits of current evidence. You will handle wellness claims with care and design for people, not marketing labels.

Covers UV-A, UV-B, UV-C, far-UVC, dose, exposure limits, shielding, interlocks, signage, maintenance, and claims around disinfection. You will know why germicidal lighting can help in some settings but can also harm people if misused.

Covers skyglow, glare, light trespass, wildlife effects, coastal and migration concerns, shielding, warmer spectra, curfews, and dark-sky ordinances. You will reduce harm while still meeting safety and visibility needs.

Covers energy use, embodied carbon, long-life design, repairability, replaceable parts, material transparency, takeback programs, and waste from retrofits. You will make lighting choices that consider the whole life of the system.

Covers Revit coordination, BIM families, clash checks, shared coordinates, digital twins, commissioning data, and handoff models. You will connect lighting design to the larger digital workflow used by architects, engineers, contractors, and owners.

Covers AI-assisted layout options, render prompts, product search, code checks, calculation support, and the need to verify every output. You will use AI as a drafting and thinking aid without handing it design responsibility.

Covers estimates, value engineering, alternates, mockup costs, procurement, substitutions, warranties, contracts, liability, and licensed-professional boundaries. You will protect the project, the public, and your own role when money and responsibility are on the line.

Covers lighting roles, specialties, unions and crews, design studios, manufacturers, reps, electrical contractors, theater paths, portfolio pieces, mockups, certifications, and professional groups. You will leave with clear next steps for proving skill and staying current.