It can be as simple as figuring out what you want to light, like a walkway for instance and any plants you want to highlight ,steps anywhere. If you want help here you will need to provide a lot more info with pictures of your yard and house.

If you google Rules about outdoor lighting there are some great articles.

Lighting can be a complicated endeavor, especially since there have been so many changes in the last few years. I'm no expert, but I've had to rely on such people for those projects where lighting was involved. But for myself, at home, while working out what I wanted to do, I found great value in taking out a bright shop light on a long extension cord and shining it on various things in different ways in order to get a general feel for the effect a given light position might have ... as a good starting point. It helps to have another person assisting, or a stand to which the light can be mounted, so you can see a given light effect from different areas, while the light source is held stationary.

Insofar as the finished product appearance goes, I prefer a result where light fixtures are not showing. I do not find the standard homeowner walk lighting, with all the path fixtures spaced out along a walk, to be attractive.

Are most people putting in solar or wired (low voltage)? We have almost an acre with sets of outdoor stairs, boulders, trees. It's new construction.

What do you want to light up? A few trees? A bush? Stairs? Soft and simple is what I'd go with. Not sure what most people are doing and this is probably a preference. Some folks in my area use solar and others used wired.

I am NOT a pro, but have recently had to think about outdoor lighting. I have noticed that a neighbor's outdoor lighting (done by a fancy expert) ended up making the whole front yard and house glow--way too bright. Too much! I didn't want that.

I chose low voltage lighting to light the walkway to the front door, alternating lights from this side to that side, maybe one every 12 feet where the pathway turned. I did not want a runway experience.

I chose 2 trees on either side of the house to uplight. They are a type with not many leaves on the lower half, so perfect for uplighting, imho.

I turned 2 lights upwards, from the base of the front pillars on my porch, to wash light upwards on the nice faux-stone pillars.

There is a porch light (regular house-type voltage) on one wall of my small porch, so people can see the doorbell. A hanging light from the tall ceiling there would've been a nice alternative, too.

There are 3 stairs on the way to the front door, along the pathway. Those have a tiny step-light.

There are also nice fixtures on either side of the garage.

Everything on timers. I used low voltage lights because some of the fixtures would be in shade (under trees) and I wasn't confident they would consistently have power, but I'm somewhat ignorant on this choice.

So, maybe this helps you. When I see my house at night, I feel it looks cared for and nicely lit where it needs to be for safety, but not like Disney at night, which is exactly what I wanted. I hope this helps you.

We had our yard landscaped with water-wise plants 4 years ago. LED lights were installed along the walkway and three spotlights compliment our redwood tree, Grevillae, and Crepe Myrtle.

We have stairs to light up, the front walkway, boulders, some trees, patio. We were also thinking of shining some light on beautiful stone siding (at least we think it's beautiful, ha ha).
We will use a landscaper to run the low voltage wire and do most of the install but I want the lights to last for years, to have a very subtle look (like Yardvaark) mentions. They will be mostly softer lighting as per shirlpp. The idea of shining a work light around at night is also a very good one. Here's landscape plan.

Mrs. S. Sounds good. I saw some advice that said to stagger the lights and make the layout free-form and random, like landscaping - but not like an airport runway.

Here are links to a great source that should help. Download the catalog.

https://www.kichler.com/tips-guides/landscape-lighting-guide/

https://www.kichler.com/lighting-ideas/catalogs/

In many instances, the fixtures are hidden and one is observing the light effects. The place where this is difficult to do is with path lighting, as walkways cannot themselves produce light ... yes, I know this is literally changing! They require some fixture, that is easily seen, to shine down on them. I'd opt for fewer, larger and more expensive looking fixtures. A line of closely spaced small fixtures looks awful to me.

I think one has to be careful accepting dictums such as "stagger the lights and make the layout free-form and random, like landscaping." Different situations and details may require different approaches. It's risky to paint with too broad a brush without understanding underlying artistic concepts. I also don't think that "random" landscaping has an edge over highly organized landscaping, which implies nothing about symmetry, style or detail.

Thanks Beverly - that's really good info. Kichler has a lot of self-help resources. I like some of their designs, too. Looks like good quality lighting!

Yes Yardvaark....maybe "random" isn't the right term. Just not too organized, I guess. Like the concept of planting in odd numbers or placing rocks in odd number, or having some edge curve or beds curve. A neighbor just did their front walkway to house lighting and there's literally a path light exactly every 8' or similar...it doesn't look good.

Did find this company, and they have very stylish & contemporary fixtures...might go with a few path lights & then have cheaper (not-so-visible) uplights or spots from another company. https://www.sonnemanawayoflight.com/item2/Light%20Frames%E2%84%A2/7365.72-WL#anchorSpecs

I think you have the right idea about getting a good looking, quality fixture. I'd be looking for one that puts out a broad spread so I could space them farther apart. Some fixtures may have bulb options for different spreads. You should probably be talking to lighting pros for updated info.