Spin waves are the fundamental dynamic eigen-modes of a magnetic system. The knowledge of the spin-wave properties in the small-amplitude limit is mandatory to understand the dynamic properties of a magnetic system in general. This presentation covers the recent results obtained on spin wave excitations in arrays of magnetic elements using Brillouin light scattering spectroscopy (BLS). Confinement of spin waves in magnetic elements leads to dramatic changes of the spin wave dispersion and density of states. The observed lateral quantization of spin wave modes in an element is one consequence of the confinement. The quantization conditions are determined by the stripe width, and by the boundary conditions at the lateral edges of the stripe. It is shown, that these conditions result in an effective "pinning" of a purely dipolar nature due to the inhomogeneity of the dynamic internal field near the stripe edges. An additional analysis of the BLS-intensity as a function of the transferred wavevector provides information on the mode profiles. According to the scattering theory from confined modes, the BLS-intensity of a given mode is determined by the Fourier-components of the mode profile. Thus, light scattering can be used as a "Fourier-microscope" and can provide information on the distribution of the dynamic magnetization in the elements with the resolution better than 200 nm. Another striking effect of magnetic confinement is a strongly inhomogeneous static internal magnetic field in the element. This inhomogeneity creates potential wells for spin waves near the edges of the elements. The size of the wells is much smaller than the lateral size of the element. The dynamic magnetic susceptibility in the well shows a strong maximum, causing a localization of low frequency spin wave modes in the well, which is experimentally confirmed using BLS-Fourier-microscope.