Roofline lighting follows the edges of the roof: the eave, the rake of each gable, sometimes a dormer or porch roof. From the street it gives the house a clear outline after dark, which is why a lit roofline reads from much farther away than any other layer. It works best on houses with a strong, simple shape. On a roof with many short breaks, lighting every edge can look busy, and lighting only the main front runs often looks cleaner.
Roofline light can be a steady white for everyday use or a color for an occasion. Either way, it should sit tight to the trim so the fixtures disappear in daylight.
Uplights sit on the ground and throw light up a surface. On a facade they pick out texture, columns and chimneys. On a tree they show the trunk and the underside of the canopy. A few well placed uplights usually beat a row of evenly spaced ones; light the features you want people to notice and leave the plain wall between them in soft shadow. That contrast is what makes a facade look three-dimensional at night.
Path lights exist so people do not trip. They should be low, shielded so the bulb is not visible from a standing height, and spaced so pools of light overlap a little or nearly meet. A runway of identical lights in two straight lines along a curving walk is the most common path mistake; staggering them on alternating sides looks calmer and lights the ground better.
Steps deserve their own light, ideally on each riser or at the side of the run, because a change in level is where falls happen.
The door light tells a visitor where to go. It should light a face and the lock without blinding the person standing there. Wall lanterns that hide the bulb behind frosted or seeded glass, or a ceiling fixture under a covered porch, do this better than a bare bulb at eye level. On a deep porch, a ceiling light plus a pair of soft wall lights is usually enough.
Accents are small and specific: a lit house number, a single specimen tree, a stone wall, a fountain, a garden bed. They are the details that make a lit house feel finished. Keep each one subtle. If an accent is as bright as the entry, it competes with the door instead of supporting it.
Think of brightness as a ladder. The entry is the brightest point on the house, because that is where people go. Roofline and uplighting come next, setting the overall shape. Path and accent lights sit lowest, close to the ground. When every layer is equally bright, the eye has nowhere to land and the house looks lit like a parking lot.
Timing matters too. Path and entry lights earn their keep in the early evening when people come and go. Uplights and roofline often look best from dusk until bedtime and can switch off or dim late at night. A simple timer per layer handles most of this.