Beam intensity is commonly used to mean luminous intensity within a light beam. The preferred technical term is luminous intensity, measured in candela (cd), which describes how much light is emitted in a particular direction. A higher candela value generally indicates more long-range reach in the measured direction, but it does not describe total light output or the width and uniformity of the light pattern. For practical selection, luminous intensity should be considered together with operational lumens, photometric data, mounting height, aiming, and the area that must be illuminated.