What is a Picture Light?
A picture light is a low profile lamp that is attached either to the wall or frame to extend out over a painting and provide a balanced illumination onto a piece of art or picture. Picture lights come in many different styles, sizes, colors, and connection types to fit your needs.
Some things to consider when choosing a picture light are what you are illuminating, the size of light needed, type of bulb required, and how it will be installed. We highly recommend removing any glass from a frame, when possible, as the lights can give off a bright reflection or glare.
Before purchasing a picture light you need to know what size would work best for your painting, as you want to keep the focus on the artwork and avoid lighting the wall around the frame. Most manufacturers should have a sizing guide or calculator to let you know the recommended size for your frame. Picture lights have an illumination that widens the further it gets from the fixture, so a general rule of thumb is to keep about one foot on either side of the light to the edge of the artwork to compensate for the extra light.
The next most important thing to keep in mind when selecting a picture light is the lighting source. Many picture lights use a CFL or incandescent bulb which not only require frequent bulb replacements but also run very hot. Heat is very damaging to paintings, pictures, and artworks as it causes the paper, canvas, paint, or ink to dry out and start cracking or fading over a short period of time. When selecting a picture light we highly recommend using one that has LED’s as they have a low heat source and no UV output, therefore increasing the longevity of your paintings. LED’s have many other benefits to them as well, such as a much lower running cost (about ¼ of the cost of incandescent bulbs) and a longer run time of about 50,000 hours (about 20 years with average use) meaning no replacement bulbs will be necessary.
The next thing to consider for your picture light is the power source. The most common is a recessed outlet placed behind the canvas that the light can plug into. Other options include hard wired, and battery powered. Hard wired picture lights are ones that connect to the wires directly inside the wall, allowing you to turn them on and off with a wall switch and depending on the manufacturer can also control the dimming. Battery powered picture lights are also a great choice as they don’t require a power source nearby, however the battery will need to be charged or replaced often, so it is recommended to put it somewhere easily accessible.
Benefits to Art Lighting
There are a lot of paintings that are not cheap, so why not add some light to them to show off the full range of colors used and the precision used in each brush stroke? We do not recommend using a picture light with a frame that has a glass glazing to reduce the amount of reflection and glare, but when used to light up an artwork of oil paints or anything that has vibrant colors, picture lights really bring the painting to life. We recommend a light that has a color temperature between 2000 - 3000K to prevent the colors from getting washed out, reduce eye strain, and add too much surrounding light causing the area around the picture to light up as well. The reason for picture lights is to put the focus on the art itself and not light up the entire wall, so selecting a light that is properly sized and not too bright is important. Picture lights are a great way to light up and draw a lot of attention to large paintings, photographs, and other pieces of art and can be commonly found in homes, businesses, galleries, hotels, casinos, and more.
