The invention relates to a method for controlling a lamp (100), which has a plurality of controllable sub-units (10). According to the invention, first control information concerning the light output of only some of the controllable sub-units (10) is fed to a control unit (20) of the lamp (100) on the input side, wherein the control unit (20) determines second control information concerning the light output of all sub-units (10) on the basis of said first control information and transmits said second control information to the sub-units (10) connected on the output side.