The surface a light hits decides most of what you see. Rough materials scatter light and show texture. Smooth, pale ones bounce much of it back and can glare. Dark ones soak it up.
On color temperature, one line: warm whites tend to flatter red, brown and tan materials, and neutral whites suit gray, white and blue-gray ones; test on the wall before you commit.
Brick is one of the easiest materials to light well. Its texture catches grazing light, which means a fixture set close to the wall and aimed up along it shows every mortar line. A warm white brings out the red and orange in the brick; a very cool white can turn it brown or gray. Old, uneven brick looks best with grazing light. Newer brick in flat, even rows can look plain when grazed, and a slightly wider, softer wash from farther out often suits it better.
Painted brick behaves more like a smooth painted wall than like raw brick. A white or cream finish reflects a lot of light, so the same fixture will look noticeably brighter on it. Use fewer or dimmer fixtures, and set them back from the wall so the light spreads instead of forming hot spots near the base. Dark painted brick, in charcoal or navy, reflects much less and can look flat; lighting the trim and edges around it often works better than trying to brighten the whole wall.
Fieldstone and other rough stone give the strongest shadows of any common material, which is the reason to light it at a low, grazing angle. The light picks out each face and gap. Watch for a stone chimney or column next to a smooth wall: if one fixture lights both, the stone will look great and the smooth wall beside it may glare. Separate fixtures for each surface give you control. Gray and blue-gray stones usually look truer under a neutral white, and tan or brown stones under a warm one.
Lap siding casts a thin shadow under each board when light comes from below, which reads as fine horizontal lines. That can look good on a large wall and busy on a small one. White and pale siding is very reflective, so keep levels low and aim for even washes rather than bright spots. Dark siding takes a lot of light to show and often looks best left mostly dark, with the roofline, trim and entry doing the work.
Vertical battens cast vertical shadows when lit from the side or from below, which makes a wall look taller. A fixture placed directly in front of a wall flattens that effect; one placed off to the side and aimed across the battens shows it. On the gables of a modern farmhouse style, the roofline layer often carries the look, with board and batten below lit softly or not at all.
Stucco texture ranges from nearly smooth to heavily troweled. Smooth stucco behaves like a pale painted wall: reflective, prone to hot spots, best with wide and gentle washes. Textured stucco takes grazing light well, but grazing also exaggerates any patch, crack or uneven repair, so look at the wall closely in raking daylight before deciding to graze it.
White trim and columns catch light easily and frame the house. Black trim, gutters and shutters barely show and usually work best as silhouettes against a lit wall.