There are various types of lightings which include recessed lighting, which like most other up lighting is indirect.
This is often done with fluorescent lighting which was initially available at World's Fair on 1939.
Also known as rope light, or neon lighting, it is a form of backlighting.
Soffit or close to wall lighting can be general or a decorative wall-wash, sometimes used to bring out texture (like stucco or plaster) on a wall, though this may also show its defects as well.
The effect depends heavily on the exact type of lighting source used.
Recessed lighting (often called "pot lights" in Canada, "can lights" or 'high hats" in the US) is popular, with fixtures mounted into the ceiling structure so as to appear flush with it.
These downlights can use narrow beam spotlights, or wider-angle floodlights, both of which are bulbs having their own reflectors.
There are also downlights with internal reflectors designed to accept common 'A' lamps (light bulbs) which are generally less costly than reflector lamps.
Downlights can be incandescent, fluorescent, HID (high intensity discharge) or LED.
Track lighting, invented by Lightolier, was popular at one point because it was much easier to install than recessed lighting, and individual fixtures are decorative and can be easily aimed at a wall.
It has regained some popularity recently in low-voltage tracks, which often look nothing like their predecessors because they
do not have the safety issues that line-voltage systems have, and are therefore less bulky and more ornamental in themselves.
A master transformer feeds all of the fixtures on the track or rod with 12 or 24 volts, instead of each light fixture having its own line-to-low voltage transformer.
There are traditional spots and floods, as well as other small hanging fixtures. A modified version of this is cable lighting, where lights are hung from or clipped to bare metal cables under tension.
A sconce is a wall-mounted fixture, particularly one that shines up and sometimes down as well.
A torchiere is an uplight intended for ambient lighting. It is typically a floor lamp but may be wall-mounted like a sconce.
The portable or table lamp is probably the most common fixture, found in many homes and offices.
The standard lamp and shade that sits on a table is general lighting, while the desk lamp is considered task lighting.
Magnifier lamps are also task lighting. Animated fountain in Moscow's Square of Europe, lit at night.
The illuminated ceiling was once popular in the 1960s and 1970s but fell out of favor after the 1980s.
This uses diffuser panels hung like a suspended ceiling below fluorescent lights, and is considered general lighting.
Other forms include neon, which is not usually intended to illuminate anything else, but to actually be an artwork in itself.
This would probably fall under accent lighting, though in a dark nightclub it could be considered general lighting.
In a movie theater each step in the aisles is usually marked with a row of small lights, for convenience and safety when the film has started, hence the other lights are off.
Traditionally made up of small low wattage, low voltage lamps in a track or translucent tube, these are rapidly being replaced with LED based versions.
