Having defined the kind of mood we want to create inside our space, our next set of considerations would need to be based around the tools available to us in our render engine of choice. They should be focused on figuring out how the tools can be used to bring our definition to life. In other words, what kind of approaches can we and will we take given the tools that we have available?
We could decide to take a more artistic rather than realistic approach to the lighting; maybe you have in your mind the creation of a render that has a bit of a suspenseful atmosphere about it—something along the lines of a film noir feel perhaps.
While such a lighting scheme would still need to be based at least somewhat in reality, the contrast between light and shadowed areas would need to be artificially enhanced, generally creating very bright pools of light that are starkly contrasted with darker-than-usual shadowed areas.
Such artistic...